Establishing baseline data is a fundamental part of community needs assessment and goal setting. Baseline data is defined as the set of data representing the most current 12 months (or a comparable period) of complete data available prior to the start of the first year of the project. For example, if the most recent data available for a first-year project is through December 31, 2019, then the baseline year would be January 1, 2019 through December 31, 2019 for a grant starting in October of 2020. Potential subgrantees should use the most recent certified data available for establishing baseline data. Once the baseline is established, that figure will be used to compare subsequent years. Prior to the start of the grant, this data will be the baseline data for any subsequent year grants with the subgrantee.

If good information has been collected through recent grants, then that information can be used in the problem identification section of the proposal. However, the baseline data in the performance goals must be the data prior to the first year grant.