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How Your Nonprofit Could Benefit from Feedback Surveys

Posted: February 21, 2017 at 10:30 am

Why You Need Feedback

Obtaining feedback is imperative for any business to succeed, especially nonprofits. As an organization working to impact the community, feedback surveys can help you understand where you stand with the public, how your efforts are coming across to your audiences and donors, and if there are changes that need to be made to improve efficiency.

Creating a short and simple survey to the community and to those that support your organization in various ways is a great way to obtain feedback. Posting the survey across your social media accounts, through your email newsletters and lists, and after people have donated or attended your events are all great times and places to ask for feedback.

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What to Ask

According to the New York Times, the average attention span is now eight seconds, which is shorter than that of a goldfish. Because of this, your surveys have to get to the point of the feedback you’re looking for, and fast.

Some topics you might want to bring up in your survey include:

  • How is your branding doing?
  • Is the message you want to get across reaching the right people?
  • What have the surveyors noticed could be improved in your organization? This could include anything from administrative help to event details or advertising strategies.
  • What is it that your nonprofit did to inspire the surveyor to take action?

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Making an Effective Survey

In order to gain useful feedback, you have to make sure your survey makes sense, is not biased, flows well and is laid out in a logical order. Leading questions such as, “How much did you enjoy our fundraising event?” will not give you results you are looking for. Instead, ask impartial questions such as, “Rate your experience at our last fundraising event.” Rating scale questions like this are more likely gain honest feedback and take up less time for your surveyors.

All in all, remember that your feedback survey is an extra step that your supporters do not have to partake in. Offer them an incentive if possible, or simply thank them and remind them how important and impactful their survey is to furthering your nonprofit’s mission.

Interested in developing a survey for your organization? We can help!

Contact us to learn how we can create, send out and collect your feedback survey results!