Donor Surveys: Questions to Learn About Your Donors

What Do You Know About Your Donors
and What Do They Know About Your Organization?

If we’re going to ask people for money, it sure helps if they think highly of both our organization and its mission.

• Do they see our mission as vital and valid?
• Are we perceived as being successful at carrying out that mission?
• Has our organization earned and maintained trust and respect?
• Have we been efficient stewards of donations and resources?
• Has any controversy been associated with us?
• Have questions about any of our leaders arisen?
• Do people believe we are the right organization to address what we declare in our Mission Statement?
• Do they know enough about us to have formed any deeply held opinions?

Learn About Your Donors

Methods to learn the opinions and impressions donors have of your organization can be implemented in a number of ways, including mail, e-mail, telephone, focus discussions, and face-to-face meetings. Whether comprehensive one-on-one interviews, or a mix of any of the other options, surveys do not need to be complicated research instruments. A simple questionnaire (or format, for personal meetings) can be tallied either by hand or, if you structure the questions right, on a simple computer spreadsheet.

When conducting a donor satisfaction and donor interest evaluation, I think a few suggestions on how to collect data are in order:

Questionnaires are a good way to collect a lot of information quickly. Unsigned questionnaires guarantee anonymity. They are easy to manage, and multiple-choice responses can be easy to quantify. But you have to be careful not to write questions that bias responses. Questionnaires lack a personal touch, and both survey design and sample selection require a high level of expertise. At the very least, a professional should be involved in the creation of the questions.

Focus groups give you a chance to explore issues in depth with donors. Putting six or seven contributors in a room with a video camera running and asking questions of the group as a whole can yield valuable information. However, it is sometimes tough to get people to commit to giving the time and showing up when expected. The group facilitator needs to be able to establish instant comfort for participants and keep them both engaged and on track. You will probably need a professional communicator as group facilitator. Focus groups should be scheduled on a continuing basis to establish benchmarks and measure change. Since the responses are freeform, it can be hard to analyze results, and that analysis can be quite time consuming.

Interviews give you a chance to talk with donors one-on-one. They can yield some great information due to the give-and-take of the conversational process. However, the interview process is time consuming. The information acquired is often anecdotal in nature and can be very hard to quantify. It is easy for a less skillful interviewer to bias responses unintentionally. 

What Do You Want to Know?

First, take a hard look at what you want to learn and about the uses to which you intend to put the donors’ responses. Although some questions are “standard,” you will be more productive if you develop a survey tailored to your organization’s specific need. Whether comprehensive one-on-one interviews, or a mix of other information gathering methods is used, donor survey planning must take into account: 

Size and make up of the donor base to be surveyed.

1. Survey timeline.
2. Adequacy of resources to perform the survey.

Suggested Questions To Be Presented to Donors

Use or adapt those of relevance and importance to your organization and the survey method.

• On a scale of 1 to 10 (10 highest) how familiar are you with (name of your organization)?
• Have you formed any deeply held opinions about us? What are they? 
• What do you perceive to be our mission statement?
• Do you see our mission as vital and valid?
• Do you perceive us as being successful at carrying out that mission?
• Do you believe we are the right organization to address what we declare in our mission statement?
• What do you know about us overall?What do you know about our ….? 
  • Administration 
  • Board of Trustees 
  • Volunteers/Auxiliaries 
  • Staff 
  • Facilities 
  •  (Add other components related to type of NPO: i.e., faculty, curriculum, case workers, medical staff, etc.) 
• What do you see as our strengths?
•  In what areas, if any, do you see potential for improvement?
•  Have we earned and maintained your trust and respect?
•  What priority in terms of community (and your) needs would you place on our (List THE main program, service, or project which drives your organization)?
  High _______ Moderate ________ Low ________
• What priority do you place regarding importance to the community (and to you) on the following? (List OTHER key programs, services, and projects known to be associated with the organization—as many as reasonable and practical.) 
  High _______ Moderate ________ Low ________ 
• What are your impressions of our financial condition?
• What makes you feel good (or otherwise) about your financial support?
• Have we been efficient stewards of your donations and resources?
• How would you describe the most compelling reason the community should support us?
• Which other organizations do you support? Why? How are we ranked in priority with them relative to the amounts you give?
• To your knowledge, has any controversy been associated with us?
• Have you ever had any questions or concerns about any of our leaders? About our administration? —– About our staff?
• How do you feel about the various materials we send to you? Newsletters, solicitation letters, other communications?
• Are we included in your financial estate plans? If not, are you familiar with our charitable giving opportunities that offer you income?
• May we please have any other comments, advice, and recommendations?

Next week, read about Acting on your Survey Findings .

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