Do you know what your donors are thinking? Or what they want from their relationship with you?
It’s easy to find out.
A simple donor survey can help you learn what’s on your donors’ minds and what they’re interested in. Here are some tips for creating an effective survey.
- Plan your survey. Be clear about what it is you want to find out. This will help you hone in on the most important questions.
- Keep it short and simple. Remember that donors are busy people and won’t take the time to complete a long survey. I recommend 10 questions or less.
- Use a variety of questions (a mixture of simple answer, multiple choice, and fill in the blank).
My favorite survey tool is Survey Monkey (www.surveymonkey.com). It’s easy to use and offers a free version. You create a survey then email your donors the link.
I used Survey Monkey with a client recently to find out what donors thought about their enewsletter. The survey featured only seven questions and we were able to learn that we needed to rework the format a little bit. The result was a more effective enewsletter that donors were more likely to read. Cool huh?
I have used Zoomerang for surveys, their free account offers you more questions and respondents than Survey Monkey. I started with a free account but needed more so I now have a paid account with Zoomerang. They offer a discounts to non-profits, I think it was either 20% or 25%. I have also found some helpful survey creating and sending tips on their website and blog, those are worth a look at the very least
This is a great reminder, Sandy.
At some organizations I’ve worked with they have staff, board and current donors make these kinds of phone calls to people who may not be tech savvy and fill out a survey. It’s then a win-win for the caller & the callee.