Every nonprofit organization has a cause and a mission that represents its top priority. In order for your organization to achieve its mission, you must dedicate sufficient time to engage donors and volunteers. In fact, you can improve the way you manage your organization and communicate with your supporters by conducting a survey. Therefore, you should ask the right questions to gather valuable feedback and insights. Here are five questions to start with:

  1. How likely are you to recommend this organization to a friend or colleague?

We often recommend things that we are passionate about or have had an excellent experience with. Therefore, asking this question is a great way to assess what your target audience thinks about your organization. You will know you are on the right track if the results show that most respondents support your organization’s work. However, if most survey respondents indicate that they would not recommend your organization or are indifferent towards it, then you should take a closer look at the situation and send a brief follow-up survey for respondents to report the difficulties they encountered.

  1. How easy is it to donate to our organization?

Do visitors to your website or email subscribers know how to make donations to your organization? This question may seem trivial, but in reality, if the process of sending money to your nonprofit is difficult or confusing, it may prevent your supporters from backing your cause.

There could be a number of obstacles that donors face during the donation process that the organization is unaware of, such as the “donate” button being unclear on your website, or that the donation platform isn’t functioning properly. Therefore, asking about the donation process helps you identify any technical or design-related barriers that prevent people from donating to your cause, and if the organization discovers that everything is functioning correctly, but it is not meeting its fundraising goals, then this survey will tell you that the problem isn’t with the system.

  1. Do you understand the importance of your donation?

Everyone who visits your website, attends a fundraising event, or reads your newsletter should understand what you are trying to achieve and how their donations will impact that goal. Failing to clarify your mission can create doubts about your organization’s credibility and prevent them from being emotionally affected by what you are trying to achieve.

Asking this question can help you determine whether you need to adjust or rethink the language you are using to communicate with your donor base.

  1. How likely are you to donate again to our organization?

Typically, about 60% of new donors only donate to a nonprofit once. Therefore, if you want to receive donations on a regular basis, you need to make your audience's first experience satisfying and inform them about your organization’s ongoing needs.

Understanding that donors are unlikely to donate again reminds you of the importance of spending more time engaging and retaining them. In this context, you should always consider whether you are motivating them by sending stories that illustrate how donations contribute to positive change, and about your personal and meaningful engagement with your supporters.

Because the answer to this question has long-term implications for your success, it would be very beneficial to include another question in the survey that identifies the factors that make a difference for your target audience.

  1. How beneficial was the training for the volunteers you dealt with?

In fact, your organization should send separate surveys for donors and another for volunteers to understand their unique feelings about your organization.

Make sure to ask about the training experience in your volunteer survey. In this regard, asking a question about how your volunteers feel they have the right tools to perform their work in the organization will help you prepare future volunteers for the work they will do, as well as help identify team members and clarify processes that you need to repeat.

Overall, by listening to what people say about your nonprofit, you can build an active base of donors and volunteers. Therefore, get to know your supporters and discover how you can better serve them and the community by sending a survey.

Source: Vertical Response