You need donator support to reach crucial organisational goals. Any Australian Not-for-Profit thrives with the help of donators willing to go the extra mile in boosting financial and data resources.
If you want to grow that support, the donator survey is a fun little tool that is easy to integrate into your website and email campaigns. You create a list of recipients, and they respond with the insights you need to improve services, reach a fundraising goal, or develop new systems that everyone wants.
Why Put Out a Survey?
There are two primary reasons for putting out a donator survey. The first is to raise money for your NFP. The more money you have, the greater you can serve your clients with technologies and resources like a brand-new van for transportation or a piece of medical equipment essential to your services.
The second reason is learning more about your donators by collecting data. Surveys provide valuable feedback you can dig through whenever you have a question about how to improve your organisation.
What Makes an Effective Donator Survey?
The trick to a well-thought-out survey is taking the time to ensure it will reach the most people and get the best response. That requires a little bit of preparation. Always construct your not-for-profit donator surveys so they are:
- Purposeful: Every question has a clear and easy-to-understand reason behind the survey that your recipients can see works into the rest of your not-for-profit goals.
- Targeted: The survey is only directed at specific segments of your donators and not a broad-based email sent out to everyone from the person mopping the floors at night to the NFP CEO.
- To the Point: You’re not wasting anyone’s time with a long-winded survey that takes hours to complete. Shoot for nothing over 5-10 minutes.
- User-Friendly: The survey is mobile responsive, has a clickable link to submit, and can be viewed without added tech or services.
- Pre-Tested: You have sent your survey to a small collection of recipients for feedback to ensure it meets all the above criteria.
- Incentive-Based: There is an incentive for completing the survey to encourage a higher response rate, but not so good that it overshadows your goals.
As long as your not-for-profit donator survey has a rich blending of these elements, you should see a better-than-average response rate. The average online survey response rate is 44%. Anything between 10-30% is suitable for your survey, but you’re doing well if you can reach the 50th or 60th percentile.
Benefits of a Not-for-Profit Donator Survey
Now for what really matters – the benefits you receive when conducting a not-for-profit donator survey. Again, most surveys are to grow your financial resources or track data, but your organisation could see several blended benefits.
#1 – Raise Money
Always put out a survey as part of your fundraising campaigns. You can have donation prompts highlighting how those funds are used to improve the lives of Australians you serve. Any way to combine getting data with receiving funds is a plus.
#2 – Identify Prospective Clients
A well-run donator survey allows you to collect additional information about people who may not be clients yet. For example, if you send out a survey to people who attended a gala for suggestions on next year’s events, you could slip in a question about how to best schedule an appointment with your organisation, which would lead to more leads.
#3 – Capture Donator Information
Always collect as much additional information about your donators as you can. This will enhance your database accuracy and help you better understand the things your donators do and do not want in response to their giving.
#4 – Cultivate Long-Term Leads
Feedback enables you to tailor communication and personalise services to meet donator preferences. This is “relationship development” that helps you cultivate long-term leads, giving you a more predictable financial gift at the end of each fiscal quarter.
#5 – Boost Referrals
Don’t be afraid to have an additional incentive for survey recipients to recommend a friend, family member, or coworker to your service. You could gain a lot of client business from a simple survey referral.
#6 – Clean Up Your Email List
The response rate of your not-for-profit donator survey can help eliminate those names and leads on your email lists that are not very active. It allows you to segment your email lists better so you can re-target efforts according to the level of engagement with each name.
#7 – See Your NFP from Other Perspectives
Finally, a quality donator survey will help you and your team see your organisation from new perspectives. Confirmation bias is real. We, as humans, can often lose sight of goals and mission-critical processes when we’re in the trenches. Getting feedback from your donators may be the “kick in the pants” to redirect your efforts to more effective methods.
Don’t forget to include a “thank you page” for your survey. Something where a donator is redirected after submitting the survey. You always want to show appreciation for any volunteered information or funds, so people feel rewarded for their efforts.
Wrapping Up
A not-for-profit donator survey allows you to increase potential funding, develop lead relationships, and retain more information about those wishing to engage with your services. Finding a way to boost interactions where you share information about each other is a foundational method of making improvements to your systems and future goals.
At Web 105, we can help you get the response rate you want with a brand-new website for your NFP. Our experienced and professional website development experts can craft highly engaging web pages and applications that make putting out, accepting, and marketing donator surveys easy.
Contact us today, and let’s build a user-friendly, mobile-responsive online presence for your Australian not-for-profit, healthcare organisation, or government initiative.
FAQs
Why are donator surveys important?
A not-for-profit donator survey is an effective way to increase financial gifts and learn more about your donators and clients. It gives you a massive advantage in personalising your NFP to the people most engaged in your mission.
Why are donators important to not-for-profits?
NFP donators offer a financial lifeline of sorts you need to reach seasonal and long-term goals. You want those funds for everything from new beds at a homeless shelter to hundreds of laptops for kids attending remote school.
What is a good response rate for a donator survey?
The expected response rate will vary significantly based on your audience and the ease of completing your survey. A good range would be anywhere from 10% to 30%, but always shoot for over 50% as a rule of thumb.