19 reasons why nonprofit donor surveys are awesome

Here are 19 reasons why nonprofit donor surveys are awesome:

  1. They help you learn about why your donors care about your mission, how their life story entwines with your mission and why they give
  2. They give your supporters an opportunity to have a dialogue with you and your brand
  3. They help you generate highly qualified leads for major gifts and planned gifts
  4. They help you uncover who was influential in tying your organization’s mission to a supporter’s life (and help you capture their name)
  5. They help you learn who your supporters might want to honor or commemorate with a gift
  6. They help you recognize how they might want to give
  7. They provide you with information regarding how they have been involved with your organization and its mission in the past and how they would like to be involved in the future (involvement — especially volunteerism — is the gateway drug for major and legacy giving)
  8. They help you gather interest among major donor prospects in participation on a committee or in a leadership role (such as a board since that’s a huge way to move them to make a major gift)
  9. They help you learn which programs they care about most and why
  10. They help you find out where each donor ranks your charity against the competition (other charities) to help you gauge their commitment
  11. They help you uncover if they have the capacity to give thanks to questions about ownership of a family foundation or a donor-advised fund
  12. They help you learn whether or not they would give property or assets, stocks or cash, etc.
  13. They help you determine if a major donor or legacy gift prospect actually wants to have a relationship with you and talk or meet soon
  14. They help you gain referrals since most major gift donors know other major gift prospects you could meet
  15. They help you uncover demographics such as whether or not each donor has children or is highly educated (since those two demographics have been proven to lead to much bigger gifts)
  16. They help you provide supporters with an “open comment” box (to allow them to elaborate on the dreams, wishes, desires and even complaints)
  17. They help you clean up your mailing list
  18. They usually pay for themselves or deliver a tremendous return on investment (if you do them right)
  19. They make donors feel good since you invited them to participate (even if they decided not to return the survey)

Oh, and here’s our ad promoting our nifty little donor survey tool. If you want to learn more about how you can raise money with donor surveys, let me know: info@imarketsmart.com
SurveyGiftmaker advertisement
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
SEE ALSO:
>> 2 Reasons Donor Surveys are Valuable – Clairification
>> The Ultimate Guide for Conducting Nonprofit Donor Surveys
 

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Betty Johnson
7 years ago

Greg – totally agree! Surveys are a great way for donors to comment and be heard in a safe environment – often people just want to be heard and their ideas put on the table. Surveys are a safe way for them to do this. The information is invaluable not just for the development program, but the overall organization.

engagementfundraising
7 years ago

Agreed Betty. I think supporters desperately want the dialogue but they also want to feel “safe”. They don’t want to be pressured to give.

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