As you may already know from reading this column, I work with a nonprofit organization that provides support for churches in the United States and abroad. One of our main services is to supply churches with an interim pastor when they don’t have a full-time pastor in place for whatever reason. This isn’t the only service we provide, however. We also regularly work with churches that want a diagnostic analysis of their ministries and their organization. We help them discover what they are doing well and what areas can use improvement so they can more effectively serve their congregations and their communities.
When we do a full church assessment, we send a team to the church to conduct interviews and observe its operations. We also survey the congregation to get their insights. As you can probably imagine, this can be a costly process for some churches—especially smaller or financially struggling churches. Even though we are a nonprofit organization, we have to charge churches for the service we provide (although our donors do subsidize the cost for churches that truly can’t afford the full cost of service).
Some of the churches we work with don’t need a comprehensive church assessment. However, they could benefit from gathering insights from their congregations. Knowing this, our organization put together an online church survey, which we offer for a very affordable price. The survey allows churches to gather anonymous feedback from their congregations so they can identify areas that need attention and find out what their congregations feel they are doing well.
Why do I tell you all of this? As someone who has seen how church leaders can benefit from gaining insight into their congregations, I highly recommend that other nonprofit leaders seek feedback from their donors, supporters, staff, and the people they serve. Just like some of the church leaders we work with, you may think you are doing things well at your nonprofit—communicating effectively, operating efficiently, and providing the type of service and support that people need and want—but when you start gathering candid feedback, you may get another story.
How to Conduct a Survey for Your Nonprofit
There are multiple online survey creation tools out there, and basic ones can even be free to use. Survey Monkey is probably the most popular survey creation tool used by organizations of all types.
Before sending out an online survey, you’ll probably want to clean up your email list. After all, feedback from people who are no longer involved with your organization is not necessarily helpful. Then, you need to come up with the actual questions. Many organizations find it helpful to gather basic demographic data. It can also be valuable to ask about your supporters’ current level of involvement with your organization, as well as their desire or ability to be more involved. You may find some untapped resources out there that you never knew existed!
Another area to inquire about could be your organization’s communication. Do people want to hear from you more or less often, and what types of things do they want to know about? (Hint: they probably don’t want to hear from you only when you’re asking for donations!)
Follow-up is key when conducting surveys. You can’t just send out the survey and expect that everyone on your email list will fill it out within a couple of days. You will likely need to send out several reminders, and even then, you probably won’t get as many responses as you had hoped for. Don’t be discouraged. Take the feedback you do receive and use it to make more informed decisions moving forward.
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