Evaluating Impact: How to design and implement useful surveys

Data gathered through an effective survey provides a unique opportunity for nonprofits to obtain detailed insights on their programs and audiences.  Collecting information through surveys helps you better understand the needs of the people you’d like to support, improve the reach and impact of your programs, and uncover new ways in which your efforts can make a difference for the people you serve. But, when poorly designed and executed, surveys can generate misleading and biased results conclusions.

In this interactive workshop, we will explore how to make decisions about survey logistics (e.g., target audience, mode, timeframe, incentives, reminders), write survey questions, analyze your data, and use it to guide decision-making and share successes.  Participants are encouraged to bring examples of surveys their organization has utilized to share during group discussions.

This course will include a post-workshop office hours where participants can further explore their real-world survey issues with the facilitator.

Learning Outcomes:  Participants will:

• Have a better understanding of what decisions need to be made when planning a survey to ensure it provides valuable information.
• Know how to write effective survey questions and use Excel, Qualtrics and various survey platforms to understand and share the data.
• Observe examples of how survey analysis can be illustrated in a clear, concise and credible manner

Audience: This workshop is targeted at nonprofit program coordinators / managers, nonprofit executive directors who have significant accountability for program execution and community impact, nonprofit board members and volunteers engaged in program oversight, and foundation program managers.