Donor Surveys

The best way to build a relationship with a donor is to find out more about them. Do studies show this? Absolutely. Do you need a study to prove it? Absolutely not — it’s common sense.

The easiest way to gather critical information you need about your donors and their intentions are through donor surveys. Why do you think most retail transactions come with a request to fill out a short survey? It’s a natural way to retain clients by collecting and acting based on feedback.

At PlannedGiving.Com, we provide donor surveys with industry proven questions so you can gather information to use as engagement tools. And everything we provide is backed up by analytics — all to help you better understand giving patterns and the inherent needs and wants of your constituency.

Why Are Donor Surveys Important?

  1. How are you going to know what your donors need and want if you don’t ask them?
  2. How else are you going to gauge donor satisfaction? (Guessing is not the answer.)
  3. How else are you going to predict what will make it more likely that a donor will continue to give, or even increase their giving?
  4. How else will you determine the right incentives to entice donors?
  5. How will you know what issues to address — and what to leave out — in your donor communications?

Feedback helps you to alter — or maintain — course as needed. You’ll be able to tell who’s engaged, who isn’t, and clean up your list of donor prospects.

The Process

Donor surveys are an easy 8-step process!

  1. We use tried and true survey questions
  2. We ensure that they are customized for your final approval
  3. You give us your email list
  4. We’ll send out an e-broadcast
  5. We’ll repeat the e-broadcast to those who did not take the survey
  6. We’ll even repeat it a third time
  7. We conduct Survey Logic, Branching and Split Testing (depending how questions are answered) and give you results
  8. You’ll learn:
    • Who is interested
    • Who has left you in their estate
    • Who wants to talk more
    • Who does not want to hear from you again
    • How they want to communicate with you

Final product includes complete metrics, analytics and a planned giving funnel with names and addresses of people who are interested in becoming Legacy Donors. We’ll even include major gift prospects, and in some cases, those who are just interested in supporting you with minor annual gifts.

Costs

Consider your “costs” an investment! There are two types of surveys we conduct:

  1. Online, backed by analytics.
  2. Paper, delivered via U.S. Mail.

We can provide you an estimate along with an explanation of the benefits associated with each.

Fees begin at $12,500 per survey. This does not include printing and US Postage if direct mail is desired.

Remember… the more you know, the more effective — and powerful — you’ll be at what you do.

Areas of Focus

Getting Started

There are four steps we take to establish an effective survey strategy:

Should You Do a Donor Survey?​

Only if you have planned what to do with the results. Don’t have a plan in place yet? We strongly suggest to stop right here and consult with us first.

Testimonials

Jonathan Gudema worked with our staff and developed an outstanding survey which generated an excellent response.  He assisted us in our follow-up, and we were able to enroll many new legacy society members and opened conversations with several major gift prospects, too.  An all around wonderful experience.

Jerry Volk, Director of Philanthropic Initiatives
New York Medical College

They helped our team at the Workers Circle develop printed and online surveys to send to our members and supporters and we have been thrilled with the results. We are receiving a record number of responses to these surveys and have been able to use the results to grow our planned giving program. These surveys really helped to give our newly launched program a big boast!”

Melissa Karachalios, Deputy Executive Director and Development Director
Workers Circle

 
  • We have been using surveys extensively with clients since 2014 to find planned giving and major gift prospects.
  • Have worked on and/or overseen over 20 nonprofit planned giving / development surveys during this time period, with great results.
  • Focus has been uncovering planned giving donors and prospects, as well as identifying potential major donors.
  • Additionally, have also focused on the follow-up needed to close gifts and build relationships.