Overview

Community surveys provide your community foundation with essential information to evaluate and improve services, which is not available through other sources. This information can help your community foundation implement better planning procedures and more efficiently allocate resources. When used as a benchmark, surveys can offer objective evaluations on how effective programs have been in accomplishing their goals.
Perspectives Consulting Group, Inc. tailors your community survey to meet the specific information needs of your community foundation. Most community surveys are conducted by telephone, as this method provides the most statistically accurate sample. Once the information is obtained, Perspectives Consulting Group, Inc. analyzes the information and provides direction for planning purposes.

Community Surveys

In the past, community foundations have used community surveys for:

• Identify attitudes and perceptions about the community foundation
• Measure awareness and understanding among community residents about the community foundation’s impact
• Explore community needs and issues to be addressed
• Profiling community demographics such as age, household income, marital status

Perspectives Consulting Group, Inc. has developed a simple process for conducting community surveys. The process starts by meeting with the community foundation to identify the issues of concern. The survey is then developed to address those issues and meet generally accepted survey practices. On average, surveys are eight to ten minutes in length. Once the survey is approved, interviewing is conducted which normally requires several weeks. Analysis of the data and preparation of the report is completed within a few weeks of interviewing. The staff of Perspectives Consulting Group, Inc. will present the survey results to the nonprofit organization. Most community surveys require between ten and twelve weeks to complete depending on the amount of time required to develop the survey. The cost depends on the number of community members surveyed and the length of the survey.

Community Survey Outline

The following outline lists topics that could be included on a community survey:

Charitable Giving

• Types of charitable organizations supported
• Amount given to charitable organization
• Volunteerism and amount of volunteering
• How decisions are made to support charitable organizations

Community Foundations

• Awareness of community foundation
• Awareness of endowments and their purposes
• Evaluation of community foundation performance
• Willingness to support community foundation

Demographics

• Length of residency
• Area of respondent – ZIP code
• Employment – occupation, location
• Respondent demographics – age, ethnic background, household income, marital status
• Number of people in household