Introduction

A local United Way has been working on a three-year plan to implement the brand strategy developed by the United Way of America. The United Way contacted Perspectives Consulting Group, Inc. for assistance in measuring the effectiveness of their past and future efforts. Before the brand strategy implementation, Perspectives Consulting Group, Inc. conducted a mail survey of committed donors to benchmark their awareness and understanding of the United Way. After two years, the United Way wanted to measure their progress compared to the initial benchmark survey.

Research Objectives

After a meeting with United Way management and staff, the following research objectives were developed for this project:

• How do donors feel about the Brand Value Propositions such as “Do they feel their contribution makes a difference,” and “Are they satisfied that their contribution is well spent?”
• How have United Way communication efforts impacted donor understanding in the past two years?
• Understand how donors perceive the role of United Way in the community – do they understand what the United Way does?
• Where have donors heard of United Way and where do donors get their information?
• Why do donors designate to a specific agency?
• Are donors aware of United Way funded services?
• Developing a demographic profile of committed donors

Research Process

Perspectives Consulting Group, Inc. completed the following activities for United Way:

1. Initial meeting with the management and staff of United Way to establish the desired research objectives, and understand the issues and concerns of the United Way.
   
2. Develop a customized mail survey, incorporating the input and suggestions from United Way to meet commonly accepted survey practices. The customized four page survey contained 48 questions.
   
3. Printed and mailed 765 surveys to committed donors as identified by United Way. A business reply envelope was provided to donors to return the survey, and a total of 136 surveys were received by the cut-off date.
   
4. Analyzed and summarized the survey data. The survey data was analyzed on a general level, and then by factors such as age, gender, and household income to determine if there were statistically significant differences.
   
5. Develop a final report and recommendations as to the important issues as perceived by donors. After the report was completed, Perspectives Consulting Group, Inc. consultants met with United Way management and staff to review the results of the survey.  

Reporting

Perspectives Consulting Group, Inc. prepares a narrative summary report for every research project we complete. To see some sample pages from the narrative summary report for this project – click here:

Narrative Summary Report Sample (Adobe Acrobat format)

In addition to the narrative summary report, all research projects include a statistical reference binder with the statistical information from the report. To see some of sample pages from the statistical reference binder for this project – click here:

Statistical Reference Binder Sample (Adobe Acrobat format)