You just finished hosting a spectacular nonprofit event. Only...now what? It's time to evaluate the success of your event by looking at how much you raised and how much you spent. But surveying your donors can provide even more robust data about how your event was perceived and what you can do better in the future. In this article, we'll walk you through everything you need to know about surveying your donors after an event!
Donor and sponsor feedback is the best way to determine what works and what needs improvement. You should find ways to get this feedback before, during, and after an event, but this article focuses on one of the best ways to get feedback after your event.
Nonprofits that send post-event surveys to attendees, donors, and sponsors will get real-time responses that can help you upgrade your event and reach a larger audience.
Before choosing which questions to add to your post-event survey, there are several things to consider. And for that, you may want to start by asking yourself the following questions and selecting a tool that helps track and manage your survey responses.
Before starting on the questions for your post-event survey, you must define your goal. What do you hope to accomplish with this survey? Who do you want to hear from?
Surveys are the best opportunity to see your event from attendees’ perspectives.
You can determine whether your event was a success and what attendees learned about your organization by getting feedback. Attendees’ opinions on everything from registration to food and entertainment can help you change your event where necessary.
Once you determine the goal of your survey, you must decide what types of questions you should add. People respond best to shorter surveys, so you must limit your questions and keep them simple to fill out.
You’ll also want to include various question types to get a fuller response. You don’t want to have only yes or no questions, but placing a few at the beginning will help encourage people to continue filling out the survey.
When including yes or no questions, remember to give responders enough space to add more if they want.
The next question type you’ll want to add is multiple choice or ranking questions. These are also simple questions, but they should give you more information. This is especially true for ranking questions when you’re trying to see how much people care about certain aspects of your event.
Finally, add a few open-ended questions to let people express their opinions. Open-ended questions may also help you delve deeper into why they responded as they did to earlier questions.
The fact is most people won’t respond to your survey, but there are ways to get a better response rate, including:
Pro tip: Post-event surveys are an excellent way to build relationships with your donors. If you decide to hold a thank-a-thon after your event, you can also include the survey as part of your donor communication.
Post-event surveys can allow your nonprofit to collect contact information and demographic data from attendees, like their age range or gender. Be careful in wording your requests, and do your due diligence to determine how your audience may respond to such a request.
By adding a place for people to add their emails, sex, and age, you give them a choice. Another way to help people feel safe responding to these requests is by adding a statement that assures them the survey results are confidential.
You can further build trust and strengthen relationships with survey responders by adding a space to request follow-up communication. Tell them their responses are appreciated, and any questions will be answered as soon as possible.
After you receive the surveys, thank everyone who responded and let everyone know of any changes you make after reading these surveys.
As you create a post-event survey strategy, make sure you have a tool handy to note down important information from responses. This will help you improve your future events.
For example, Donorbox Events automatically stores your ticket purchasers’ information in the Donorbox database. You will find the data in the Supporters database (shown below) in your Donorbox account. You can add a filter to segment this data, update any information, and add communication notes as you perform your post-event survey.
Donorbox Events lets you sell tickets online with the help of an easy-to-set-up, customizable event page and a ticketing form. You can add unlimited ticket tiers to your form, set the ticket quantity, the purchasing deadline, the tax-deductibility of each tier, accept donations from the ticketing form, and much more. You can also embed this form on your website. Read our step-by-step guide to get started right away.
Question type – yes/no.
Target – donors, sponsors, potential donors.
Event type – virtual, in-person, hybrid.
Events are an excellent way to share your organization with more people. Exciting events that bring in a crowd will help grow your donor base. Asking attendees this question helps you see if your event appeals to a larger audience.
Question type – yes/no.
Target – potential donors.
Event type – virtual, in-person, hybrid.
This quick yes or no question helps nonprofits determine if your event is a success. It’s also an excellent chance to see where you can send additional event information. This is also an ideal space to add an email request for future communication.
Question type – multiple-choice or open-ended.
Target – donors, potential donors.
Event type – virtual, in-person, hybrid.
After asking yes or no questions about whether they’d attend another event and recommend the event to their friends, you can add multiple-choice or open-ended questions to collect more information on what type of events attendees enjoy. Their answer to why they attended this event will help you determine what events to add to your fundraising strategy.
Question type – open-ended.
Target – donors, sponsors, potential donors.
Event type – virtual, in-person, hybrid.
The most essential thing event attendees should walk away with is an understanding of your organization’s mission. Unfortunately, many nonprofits forget this fact when planning an event. By sharing your mission in various creative ways throughout your event, you’re building relationships with potential donors based on their interest in your cause.
Asking this survey question helps nonprofits determine if attendees are learning about their mission. It also helps get people to focus on the mission after the fun of the event wears off.
Question type – open-ended.
Target – donors, sponsors, potential donors.
Event type – virtual, in-person, hybrid.
Adding this question to your survey helps assure supporters that you’re interested in their feedback. They may also provide suggestions that you never thought of to upgrade your event.
Question type – multiple choice or ranking.
Target – donors, potential donors.
Event type – virtual, in-person, hybrid.
Most in-person, virtual, or hybrid events include online registration. Gaining feedback on this process helps point out any issues you may not be aware of. It can also give you an idea of whether you’re losing any potential attendees because of the process.
Question type – yes/no.
Target – donors, potential donors.
Event type – virtual.
More nonprofits are holding entirely online or hybrid events. This type of event gives nonprofits more opportunities to share their mission and connect with donors and allows donors to support causes without leaving their homes.
The danger with virtual and hybrid events is that it’s easier to lose donors’ interests if you’re not careful. Adding this question to your survey will give you a better idea of how well you keep online attendees’ attention.
Question type – open-ended.
Target – donors, potential donors.
Event type – virtual.
Another way to gain attendees’ feedback on whether you’ve included enough to keep their attention is to ask for their suggestions to improve it. Online attendees have potentially been to other organizations’ virtual events and may provide ideas that work for your competitors.
Question type – yes/no.
Target – sponsors.
Event type – virtual, in-person, hybrid.
This yes or no question for sponsors can help you improve sponsor packets and reach more businesses. Be sure to ask in-person and online sponsors this question. Remember to also include a space for suggestions on how to improve sponsor outreach.
Question type – multiple choice.
Target – donors, sponsors, potential donors.
Event type – in-person, hybrid.
In-person attendees will give you different perspectives on how long entertainment, auctions, and donor appeals take. Depending on that, you can decide what length of time works best for your nonprofit’s events.
In case of a hybrid event, ask both groups to better understand how they viewed your event.
Question type – ranking.
Target – donors, potential donors.
Event type – virtual, in-person, hybrid.
Cost is one of the first things people check before purchasing event tickets. In-person galas may be costly, but not all in-person events exceed most people’s price range. If you notice a drop in attendees from earlier years or have difficulty selling tickets, the price may be an issue.
If you’re holding a virtual or hybrid event, you may want to offer a free online ticket or find more incentives to convince people to buy.
Question type – yes/no.
Target – donors, sponsors, potential donors.
Event type – in-person.
In-person events are still popular for many nonprofits. While you hope to sell more tickets, you must ensure that attendees can see and appreciate all you have to offer.
Signage is critical. Asking this question from all in-person attendees and sponsors gives you a good idea of what changes you must make. Your sponsors’ opinions on signage also give you a better idea if they’re happy with the advertising opportunities you provide. If they are, ask them for their testimonial for your next sponsorship packet.
Now that you understand where to start and have read our suggested survey questions, you can work on your own. Download the template to get started.
We hope this article helps you create a successful survey for your next event. Before sending out your event survey, take it yourself. If it takes more than a few minutes, find a way to shorten it before you send it out. If you think it’s too long, your event attendees won’t be different.
Nonprofit events are an excellent opportunity to connect with a new audience and strengthen relationships with your current donor base. Donorbox is here to help with its most effective and simple-to-use event ticketing tool called Donorbox Events.
Learn more about our range of tools on the website. Sign up for free to start fundraising today!
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Kristine Ensor is a freelance writer with over a decade of experience working with local and international nonprofits. As a nonprofit professional she has specialized in fundraising, marketing, event planning, volunteer management, and board development.
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Kristine Ensor