Donor surveys: Definition, how to create & more

As an organization, are you looking to improve your experience and interaction with your donors? Then, taking advantage of donor surveys would be a perfect choice. Conduct a donor survey and strengthen your communication by better understanding your donors. It will also increase your donation rate by increasing satisfaction.

In this article, we talk about the definition of donor surveys and why you need donor surveys as an organization. We cover 10+ essential questions to ask in a donor survey and how asking these questions will benefit you. You can also see how to create a donor survey for free and expert tips.

What is a donor survey?

Through surveys, organizations can better understand donors' motivations and preferences. It also helps them increase their satisfaction level.

Why do you need a donor survey?

Organizing a donor survey benefits your organization in many ways. You can better understand your donations and achieve more effective and permanent communication with them through these surveys. So why do you need these surveys? Below, you can see the benefits of donor surveys for your organization:

10+ Essential questions to ask in a donor survey

You've learned how conducting a donor survey will benefit your organization. So, what questions should you ask in your survey? What benefits does it provide you you ask? The questions you ask correctly and in line with your goals will give you beneficial information about your donations. Below are 10+ questions you can ask in your donor survey and the benefits of asking them:

1. How did you hear about our organization?

Through this question, you can find out through which channel or channels your donors hear about your organization. The feedback you collect can also help you evaluate the effectiveness of your marketing strategies and choose the advertising methods that attract your potential donors.

2. Are you satisfied with your overall experience with our organization?

It is a CSAT survey question that measures overall satisfaction with your organization. This question can help you evaluate your donors' satisfaction levels with your organization. It will enable you to identify areas where your donors are dissatisfied, make necessary improvements, and increase donor satisfaction.

3. ⁠ How likely will you recommend our organization to your friends or family to donate?

It is a net promoter score (NPS) survey question that allows you to measure your donors' overall experience levels about your organization. You can ask donors about the recommendability of your organization using a rating scale from 0 to 10. The feedback you obtain reflects the donor's loyalty and the satisfaction your organization creates.

4. ⁠ What is your reason for donating to our organization?

This question lets you find out why your donors donate to your organization. Learning these reasons allows you to understand donors' motivations for giving. So, you can work on what you can do to increase and maintain that motivation.

5. ⁠ Have you been informed enough about the uses of your donation?

Through this question, you can determine whether you have adequately informed your donors about the areas where their donations will be used. For example, if your donors think the information provided needs to be improved, you can increase your efforts to provide information transfer at the level your donors expect.

6. ⁠ Do you have any new project ideas regarding using donations? (If yes, please explain.)

This open-ended question allows you to collect feedback on your donors' suggestions for using their donations. Thus, you can evaluate the new projects suggested in line with the feedback and include them in their usage areas. It also shows that you value your donors' opinions.

7. ⁠ How can we improve your donor experience and our organization?

Through this open-ended question, you can learn donors' opinions about how you can improve donor and organization experiences. It also allows your donors to talk about their experiences without being limited to the areas you offer, so you can obtain more comprehensive information and maintain the highest satisfaction.

8. ⁠ Do you have any problems or concerns about our organization?

Asking your donors this question allows you to identify their challenges and areas of weakness throughout the process. You can take precautions to eliminate these problems based on the information you obtain. For example, if your donors complain about needing more information about how their donations are used, you can work to strengthen information and communication.

9. ⁠ Do you want to donate regularly?

This question allows you to find out what your donors think about giving regularly. At the same time, you can also identify your potential major donors through this question. You can develop several strategies to increase donor loyalty.

10. ⁠ How would you prefer us to contact you?

This question can help you learn the communication channel your donors prefer. For example, your donors may prefer something other than this method because they do not use their email, or they may choose to communicate via SMS because they do not like to be disturbed. Learning communication preferences is essential for optimizing donor communication strategy.

How to create a donor survey for free

You can easily create donor surveys using the forms.app. You just learned about 10+ questions and why you need to ask them in your evaluation survey. In this stage, you can learn how to create surveys by embedding these questions into your surveys. By following the 5 steps below, you can create your donor surveys and better understand your donors:

Step 1: Log in or sign up for forms.app

Login to your account

As a first step, you can start to create an online donor survey by signing up for an account using the forms app. You can create a free account in seconds if you don't have one. You can go directly to the platform if you already have an account. Apart from these, you can log in using your Google, Apple, or Facebook accounts.

Step 2: Start from scratch, choose a template, or generate with AI

Once logged in, click the Create Form button to create a new form. You can create your donor surveys, including your goals, for free. You can also benefit from a ready-made donor information form template. Finally, you can get help from forms.app AI for creating your survey.

Choose a beginning option

Step 3: Add your appropriate questions

Once you choose a template that fits your goals, you should add donor survey questions. You can use the 10+ essential donor survey example questions above in your survey. The forms app offers a variety of question types, such as short-answer, long-answer, and multiple-choice questions. Combining question types helps you better understand your donors.

Add your survey questions

Step 4: Customize your form design

Change the design of your survey

forms.app offers rich content about your survey design. You can easily select a theme and change colors. You can also choose your form images, logo, and cover. Finally, you can tailor colors, fonts, and other overall design tools to create a survey that mirrors your organization’s identity and goals.

Step 5: Share your evaluation survey

Share your survey

You can distribute your donor survey using the forms.app's various sharing options. You can share your survey with your donors on popular social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and WhatsApp. You can also embed surveys on your website or share them using QR codes.

Step 6: Analyze your donor survey results

Check the results

Once you have gathered feedback, you can use forms.app's features like statistics and filters for analyzing survey responses. This way, you can better interpret the data you collect and evaluate your results more efficiently. Accurately analyzing survey results will help you create a strategy that maximizes donor satisfaction.

4 Expert tips for donor surveys

Conducting your donor survey in the most effective way possible will help you achieve your goals. In this regard, you should pay attention to some points to increase the response rate and the effectiveness of the feedback you collect. Below, we share 4 expert tips to improve the effectiveness of your survey:

Pro tips for donor surveys

Wrapping it up

In this article, we discussed the definition of donor surveys and why organizations need them. We have also included steps to create a free donor survey on the forms.app. Finally, you can see 10+ questions you can ask and 4 expert tips you can use to make your surveys more effective.

You can build a deeper bond with your donors by leveraging donor power. By conducting an effective survey, you can collect valuable feedback from your donors and improve donor experiences in line with this feedback. So, take action and increase your organization's donor potential by creating your donor survey!