How nonprofits can listen strategically to their donors

This Week on the Responsive Weekly

The Responsive Weekly is a community of thinkers and doers who are focused on creating better donor experiences and more successful nonprofits.

What Happened This Week: The Quick Summary

This week, Emily Taylor of teenyBIG joined us to discuss strategic listening, and when to use a survey or an interview to listen to supporters.

What Happened This Week: The Whole Session

Watch the Full Recording Here

Top Takeaways

• Before you start sending surveys or scheduling interviews, zero in on your goal. What do you want to know? Why? What are you going to do with that information? Who are you going to ask?
• Surveys are great for getting concrete information, like preferences and demographic information.
• Interviews are great for getting stories and learning about supporters’ feelings.
• Once you have responses, you can start to look for patterns.
• Use words you hear from your supporters to create communication and marketing that speaks directly to them.
• Use the patterns and trends you observe in supporters’ answers to create donor personas and donor journey maps.

More From This Session

Here’s the full story from this week’s Generosity Report

Megan Donahue

Megan Donahue is a writer specializing in all things nonprofit, content strategy, and the intersection of nonprofits and technology.

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