This past month, we’ve been working hard to understand who our donors are and why they come to our site. To do this, we sent out two surveys.
The first survey allowed us to hear the voices of our donors through five open-ended questions. The answers helped us understand how we should approach a second, quantitative survey.
The second survey consisted of about twenty multiple choice questions. This survey just ended and we are excited to share some preliminary results!
- 1,900 donors responded
- About three quarters are women
- Our donors run the gamut in terms of age… the even distribution took us by surprise
- 6 out of 10 have an immediate friend or family member who is a public school teacher
- Over half are extremely likely to recommend DonorsChoose.org to a friend, giving us a 10 out of 10 promoter score
- Of those unlikely to recommend us, the most common source of frustration was getting a donation returned as account credits because the project did not reach full funding
- 37% prefer to give to classrooms in the community where they live
- Thank you notes from the students are the most popular form of classroom feedback
- 16% of our donors are interested in automatic, recurring donations to classroom projects in their interest area
Thanks to all who took the survey – you’ve made a real difference! We’ll continue analyzing the data to learn how we can improve the DonorsChoose.org experience.
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I knew there were a lot of SMART women out there!
I think the Thank You notes are as important a learning tool for the students as they are for the donors who receive them.
I wish there was a way for a teacher to elect to transfer money from partialy funded grant about to expire into another posted grant.
The donors would need to be contacted about the transfer.
Comment by Paisely Cloyd — Apr 1, 2009 @ 12:18pm
TJ’s Fresh Seafood Market in Dallas, Texas is proud to support Donorschoose.org!
TJ’s was named the 2009 “Most Innovative Seafood Market in America.”
Comment by jon — Apr 1, 2009 @ 12:19pm
By its very name, DonorsChoose.org pledges to make giving personal. I get to control who I support. I get to feel like a hero, sometimes single-handedly enabling an entire classroom of students to leapfrog their obstacle.
A few years back, I wrote a book called, “Making It Personal,” and in the process learned how gratified people are by a “personalized” approach. So it pleases but doesn’t surprise me that your net promoter score is off the charts. Keep up the great work.
Comment by Bruce Kasanoff — Apr 1, 2009 @ 12:26pm
Do you have the breakdown by question? I’d be interested in learning everything. Keep up the great work!
Comment by EmGusk — Apr 1, 2009 @ 12:33pm
Fascinating results…thanks for sharing!
Our firm provides sales, marketing and strategy expertise to health and wellness businesses.
Every year we invite our clients and customers to direct our DonorsChoose contribution every year by voting on a short list of nutrition, fitness and health-related school projects.
I always tell them it’s the best check I sign all year!
Here’s what they’ve chosen since 2005:
http://www.radialgroup.com/helpinghands.htm
Comment by Leslie Nolen — Apr 1, 2009 @ 1:09pm
My husband’s company provides corporate matching for donations, but it’s hard to use that at donorschoose. I wish there was a way to establish a donor account, put a chunk of money into it as a donation, get the donation matched by my husband’s company, then dole it out project by project.
Anyway, I love donorschoose. I have had the best experiences here. There’s nothing like receiving the teacher’s letter and those student letters to feel like you’re actually accomplishing something with your donation.
Comment by towhee47 — Apr 1, 2009 @ 1:56pm
When I got the thank-you notes and pictures, I waited until I was with a group of highly educated people who have more disposable income than I do–just so they could see what can happen if you share some of that money. It seemed to be much more powerful than an email.
Comment by Sarah Caldwell — Apr 1, 2009 @ 7:24pm
Thanks for the feedback, excellent work.
About the return of donations for underfunded projects, I suggest you set up a ’suspense’ account to which the donations are credited while you go back to the donor(s)and ask them to make another choice, possibly including suggestions of comparable projects which are underfunded. If the original donor doesn’t respond, you can refund them, if they do, you debit the ’supense’ account and transfer the funds to the indicated project.
Comment by Hendrik Laverge — Apr 1, 2009 @ 9:02pm
WHAT WAS THE RESPONSE TO DONATING IF YOU HAD MATCHING FUNDS?
Comment by REBECCA HEWITT — Apr 2, 2009 @ 4:34pm