You spent months pulling out all the stops for your fundraising event—lining up sponsors, managing logistics, recruiting volunteers, and coordinating marketing efforts. But once the event wraps up, there’s still one crucial task remaining: collecting feedback.
Asking supporters for feedback is more than just filling out a survey or checking a box. It’s about showing your supporters, donors, and volunteers that their voices matter and using their input to improve future fundraising events and campaigns. By thoughtfully collecting feedback, you can turn casual or one-time event participants into loyal supporters and ensure your next fundraiser is even better.
High-quality feedback doesn’t happen by chance. It’s dependent on putting the right tools, timing, and strategies in place. Here are four best practices your nonprofit can follow to collect meaningful feedback and put it to good use.
1. Use Multiple Channels & Types of Surveys
Supporters prefer engaging with your nonprofit in many different ways, and the same goes for providing feedback. If you’re only collecting feedback through one method, you may miss out on valuable perspectives and qualitative feedback. To maximize participation and reach your entire audience, it’s a good idea to offer a variety of survey formats and delivery channels.
Some channel options to consider include:
- Physical feedback cards. Provide simple comment cards on tables or in swag bags to encourage real-time responses.
- Direct mail surveys. Sending hard copy surveys via mail after the event can be a great option for older donors or supporters who prefer print communication.
- Online survey tools. Platforms like Google Forms or SurveyMonkey have free options, are easy to use, and are widely accessible.
- Social media polls. These can be a quick option to capture input from followers on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn.
It’s a good practice to cross-promote your feedback surveys across all your nonprofit’s marketing channels—email, your event website, your nonprofit’s website, and social platforms—to reach a broader audience.
2. Write Effective & Appealing Questions
The quality of your feedback you’ll receive depends on the questions you ask and how you ask them. To get actionable insights, make your surveys short, clear, and focused with these tips:
- Keep it simple and relevant. Use straightforward, easy-to-understand language that avoids jargon. Respect your respondent’s time and keep the questions focused on the event.
- Ask about both the big picture and specific elements of the event. For instance, if you hosted a charity golf tournament that included a silent auction, ask general questions about the tournament overall, plus targeted ones about the auction experience.
- Use a variety of question types. To gauge different types of feedback, include question types like multiple choice, ranking scales, and open-ended questions that capture measurable data and personal opinions.
- Customize surveys for different audiences. Different types of participants in your event—volunteers, sponsors, participants, and donors—may have different feedback to offer, so tailor surveys for each segment.
Well-crafted questions and surveys help you collect meaningful insights and show that you’re serious about making improvements to provide an even better event experience.
3. Optimize Survey Delivery Timing
When you send a survey matters just as much as how you send it. Hitting “send” at an inopportune time can mean your request remains buried in inboxes or gets ignored altogether. These best practices can help optimize when you send your survey and improve your response rate:
- Check past engagement data. Look at email open rates and click-throughs across channels to determine when your audience is most likely to be online and active.
- Avoid work hours or late-night sends. Try to avoid sending surveys during the workday or late at night. Early evening or weekend afternoons are good options.
- Time surveys close to the event. Send surveys within a few days of the fundraiser so they can share their feedback while the experience is still fresh in their minds.
- Avoid high-traffic messaging days. People’s inboxes are often flooded with marketing messages around major holidays or giving days like Giving Tuesday, so 360MatchPro suggests strategically avoiding these dates so your survey doesn’t get lost in the noise.
4. Incentivize Feedback
Sometimes a little nudge can go a long way. Incentives can motivate people to take your survey and share their opinions. However, you must ethically disburse incentives to avoid skewing responses and impacting your data. Follow these best practices while incentivizing feedback:
- Avoid saying things like “give us a great review to receive a reward.” Instead, say, “Thanks for taking the time to complete our event survey—here’s a token of our appreciation.”
- Be transparent about why you’re offering an incentive and thoroughly explain what folks will receive in exchange for sharing their opinion.
- Keep it simple for folks to claim their reward by clearly laying out the steps they need to follow.
For example, let’s say you’re hosting a charity golf tournament. You might offer golfers who complete the survey a reward that complements the player gifts they received at the tournament.
Why Feedback Matters More Than Ever
Collecting feedback isn’t just about improving your fundraising event logistics—it’s also a key part of your nonprofit’s long-term strategy. Supporter input helps build trust, foster deeper relationships, and demonstrate that you value the people who support your mission. Even more importantly, feedback can improve how you report impact. Your next event’s post-campaign report or year-end donor update will be stronger and more credible when it’s backed by real participant voices.
If collecting feedback feels daunting, start small by:
- Training your team or volunteers on how to ask for input during and after events.
- Choosing one survey tool and committing to using it consistently.
- Building survey creation and promotion into your fundraising event checklist for next year.
With the right feedback practices, you’ll improve your fundraising efforts and show your community that their voice helps shape your mission’s future.
