If your organization wants to succeed and continue growing, you must evaluate your services. You have to reach your consumers in an effective manner and collect quality data. In 2021, Greater Albuquerque Habitat for Humanity conducted an Impact Study with REC that examined homeowner experiences. They used these findings to make data-driven decisions about their programs, their organization, and the diverse households they serve. This study utilized multiple recruitment efforts such as mail, email, text messaging, volunteer support, and phone calls. This study resulted in a 64% response rate! When planning for your analysis, consider that a suitable response rate ranges between 5% to 30% and an excellent rate is 50% or higher. In this blog, Bill Bidal, Operations Director of Greater Albuquerque Habitat for Humanity, shares how his organization reached this excellent response rate, what made the evaluation successful, and what was learned through the process.
Why did Greater Albuquerque Habitat for Humanity decide to conduct a Homeowner Study? What were you hoping to learn? How did you know you were ready to conduct the Impact Study?
Greater Albuquerque Habitat for Humanity had not directly contacted their homeowners in an organized fashion since 2013. During this time, they built about 50 new homes. They had previously administered a survey to their homeowners with mixed success in participation. Bill mentioned how, “We wanted to know about each family and how owning and living in a Habitat home had impacted them, their children, and, in some cases, their grandchildren.”
By the time that Greater Albuquerque Habitat for Humanity decided to partner with REC, they had many questions about their homeowners such as, “Was life better as a homeowner? Were they more stable financially as a result? How were the others living in the home impacted?” When asked when he knew it was time evaluate their program, Bill shared, “We knew it was time when we had some [homeowners] coming to us to share their information and experiences. We had no way to gather their input in an organized fashion [before] conducting this survey.”
What contact information does your organization track and maintain about your homeowner community?
This nonprofit keeps a database of all homes they have built since 1987 as well as information about the homeowners who purchased these homes. Information such as the homeowner’s name, address, and contact information are regularly tracked and updated. Once a homeowner pays off their mortgage or sells their home, Greater Albuquerque Habitat for Humanity no longer maintains these records. Bill shared that, “Phone, email, and text are our prime paths of contact. We have a central database and work between our mortgage services supervisor and office administrator to update that information as we become aware of changes.”
What did you find worked well when reaching your target audience? What was challenging in reaching homeowners?
Greater Albuquerque Habitat for Humanity spent a full year before conducting the study to improve homeowner contact information. During that year, Bill reported they, “Kept track of methods…that worked best to track down homeowners to get their updates and what methods did not work well. [We] focused our strategy with REC on our outreach to homeowners at the time of the survey, with that information in mind. We were proud to reach and get survey data back from a full two-thirds of our homeowners…because of how hard we found it to find contact paths that would result in successful engagements.”
What did Greater Albuquerque Habitat for Humanity learn about reaching your target audience from this study? What strategies will you use when going into the next Impact study?
Bill learned there was a difference between contacting a person and having them actually complete the survey. He recounted home some homeowners were excited to share their feedback, others needed encouragement or to learn why the study mattered, and others were not interested in participating, regardless of what was offered or shared. As Bill explained, “We also had some [homeowners] that, in retrospect, did not want to engage, possibly due to personal struggles at the time of contact (some may have been having financial or other troubles and just wanted to be left alone), and others who were truly concerned that providing any data (although the survey was confidential) could boomerang back negatively on them.”
In the future, Bill now knows that there are some people who will not participate, no matter what incentives are offered. In the future Bill described how they will, “Focus on the rest of the target population and reach them with a survey they can take in a very user-friendly manner,” which for them was online.
What advice might you share for other organizations who want to increase their response rate and collect quality data?
“Treat [it] as a multiple-step process. The first and most important step is investing time and energy into collecting accurate contact data. Second, let your target audience know ahead of time that you will be approaching them to collect very important information that only they can provide, that will be handled confidentially, and share the value to future homeowners and others that the information they share can potentially create. Then, use the most user-friendly and user-accessible methods to allow them to engage with the survey and provide their [input]. We found online survey engagement was the most user-friendly, and the easiest way to reach our desired participants was by text messaging. We went in having different impressions.”
A special thank you to Bill Bidal for sharing Greater Albuquerque Habitat for Humanity’s experiences working with REC on this evaluation study. What he shared sheds light on how other organizations can increase their response rate when implementing an impact study, what is necessary to collect quality data, and the importance of planning and participant buy-in to support any program evaluation effort.
Need More Help?
Be sure to contact REC to discuss how to reach your target audience and get high response rates!
Sources:
Chung, L. (2022). What is a good survey response rate for online customer surveys? Retrieved from: https://delighted.com/blog/average-survey-response-rate#:~:text=Nevertheless%2C%20a%20good%20survey%20response,rate%20is%2050%25%20o%20r%20higher
Greater Albuquerque Habitat for Humanity . (n.d.). Retrieved from Greater Albuquerque Habitat for Humanity: https://habitatabq.org/
Shtivelband, A. (2022). How to Become a Data-Driven Organization. Retrieved from Research Evaluation Consulting: https://researchevaluationconsulting.com/how-to-become-a-data-driven-organization/
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