Determining Non-Profit Attributes

Table of Contents
Objective 3
Research Methodology 3
Quantitative 3
Qualitative 3
Secondary Research 4
What is a Non-Profit Organization? 4
Why Do Organizations Need Donations? 4
• Public Service 4
• Economic Challenges 4
• Generational Challenges 4
Understanding Philanthropy 5
Why Do People Donate? 5
• Personal experiences 5
• They want to make a difference 5
• They want to do something active about a problem or take a stand on a particular issue: 5
• They are motivated by personal recognition and benefits 5
• Giving is a good thing to do 5
• Personal Motivation 6
• Building Morale 6
• Community Involvement 6
• Marketing 6
• Tax Deduction 6
Most Important Attributes to Donors 6
• The Cause 6
• Treating symptoms of social needs or addressing root causes 6
• How Many People it Serves 6
• Long and Short Term Goals 6
• Number, Size, and status of the Grants it Receives 6
• What supporters/Clients Say About it 7
• 501{c} {3}-Tax Deductible 7
• Efficiency 7
• Legitimate Website, Email, Address, and Phone Number 7
• Revolutionary Ideas 7
• Competition/Differentiation 7
Primary Research 7
Quantitative 7
Testing of the Survey 7
Survey 1 8
Survey 2 8
Respondent Selection 8
Responses and Follow Up 8
Results 9
Survey 1 9
Survey 2 10
Qualitative 12
Respondents and Findings 12
Selection Reasoning 12
Laura Benedict 12
Stephen Goodrich 12
Interview Results 12
Interview Results 13
Suggestions 14
Success and Improvements 14
Appendix 15
1:1 15
1:2 15
1:3 16
1:4 17
Surveys and Responses 17

Objective

To determine which attributes of a non-profit organization are most important to donors.

Research Methodology

Quantitative

Two different surveys were created and used for the quantitative research for this study. The two surveys were given to different groups of people in order to yield separate types of answers. The first survey was created using survey monkey.com and included multiple choice questions as well as open ended questions. This survey was given to individuals that were not considered experienced donors but who donate at least one time a year. These people were given a list of important attributes of non-profit organizations that I found when doing secondary research. From here, the individuals conducted rank ordering, stated importance, and weighted allocation on each of the attributes in order to achieve the best results from them. Survey 2 was created using survey monkey.com but included more open ended questions in hopes to draw out more creative and expert attributes that I couldn’t find in secondary research. These respondents were a bit more experienced so they were capable of coming up with their own attributes to list and then rank. Within these two surveys I tried to incorporate similar questions that asked for the same result, just in a different way. The different structure of the question helps people think of new answers to the same question. This tactic was used throughout the project. Open ended questions were also present in order to have the respondents analyze the situation and express their ideas in the survey.

Qualitative

The qualitative section of the research was conducted through two carefully selected respondents. The interview was conducted over the phone in which the website “survey monkey” was used in order to record the responses. Both respondents are people that I have personally seen and talked to about the non-profit business. As the respondents answered the questions asked I recorded them on my end by using the website, keeping the info structured and to make analysis of the info simple is the main reason for this. The attributes that were discovered in the quantitative and secondary sections of the study were used to create the interview. Using these expert donors I could tell if what I had found made sense in reality