You can draw stronger conclusions from your survey data when you have a high response rate. Incentives can increase the likelihood that people participate, and acknowledges that their time is valuable to the research. Traditionally, these incentives come in the form of gift cards, food, money, etc. A newer trend in incentives is to “pay it forward” through a gift in kind. When someone completes a survey, a gift is made to a cause or a person in need.
There are four primary benefits of the “pay it forward” incentive:
- Respondents can feel that their survey made a double contribution: informing a particular issue, and helping someone else
- Pay it forward incentives can be easier to manage. Rather than having to track who responded, and send them a gift, or risk sending a gift to someone who isn't going to respond anyway, you can simply track the number of responses and make a single, lump-sum payment.
- You can increase anonymity because you do not need to collect any information or tie responses to a particular person in order to manage the pay it forward incentive.
- Your organization can build a reputation as a giving, caring institution.
When providing a charitable gift as a response incentive, it is important to define the impact their response will make in terms of the donation. When a participant sees that their actions can translate into something real, they are more likely to dedicate their time to respond. The Improve Group is currently using a pay it forward incentive in a large, statewide survey in Minnesota. Each completed survey results in three donated meals to a family in need. We used this approach after analysis of our audience and based on recent research in the field.
For example, a recent study shows us that younger individuals are more likely to give if they know what their donation will provide—we hypothesized that that includes when they are asked to give their time. Since Millennials and younger individuals can be difficult to reach through traditional phone and email methods, the pay it forward messages are being delivered through multiple channels, including social media. The fact that their contribution benefits their own community is highlighted.
Have you ever provided a charitable donation incentive to your respondents? How did it work out? Do you have any useful tips on incentives? Please share your experiences.