Research tells us that surveying donors regularly is a key component to interpreting and improving your donor retention rates. Bloomerang CRM's engagement surveys focus on new, existing, and lapsed donors. Surveys to new and existing donors measure donor satisfaction, commitment, trust, and intimacy. The lapsed donor survey looks at why a donor stopped giving. Survey questions are based on research, taking out the guesswork and allowing you to focus on results and action.
Before you create your first survey, you must enter all required information on the Organization Settings page.
Activate Engagement Surveys
When you activate an engagement survey, Bloomerang CRM automatically sends it when a donor makes a qualifying transaction.
To activate a survey:
Click Communications.
Click Engagement Surveys.
To activate the New Donor Survey, click the down arrow and select Activate.
To configure an Existing Donor Survey or Lapse Donor Survey, click Configure Now.
Edit the email content. You can't move or remove blocks.
Tip: As a best practice, use the default text as a guideline. This text emphasizes that you're asking donors for their opinion rather than money, and it explains how long the survey takes.To rename the Begin Survey button, hover over it and click the Edit pencil icon. Then, click Update.
To change the button color:
Click Edit Styles.
In the Button section, click the square.
Select a color or enter a hex code for a color.
Click Choose.
In the Email Details section, enter the Subject Line, From Name, and From Email.
To preview the survey questions, click Preview Survey.
Click Save And and select Activate.
For each survey, a timestamp appears that indicates the date and time that you activated the survey.
Engagement surveys look at donations on the household level. For example, William Riker and Deanna Troi are in a household, and qualifying transactions exist on William's timeline. Deanna makes an online donation resulting in the first qualifying transaction on her timeline. Because there is giving on their household account, Deanna is not seen as a new donor.
Surveys are automatically sent to active donors (including individuals, organizations, and all active members of a household) when a qualifying transaction is made, and based on the acknowledgement status of the transaction. An interaction is created on the donor's timeline when a survey is sent, and a second interaction is created if the donor answers a survey. Donors can answer some or all survey questions.
Email Interests
If you activate at least one survey, Bloomerang CRM automatically creates an email interest named Donor Surveys.
To rename the email interest:
Click Communications.
Click Emails.
Click Delivery Settings.
In the Email Interests section, click Donor Surveys.
Rename the email interest, then click Save.
If you deactivate all surveys, the email interest automatically deactivates.
To opt in or out of donor surveys, donors can click the Manage Email Preferences link in all Bloomerang CRM emails.
Qualifying Transactions
Qualifying transactions include donations, pledges, pledge payments, recurring donation schedules, and recurring donation payments. If you have the Membership Management add-on, membership schedules and payments are also qualifying transactions for donor surveys.
The transactions must not be refunded nor fully written-off. If at least one split of a split payment is a qualifying transaction, the split payment is considered a qualifying transaction.
Customizing the donor retention filters affects qualifying transactions:
If soft credits are included in the custom donor retention filters, soft credits count as a qualifying transaction.
If the transaction has a fund, campaign, or appeal that is excluded from the custom donor retention filters, those transactions do not qualify.
Note: Only transactions entered after a survey is activated are considered qualifying transactions for new and existing donor surveys.
Acknowledgement Status
Do Not Acknowledge. When a transaction is marked as Do Not Acknowledge, the survey is sent out the next day.
Acknowledged via email. When a transaction is acknowledged through email, the survey is sent two days after the email acknowledgement is sent.
Acknowledged via letter or manually changing the acknowledgement to “Yes.” When a transaction is acknowledged manually or by a letter, the survey is sent fourteen days after the acknowledgement letter is generated or after the acknowledgement status is changed to "Yes."
Unacknowledged. When transactions have not been acknowledged for fourteen days since the donation, the survey is sent fifteen days after the transaction date.
After a survey is activated, it is sent based on donor activity:
If a donor makes a qualifying transaction and they have no other qualifying transactions on their timeline, the New Donor Survey is sent.
If a donor makes a qualifying transaction and they already have a qualifying transaction on their timeline, the Existing Donor Survey is sent.
If the last transaction on a donor's timeline is between 12-24 months ago, the Lapsed Donor Survey is sent.
Interactions
An interaction appears on the donor's timeline after a survey is sent. A second interaction appears if the donor answers the survey.
Engagement Surveys Dashboard
Cumulative survey scores are displayed on the Engagement Surveys dashboard so you can see how you are performing over time. The average commitment, satisfaction, trust, and intimacy is collected for each survey type so you can see how your donors collectively feel about your organization and which areas need improvement.
Toggle between New and Existing Donor survey results by clicking New or Existing.
Review responses over the Last 6 months or Last 12 months.
The Top Lapsed Responses shows the top five responses.
To see more detailed tracking and responses on each survey, open the survey and go to the Tracking or Responses tab.
Report on Surveys
Report on Survey activity using the following interaction fields:
Has Opened Survey. Add a filter to list constituents who have or have not opened a survey. Add a column to return values or Yes or No.
Channel is Engagement Survey Email indicates receipt of a survey.
Channel is Engagement Survey indicates response to a survey.
Subject lines include if the interaction is for a New Donor Survey, Existing Donor Survey, or Lapsed Donor Survey.
Lapsed Reason shows the response a constituent gave to a Lapsed Donor Survey.