How do you collect feedback from event attendees and donors to improve future events?

1 Set clear goals and questions

Before you launch your event, you should have a clear idea of what you want to achieve and what you want to learn from your feedback. Do you want to increase awareness, engagement, loyalty, or donations? Do you want to know how satisfied, inspired, or motivated your attendees and donors were? Do you want to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, or threats for your event? Based on your goals, you should design your feedback questions to be specific, relevant, measurable, and actionable. Avoid asking too many or too vague questions that might confuse or overwhelm your respondents.

2 Choose the right methods and tools

There are many ways to collect feedback from your event attendees and donors, depending on your budget, audience, and preferences. Some common methods are surveys, polls, interviews, focus groups, testimonials, and social media. You can use online platforms, such as SurveyMonkey, Eventbrite, or Google Forms, to create and distribute your feedback forms, or use offline methods, such as paper forms, phone calls, or face-to-face conversations. You can also use a combination of methods and tools to reach different segments of your audience and increase your response rate.

3 Time it right

The timing of your feedback collection is crucial for getting honest and accurate responses. Ideally, you should ask for feedback as soon as possible after your event, when the experience is still fresh in your attendees' and donors' minds. You can also send reminders or follow-ups to encourage them to share their opinions. However, you should also respect their time and privacy, and avoid spamming them with too many or too frequent requests. You can also incentivize them to provide feedback by offering rewards, such as discounts, prizes, or recognition.

4 Analyze and act on the feedback

Once you have collected your feedback, you should analyze it to identify patterns, trends, and insights. You can use tools, such as Excel, Google Analytics, or Tableau, to organize and visualize your data, or hire a professional evaluator to help you. You should also share your feedback results with your team, stakeholders, and supporters, and thank them for their participation. Most importantly, you should act on the feedback by implementing changes, improvements, or innovations for your future events. You should also communicate how you have used the feedback to show your appreciation and accountability.

5 Learn and improve

Collecting feedback is not a one-time activity, but a continuous process of learning and improving. You should always compare your feedback results with your goals and benchmarks, and evaluate your performance and progress. You should also monitor the outcomes and impacts of your feedback actions, and see how they affect your attendees' and donors' behavior and satisfaction. You should also seek feedback from other sources, such as peers, experts, or competitors, and learn from their best practices and challenges. By collecting feedback regularly and systematically, you can optimize your fundraising events and achieve your mission.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?