8 Ways Even Small Nonprofits Can Do Market Research

How to Go From What You Think to What You Know

Do the leaders of your organization suffer from confirmation bias? Are they so sure of what they think they know that they automatically seek out data that supports their gut feelings? Or worse still, do they disbelieve the data when it contradicts their gut feelings?

The deadly disease of confirmation bias afflicts more organizations than you would think. One study of CEOs revealed that only ten percent would follow the data if it contradicted what they already believed.

What's the answer? More and better market research, plus educating your leaders, such as the Executive Director, board members, and fundraising officials about confirmation bias.

Your nonprofit can fight back, especially since there are many ways of doing market research, some quite affordable. 

8 Affordable Ways to Do Market Research

1. Observation
   Just paying attention to your clients and customers can be enlightening. Train your marketing personnel to observe and take notes on what people say at meetings, activities, and special events. Ask staff or volunteers that work with your public to tell you what people are saying. What problems seem to be occurring? What pleases and what irritates your users?
2. Mystery Shopping
   Commonly used in commercial settings, mystery shopping can be useful for a nonprofit too. It is an advantageous technique for arts organizations where mystery shoppers can buy tickets or call ticket sellers, attend performances, and judge the level of customer service.
   The shoppers might even do the same with your competing organizations to see what they are doing differently and perhaps better. Educate your people who are in customer-facing jobs about the mystery shopping ahead of time and make sure that they don't see it as a way to "catch" and punish them.
   Devise a rating system that the mystery shopper can use to quantify their impressions and to make sure everyone is evaluating similarly.
3. Transactional Surveys
   We've all taken these. Surveys often show up in the course of or immediately after a customer transaction. Typical examples are when a box shows up on our computer screen asking us to answer a survey after we've ordered an item online. Or, when we get a phone call from a company we just did business with checking out our satisfaction level.
   Nonprofits can use surveys many ways, from emailing it to donors or volunteers to on-site questionnaires to a short series of questions on a website or right after someone donates.
   Surveys such as these allow us immediate feedback while the experience is fresh in the consumer's mind and enables us to take prompt remedial action if necessary.
4. Focus Group Research
   Focus groups can be informal and run by your staff or formal, and more expensive when done by a company skilled in doing them. Focus groups should have a skilled moderator, and there should be several focus groups for each segment of clients you are researching.
   Focus groups invite a small group of people for a meeting of a couple of hours to answer questions and discuss their reactions to your organization or something that your organization does. These groups can be held in a specially designed room so they can be observed, they can be recorded for later analysis, or they can be held in a digital space.
5. Customer Advisory Panels
   Advisory panels work well for organizations that have traditional "customers." Arts organizations are good examples of where tickets are sold. People from various customer groups are invited to serve on the panels for a period.
   Feedback comes through meetings, phone interviews and mailed or emailed questionnaires. Customer Advisory Panels are beneficial for gathering information needed to make a significant decision. Perhaps the organization is thinking of mounting a particular kind of performance series and can reach out immediately to find out what the panel thinks of the idea.
6. Individual In-Depth Interviewing
   Specially trained researchers make phone calls, ask follow-up questions and prompt for detailed information. This type of research can be expensive, but the results can be immensely helpful. It can save money by steering your organization away from wasting resources on hunches that might not be correct.
7. Survey Questionnaires
   Probably the most widely used of market research techniques, surveys can be sent to a large number of people. Questionnaires can be transmitted by mail, e-mail, or tucked into other literature such as a program or a newsletter. Today, there are many online survey services, and some are even free to use.
   Surveys are useful for learning about people's knowledge, beliefs, product and media preferences, their satisfaction levels, and for attaining demographic information.
8. Marketing Experiments
   Commercial enterprises do this all the time. They test direct market materials for instance by sending out various versions and then tracking the responses. Often called A/B testing, you can quickly do the same by merely preparing different versions of materials such as promotional brochures, fundraising appeals, and newsletters and sending them to different segments of your audience. You then track the responses to see which version worked best.

Quantitative or Qualitative Research?

Whatever techniques you use to research, you’ll need to decide when to use qualitative or quantitative approaches Most significant research projects have a blend of the two. Briefly, here is how the two types are different and where they might be useful.

Quantitative methods measure or count data. They attempt to answer the question: "How much?" using statistical analysis such as averages, means, percentiles, etc. Use quantitative methods for issues that involve:

• Understanding quantities or frequency.
• Determining cause-and-effect.
• Comparing different things.
• Establishing numerical baselines.

Qualitative methods use direct or indirect contact with people. They can consist of interviews, observation, or review of relevant documents. Qualitative methods can be quite rigorous and be excellent for studying processes and meanings, but they do not measure. Use qualitative methods for questions that involve:

• Understanding the feelings or opinions of people.
• To gain insight into relationships or patterns.
• To gather multiple perspectives on a particular subject or problem.
• To identify approximate, rather than exact, information.

Don’t hesitate to do market research. Your nonprofit is a business in many respects, so you need to understand your audience. Research seems like an expense, but it saves you money in the long run by avoiding mistakes in planning and carrying out your programs.