Measuring public awareness in Scotland

What do the Scottish public think of your charity?

Commencing in March 2007 nfpSynergy have been measuring awareness of charities and issues of concern to charities in Scotland.  We conduct two waves of research each year, six months apart, to ascertain the following information from a sample of 1,000 adults (for more information on the sample please see below):

Tracking questions asked twice a year for all participants

• Spontaneous awareness of charities in Scotland eg. “Please tell us the first three charities that come to mind”
• Prompted awareness of specific charities eg. “Have you heard of the Scottish Society for the Protection of Animals (SSPCA)?” and including prompted awareness of a comparator organisation for each subscriber.
• ‘Who does what?’ questions probing the understanding of which charities work in what fields eg. “Can you name an organisation that exists to [category eg: protect children] in Scotland?” Each subscriber will have be able to add a category of their choice to this question.
• All subscribing charities would be able to add a specific campaign to a question probing the awareness of any campaign, initiative or advertising by a charity.
• All subscribing charities would be able to add a specific corporate partnership to a question probing the awareness of corporate partnerships.
• All subscribing charities would be able to add a specific issue to a question probing people’s awareness of an issue. eg have you read, seen, or head anything about the following issues in the last three months.

General recall of charity communications and charitable activity asked in each wave

• Have you given to charity in the last three months?
• If yes, how have you given?
• Have you volunteered or given your time to charity over the last three months?
• If yes, how have you volunteered?

An opportunity to ask an individual question once a year for each participant

Each subscriber is able to put in an individual question in one of the two waves. The length of this is open for discussion with each subscriber but is around a third of a side of A4. We are able to draft questions for subscribers and provide ideas.

Sector intelligence

There are a variety of other questions tracking information to provide sector intelligence.  These questions will cover such issues as trust and confidence in charities and public bodies in Scotland, wills and legacies, tax effective giving, charity shops, payroll giving, house to house collections, community involvement and social capital, volunteering information, and the like.

We absolutely welcome suggestions from subscribers and potential subscribers.

Reporting

To participating charities nfpSynergy report the results in the form of a PowerPoint presentation per wave and a regular seminar.  Data tables are also available.  Bespoke questions can be regularly reviewed and the results analysed.

Cost-effective research

The objective of the monitor is to provide charities operating in Scotland with market research at greatly reduced cost.  The method is to gather together interested organisations into a syndicate to share the research cost overhead and to share findings.

A questionnaire is agreed and asked of a representative cross-section of the Scottish general public (circa 1,000).  By pooling research budgets, participant charities are able to get a more frequent and more detailed insight than most charity research budgets could ordinarily afford.

Who are the respondents and what polling methodology would we use?

Research takes place amongst a representative sample of 1,000 people between the ages of 18 and 65 throughout Scotland.  The sample is weighted in accordance with the age, gender, geographical and social grading profile of the general Scottish population.

Every year there are two research waves.  Each includes a regular wave of quantitative research questions, the aim of which is to provide a set of responses to be compared wave on wave.  These questions remain identical over time (or as close to identical as possible) in order that trends in awareness and attitudes become visible to syndicate members.

In addition each wave also features a set of more detailed bespoke questions supplied or suggested by syndicate members with the aim of providing a chance to gauge reaction to and/or awareness of various campaigns, services and publicity of charities that naturally vary in relevance and/or prevalence over different periods of time.

What do participating members of the syndicate receive?

All members of the syndicate receive the following:

• A full set of data tables from the tracking research wave for the relevant sections.
• A PowerPoint presentation of the results of the tracking wave for the relevant sections.
• The opportunity to suggest bespoke questions.
• The opportunity to attend a seminar debriefing in Scotland analysing the research waves and our interpretation of them.
• As appropriate, information about third party research on the lives and lifestyles of Scottish people.

The benefits of this approach to research

1. We believe that by creating a syndicate to do this kind of research we can bring costs down and deliver more detailed research compared to any organisation acting on this own on its own for the same budget.
2. Our existing monitor clients find the comparative aspects of the syndicated approach extremely valuable. For example, any subscriber to this monitor will be able to compare their prompted awareness results with at least 10 other organisations.
3. We try and make as much of the research as possible to all subscribers. So all subscribers will get all the awareness results and all the regular questions (in other words a charity can’t opt to make the results of its prompted awareness private, while seeing the results for all other charities). The only exception to this is the individual questions that charities are entitled to as part of the monitor – these can be made private if desired.

Costs

The cost for a subscription to two waves of research is £3,000 plus VAT (or £2,000 plus VAT for a single wave).  This relies on using a research sample from an internet panel of 350,000 across the UK run by a third party research agency.  We would like to reassure potential syndicate members that it is both perfectly possible and now standard research practice to gain a representative sample of a national population online.

Should potential syndicate members prefer to use a different methodology the subject is open for discussion and well within our powers and experience.  We are concerned however to keep research costs for our clients as low as possible. Our rough estimate is that telephone research would double the subscription costs (and restrict some of the questions we can ask) and face to face would double them again (ie £12,000 plus VAT for the two waves).

Next steps

We already have some interesting results from the first SCEM survey conducted in March 2007, which you can see in our press release.

On request we can supply:

• A set of sample results from SCEM.
• A sample questionnaire and other information relating to the research.

Please email Chris Greenwood if you are interested in SCEM or have any questions you'd like us to answer.

T: 020 7415 7161
E: chris.greenwood@nfpsynergy.net