Serve up a survey
SurveyMonkey is the largest survey-producing tool on the internet. It uses a step-by-step method to create electronic surveys that users fill out—and send back—via email. This greatly reduces the time and labour costs associated with traditional survey methods.
Users have three options for membership: Basic, Monthly Pro, or Annual Pro. Basic is free, yet only allows up to 100 responses per survey, and each survey cannot exceed ten questions. Monthly Pro costs $19.95 per month, allows up to 1000 survey responses per month, and includes an unlimited amount of questions per survey. Annual Pro is $200 per year, allows unlimited responses per month, and unlimited amounts of questions.
If you only want to make a couple small surveys, then basic is a good choice; however, if you want to make many large-scale surveys—and you want to take advantage of SurveyMonkey’s templates—then you will have to select a paying membership.
Charities can use surveys to better understand donors’ concerns, determine the effectiveness of a campaign, or find out what supporters want to see in a charity’s blog, newsletter, and website. The only requirement is that you need the email addresses of those you wish to survey.
Here at CanadaHelps we use SurveyMonkey to better understand Canadian charities and donors. Recently, CanadaHelps created a survey to understand charities’ thoughts on using internet technology. This survey has helped us to better understand the needs of charities across Canada, which helped us in the developmental process of MyCharityConnects. We also created a post-event survey about MyCharityConnects Conference. We received some very constructive and positive feedback, which helps us to improve our services.
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All the hard work is done for you. All you have to do is create an account, construct questions, send an email that links to your survey, and wait for responses.
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Responses are automatically calculated: it categorizes survey answers, calculates averages, and provides statistical data. This saves you a significant amount of time.
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Membership is flexible. Users can try SurveyMonkey for free, and then upgrade to membership options that include unlimited questions, survey responses, etc.
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You don’t have to download software.
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The surveys are flexible. When creating a new survey, users can choose different styles, such as “Business” or “Non-profit” and different categories, such as “Fundraising.” Once a user selects a template, he or she can choose from a variety of question types.
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It’s secure and private. All information is confidential and inaccessible to outside users.
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SurveyMonkey does not allow advertising, and does not affiliate with third-parties.
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Go to the SurveyMonkey website.
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Click on the “Join Now for Free!” button on the right side of the screen.
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Fill in your information and select “Create a New Account.” A new window will open. This is your “My Surveys” page. The top left corner says you have a basic account. If you wish to upgrade to a paid account, click on the “Upgrade Now” link at the top of the screen.
Making a Survey
Click on the “Create Survey” link in the top navigation bar. If you have a paid account, you can choose either to create a new survey from scratch or create a new survey with a template. If you have a basic account, you will only be able to choose “Create a new survey from scratch.” Creating a new survey from scratch
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Make a title for your survey and then click “Create Survey.”
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In the “design survey” window, choose a theme and question types. Whenever you want to preview your survey, click “Preview Survey.”
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Click “Add Question.” You can add up to ten questions with the basic account. You will be prompted to choose a question type. If you don’t understand, click the green check mark and SurveyMonkey will show you examples of question styles.
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SurveyMonkey will prompt you to write a question in the “Question Text” box, and a method of answering. When you are satisfied, click “Save Changes” and you will return to the design menu. You can edit these questions anytime by clicking the “Edit Question” button.
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Once you are done entering your questions and are satisfied with your survey, click the “Collect Responses” tab, located in the top navigation bar. You will be given three choices for collecting responses. Depending on your preference, you can either create an internet link that you can ask your audience to type into their browser, upload a list of emails into SurveyMonkey and have it contact your targeted audience for you, or create a popup invitation on your charity’s web page.
Creating a new survey with a template
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In the “Create a New Survey Window,” select “Use a Survey Template” and select a category. In this case, select “Non-Profit.” Go to the right and select a survey template. Once you have selected a survey template, you can click on the “Preview” button to the right to see if it matches your criteria. Find the template you want, enter a title for the survey, and click “Create Survey.”
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SurveyMonkey will now generate a survey template. This template is a guideline; you can change the content anytime by clicking on the “Edit Question,” “Delete,” “Move,” or “Theme” buttons. Once you have made your survey and are satisfied with the look, click the “Collect Responses” tab on the top right of the screen and follow step 5 from “Creating a new survey from scratch” instructions on page 2.
- Click “My Surveys” on the top navigation bar. Look for the survey you wish to analyze and click the “Analyze” picture.
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A new window will open up, showing your survey responses. You can now browse, filter, download, or share these responses. To do this, click on the corresponding button in the left navigation bar.
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That’s it!
Learn More
To learn more about surveys, go to SurveyMonkey’s homepage and select an option from the “Learn More” menu, which is located in the left column. Here you can see how to make a survey with a video tutorial, understand the top 10 reasons why you should use SurveyMonkey, and learn other information, such as survey features and membership prices.
To learn more about surveys, go to SurveyMonkey’s homepage and select an option from the “Learn More” menu, which is located in the left column. Here you can see how to make a survey with a video tutorial, understand the top 10 reasons why you should use SurveyMonkey, and learn other information, such as survey features and membership prices.
