Dr. Paloma Raggo leads the Charity Insights Canada Project (CICP) / Projet Canada perspectives des organismes de bienfaisance (PCPOB). She spoke with PANL Perspectives about the process to select participating charities, Advisory Committee members and survey questions each week. The project launched Dec. 7, 2022, and its anonymous survey responses from charities will help to gain a deeper understanding of the trends, opportunities and challenges faced by the Canadian charitable sector. (This interview has been summarized for clarity.)
[Cette page est disponible en français.]
Q: How are you selecting the charities that will participate in the survey?
Raggo: Using a variety of parameters, we’re randomly selecting more than 1,000 charities, in both French and English, from across the country. We’ll have replacements for the charities that drop out, a list of similar charities that we can switch out. We’re overestimating during recruitment, knowing that we’re going to have attrition.
Q: What’s the process to choose questions for the survey that goes to 1,000 charities each week?
Raggo: We’re recruiting a 15-member Advisory Committee of people from the charitable sector at-large, such as people who work in registered charities, people who are either activists or prominent stakeholders, people from different backgrounds culturally and academically. Our goal doesn’t involve asking only questions that we find interesting, but also co-constructing questions with members of the community. Ideally, the Advisory Committee will meet every two months to prepare questions for subsequent months, so that we’re always prepared for the next cycle.
Q: What’s the timeline for collection and roll-out of surveys and data?
Raggo: Each week, on a Wednesday, we’ll send the survey out (with only a few questions per week). The next day, we’ll collect the results, and, on a Friday, we’ll publish the results on https://cicp-pcpob.carleton.ca. The weekly results will also be shared with participating charities via email on the Monday following the closing of each survey. Also, a pdf of the results will be downloaded by anyone. So, data from this rapid response panel will be made available in near real-time. An analysis of the data will likely happen monthly and quarterly.
Q: What sort of questions are you considering for the weekly survey?
Raggo: The following are drafts we need to present to the Advisory Committee; we put these together after brainstorming. For example:
- What would make the greatest difference in helping your organization get better at what it does?
- How prepared would you feel if a crisis like the Covid pandemic were to happen again today?
- Please tell us about the average salaries in your organization: entry, mid, management.
- How would you characterize your relationship with your main donor?
- What type of donation/funding would best help you to achieve your mission?
- What level of government do you collaborate and interact with the most and the least?
- What, if any steps, have you taken in your organization towards truth and reconciliation with Indigenous peoples?
For more information about CICP-PCPOB, visit this site for English details and this site for French. Results are available each week at https://cicp-pcpob.carleton.ca.
Monday, December 12, 2022 in CICP (English), CICP-PCPOB, For homepage, News & Events, PCPOB (French)
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