DONORS> Focus Groups

Date: Wed, 22 Jan 2003 23:14:44 -0000
From: Julian Smyth

"Focus Group" research has been an integral part of educational fundraising
for many years and virtually all reputable consultancies can undertake it
for you. The important thing is to differentiate between focus groups of
current donors and focus groups of Joe Public.

Focus groups of current, and (most often) major, donors are an integral part
of assessing the likely success of major capital and endowment projects and
should always be considered before making possibly embarrassing decisions in
regard to public launches and/or major fundraising expenditure.

Unfortunately, such research is not particularly cheap and the sort of
project you are considering (and for which you need the research) needs to
be of a suitable magnitude to justify the expenditure - in which case the
overall savings can be substantial in comparison to wrong decisions being
taken.

Julian Smyth
Principal Consultant, ASK Associates
Tel/Fax: 01494 447115
Mobile: 07798 826105
Email: [email]julian@ask.org.uk[/email]
Website: ASK Associates - Educational Fundraising Consultants

Date: Wed, 22 Jan 2003 07:16:42 EST
From: John Rodd

Focus groups done via research agencies are usually well done but expensive,
so much so that charities are prohibited from 'listening to their donors'.

But it is quite feasible for charities to do their own focus groups as long
as they follow certain rules and good practices (which can be taught).

John Rodd
Director Data, Research & Systems
Stephen Thomas
'Making data come alive!'
184 Front Street East, Suite 501
Toronto, Ontario M5A 4N3
Tel: 416 690 8801
Fax: 416 690 7256

Date: Wed, 22 Jan 2003 09:31:57 +0000
From: Sanchi Heesom

Yes there are specialist agencies who concentrate mainly on charities -
'Crossbow Research' and 'the Works' are probably the best known, but many of
the good commercial qualitative agencies will also have charity experience,
and they can sometimes add another dimension and be worth talking to. There
are lots of individual market researchers too, who often work out cheaper
than the larger agencies. I'm sure Fundraising UK website has a resource
guide on the subject and contact details. And the Market Research Institute
publishes a directory of research agencies and researchers, so that would be
another first port of call.

Broadly speaking, you will pay between £1700 - £2000 per group of 6 - 8
responders, and you really need at least 4, and preferably 6 groups at the
minimum to get a broad view and see if any themes are emerging that are
useful (and actionable). So to do it sensibly you are looking at an
investment of nearly £10,000, which is not cheap!. Some charities find it
difficult to recruit focus groups of donors (it's more often used for
general public) and go instead for face to face depth or telephone
interviews with donors.

But no, focus groups are not representative - say 4 groups of 8 people and
you are getting really tiny numbers. You shouldn't use their views to make
assumptions about everyone else. Focus groups are good to explore issues and
themes, but they won't give you robust or quantifiable information. So you
need to set your research objectives first, and then select the best method
to achieve them. And how useful focus groups are often depends on how clear
your objectives are in the first place.

A few charities I've worked with recently have done in house questionnaires
to their donor file, often accompanying a newsletter. This can yield good
results, more representative data (although the respondents will be self
selecting), and is clearly a much cheaper option to begin with. The
questionnaire has to be very carefully designed, though, and help from a
professional researcher or other expert can be really worthwhile.

This is actually a big subject but I hope this gives you a few pointers -
happy to help with more specific questions off list if that helps.

Sanchi Heesom
Senior Consultant
THINK consulting solutions

email:sanchi@thinkcs.org website: [url]www.thinkcs.org[/url]