Blog

How to Create a Volunteer Satisfaction Survey That’ll Improve Your Nonprofit Programs

Blog

How to Create a Volunteer Satisfaction Survey That’ll Improve Your Nonprofit Programs

Blog

How to Create a Volunteer Satisfaction Survey That’ll Improve Your Nonprofit Programs

Blog

How to Create a Volunteer Satisfaction Survey That’ll Improve Your Nonprofit Programs

Blog

How to Create a Volunteer Satisfaction Survey That’ll Improve Your Nonprofit Programs

Download PDFDownload PDF
Blog

How to Create a Volunteer Satisfaction Survey That’ll Improve Your Nonprofit Programs

/
November 22, 2017
Blog

How to Create a Volunteer Satisfaction Survey That’ll Improve Your Nonprofit Programs

MIN
/
November 22, 2017
About the Episode
Episode Highlights
Meet our Guest
Episode Transcript

At Formstack, we understand that giving involves a lot more than just dollars and cents. If you’re like other nonprofits we work with, volunteers are the lifeblood of your organization. But recruiting, scheduling, maintaining, and managing a steady pool of volunteers is no easy task. One especially valuable tool for inspiring people to support your cause is the volunteer satisfaction survey. Asking for feedback is one of the most potent—and underutilized—ways to enhance your volunteer program.

Why Use a Volunteer Satisfaction Survey?

Volunteer activities are just like any other event: You won’t know what people liked (or didn’t like) unless you ask them. When you have a list of people who just devoted their time to your cause, the experience is fresh in their minds, and they’re bound to have opinions about it. This is what makes the volunteer satisfaction survey such a powerful tool. By surveying volunteers shortly after their service, you can gain firsthand insights and then use that feedback to improve the experience and boost volunteer registration in the future. An effective volunteer survey checks these boxes:

  • Focuses on questions that will lead to easy-to-analyze answers
  • Is distributed within 24 hours of the event’s conclusion
  • Requires no more than a few minutes for volunteers to complete
  • May include a small incentive to help boost the response rate

How to Survey Volunteers

When formulating your questions, keep the following tips in mind:

1. Shorter is usually better. Brief surveys tend to have higher response rates than lengthy ones. And since your volunteers have already donated their time, it’s important to keep your follow-up requests minimal. A good rule of thumb is to keep your surveys to 12 or fewer questions, with a focus on volunteer survey questions that will get the feedback you really need. If you feel that extending a particular survey beyond 12 questions is absolutely necessary, consider using page breaks and progress bars to make it more manageable.

2. Make it easy to fill out. Avoid the temptation to include a lot of open-ended questions in your survey. Volunteers are often just as ready to relax as you are, so the faster they can respond, the more likely you are to get their feedback. Instead of Long and Short Answer fields, use Radio Button, Dropdown List, and Matrix fields wherever possible.

3. Make your survey “smart.” For example, if a particular volunteer event involved multiple locations or groups, use Conditional Logic to customize sets of questions based on where people worked, who they collaborated with, or what types of activities they were involved in. Conditional Logic is also a great way to request additional feedback, such as after someone selects “no” when asked if they’re likely to invite friends to future volunteer events. So…what kinds of volunteer survey questions should you ask? Based on our experiences with successful post-event surveys, here are a few essentials to get you started:

Matrix questions:

  • How would you rate your overall experience?
  • How satisfied did you feel after volunteering?
  • How likely are you to recommend future volunteer opportunities to your friends?
Nonprofit Volunteer Survey: Matrix Questions

Radio Button questions:

  • Where did you learn about our volunteer opportunities?
  • Did the experience meet your expectations?
  • Do you plan to volunteer with us again in the future?

(Note: For “no” and “maybe” answers, we recommend using Conditional Logic to find out why.)

Nonprofit Volunteer Survey: Radio Button

Short and Long Answer questions:

  • What could have been better?
  • Is there anything else you’d like for us to know about your volunteer experience?
Nonprofit Volunteer Survey: Long Answer Question

We know from past research that surveys tend to have higher-than-average form conversion rates, which makes them an excellent tool for collecting feedback you can use to guide future volunteer efforts. Regularly gathering feedback from volunteers makes it much easier to design effective programs and boost registrations.

The volunteer satisfaction survey is one of the numerous online forms that can be used to boost registrations, increase signups, and more. Click the link below to see what else you can do with mobile forms.

Blog

How to Create a Volunteer Satisfaction Survey That’ll Improve Your Nonprofit Programs

Blog

How to Create a Volunteer Satisfaction Survey That’ll Improve Your Nonprofit Programs

Get the Report

Not a valid e-mail address

Great, thank ya!

You can now access the content.
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.
Blog

How to Create a Volunteer Satisfaction Survey That’ll Improve Your Nonprofit Programs

Panelists
No items found.
Introduction
Introduction

Great, thank ya!

You can now access the content.
Download NowDownload Now
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.

At Formstack, we understand that giving involves a lot more than just dollars and cents. If you’re like other nonprofits we work with, volunteers are the lifeblood of your organization. But recruiting, scheduling, maintaining, and managing a steady pool of volunteers is no easy task. One especially valuable tool for inspiring people to support your cause is the volunteer satisfaction survey. Asking for feedback is one of the most potent—and underutilized—ways to enhance your volunteer program.

Why Use a Volunteer Satisfaction Survey?

Volunteer activities are just like any other event: You won’t know what people liked (or didn’t like) unless you ask them. When you have a list of people who just devoted their time to your cause, the experience is fresh in their minds, and they’re bound to have opinions about it. This is what makes the volunteer satisfaction survey such a powerful tool. By surveying volunteers shortly after their service, you can gain firsthand insights and then use that feedback to improve the experience and boost volunteer registration in the future. An effective volunteer survey checks these boxes:

  • Focuses on questions that will lead to easy-to-analyze answers
  • Is distributed within 24 hours of the event’s conclusion
  • Requires no more than a few minutes for volunteers to complete
  • May include a small incentive to help boost the response rate

How to Survey Volunteers

When formulating your questions, keep the following tips in mind:

1. Shorter is usually better. Brief surveys tend to have higher response rates than lengthy ones. And since your volunteers have already donated their time, it’s important to keep your follow-up requests minimal. A good rule of thumb is to keep your surveys to 12 or fewer questions, with a focus on volunteer survey questions that will get the feedback you really need. If you feel that extending a particular survey beyond 12 questions is absolutely necessary, consider using page breaks and progress bars to make it more manageable.

2. Make it easy to fill out. Avoid the temptation to include a lot of open-ended questions in your survey. Volunteers are often just as ready to relax as you are, so the faster they can respond, the more likely you are to get their feedback. Instead of Long and Short Answer fields, use Radio Button, Dropdown List, and Matrix fields wherever possible.

3. Make your survey “smart.” For example, if a particular volunteer event involved multiple locations or groups, use Conditional Logic to customize sets of questions based on where people worked, who they collaborated with, or what types of activities they were involved in. Conditional Logic is also a great way to request additional feedback, such as after someone selects “no” when asked if they’re likely to invite friends to future volunteer events. So…what kinds of volunteer survey questions should you ask? Based on our experiences with successful post-event surveys, here are a few essentials to get you started:

Matrix questions:

  • How would you rate your overall experience?
  • How satisfied did you feel after volunteering?
  • How likely are you to recommend future volunteer opportunities to your friends?
Nonprofit Volunteer Survey: Matrix Questions

Radio Button questions:

  • Where did you learn about our volunteer opportunities?
  • Did the experience meet your expectations?
  • Do you plan to volunteer with us again in the future?

(Note: For “no” and “maybe” answers, we recommend using Conditional Logic to find out why.)

Nonprofit Volunteer Survey: Radio Button

Short and Long Answer questions:

  • What could have been better?
  • Is there anything else you’d like for us to know about your volunteer experience?
Nonprofit Volunteer Survey: Long Answer Question

We know from past research that surveys tend to have higher-than-average form conversion rates, which makes them an excellent tool for collecting feedback you can use to guide future volunteer efforts. Regularly gathering feedback from volunteers makes it much easier to design effective programs and boost registrations.

The volunteer satisfaction survey is one of the numerous online forms that can be used to boost registrations, increase signups, and more. Click the link below to see what else you can do with mobile forms.

Panelists
No items found.
Infographic

How to Create a Volunteer Satisfaction Survey That’ll Improve Your Nonprofit Programs

Learn why you should use a volunteer survey, what volunteer survey questions to ask & more. Improve your volunteer program with a volunteer satisfaction survey.
Download InfographicDownload Infographic

At Formstack, we understand that giving involves a lot more than just dollars and cents. If you’re like other nonprofits we work with, volunteers are the lifeblood of your organization. But recruiting, scheduling, maintaining, and managing a steady pool of volunteers is no easy task. One especially valuable tool for inspiring people to support your cause is the volunteer satisfaction survey. Asking for feedback is one of the most potent—and underutilized—ways to enhance your volunteer program.

Why Use a Volunteer Satisfaction Survey?

Volunteer activities are just like any other event: You won’t know what people liked (or didn’t like) unless you ask them. When you have a list of people who just devoted their time to your cause, the experience is fresh in their minds, and they’re bound to have opinions about it. This is what makes the volunteer satisfaction survey such a powerful tool. By surveying volunteers shortly after their service, you can gain firsthand insights and then use that feedback to improve the experience and boost volunteer registration in the future. An effective volunteer survey checks these boxes:

  • Focuses on questions that will lead to easy-to-analyze answers
  • Is distributed within 24 hours of the event’s conclusion
  • Requires no more than a few minutes for volunteers to complete
  • May include a small incentive to help boost the response rate

How to Survey Volunteers

When formulating your questions, keep the following tips in mind:

1. Shorter is usually better. Brief surveys tend to have higher response rates than lengthy ones. And since your volunteers have already donated their time, it’s important to keep your follow-up requests minimal. A good rule of thumb is to keep your surveys to 12 or fewer questions, with a focus on volunteer survey questions that will get the feedback you really need. If you feel that extending a particular survey beyond 12 questions is absolutely necessary, consider using page breaks and progress bars to make it more manageable.

2. Make it easy to fill out. Avoid the temptation to include a lot of open-ended questions in your survey. Volunteers are often just as ready to relax as you are, so the faster they can respond, the more likely you are to get their feedback. Instead of Long and Short Answer fields, use Radio Button, Dropdown List, and Matrix fields wherever possible.

3. Make your survey “smart.” For example, if a particular volunteer event involved multiple locations or groups, use Conditional Logic to customize sets of questions based on where people worked, who they collaborated with, or what types of activities they were involved in. Conditional Logic is also a great way to request additional feedback, such as after someone selects “no” when asked if they’re likely to invite friends to future volunteer events. So…what kinds of volunteer survey questions should you ask? Based on our experiences with successful post-event surveys, here are a few essentials to get you started:

Matrix questions:

  • How would you rate your overall experience?
  • How satisfied did you feel after volunteering?
  • How likely are you to recommend future volunteer opportunities to your friends?
Nonprofit Volunteer Survey: Matrix Questions

Radio Button questions:

  • Where did you learn about our volunteer opportunities?
  • Did the experience meet your expectations?
  • Do you plan to volunteer with us again in the future?

(Note: For “no” and “maybe” answers, we recommend using Conditional Logic to find out why.)

Nonprofit Volunteer Survey: Radio Button

Short and Long Answer questions:

  • What could have been better?
  • Is there anything else you’d like for us to know about your volunteer experience?
Nonprofit Volunteer Survey: Long Answer Question

We know from past research that surveys tend to have higher-than-average form conversion rates, which makes them an excellent tool for collecting feedback you can use to guide future volunteer efforts. Regularly gathering feedback from volunteers makes it much easier to design effective programs and boost registrations.

The volunteer satisfaction survey is one of the numerous online forms that can be used to boost registrations, increase signups, and more. Click the link below to see what else you can do with mobile forms.

At Formstack, we understand that giving involves a lot more than just dollars and cents. If you’re like other nonprofits we work with, volunteers are the lifeblood of your organization. But recruiting, scheduling, maintaining, and managing a steady pool of volunteers is no easy task. One especially valuable tool for inspiring people to support your cause is the volunteer satisfaction survey. Asking for feedback is one of the most potent—and underutilized—ways to enhance your volunteer program.

Why Use a Volunteer Satisfaction Survey?

Volunteer activities are just like any other event: You won’t know what people liked (or didn’t like) unless you ask them. When you have a list of people who just devoted their time to your cause, the experience is fresh in their minds, and they’re bound to have opinions about it. This is what makes the volunteer satisfaction survey such a powerful tool. By surveying volunteers shortly after their service, you can gain firsthand insights and then use that feedback to improve the experience and boost volunteer registration in the future. An effective volunteer survey checks these boxes:

  • Focuses on questions that will lead to easy-to-analyze answers
  • Is distributed within 24 hours of the event’s conclusion
  • Requires no more than a few minutes for volunteers to complete
  • May include a small incentive to help boost the response rate

How to Survey Volunteers

When formulating your questions, keep the following tips in mind:

1. Shorter is usually better. Brief surveys tend to have higher response rates than lengthy ones. And since your volunteers have already donated their time, it’s important to keep your follow-up requests minimal. A good rule of thumb is to keep your surveys to 12 or fewer questions, with a focus on volunteer survey questions that will get the feedback you really need. If you feel that extending a particular survey beyond 12 questions is absolutely necessary, consider using page breaks and progress bars to make it more manageable.

2. Make it easy to fill out. Avoid the temptation to include a lot of open-ended questions in your survey. Volunteers are often just as ready to relax as you are, so the faster they can respond, the more likely you are to get their feedback. Instead of Long and Short Answer fields, use Radio Button, Dropdown List, and Matrix fields wherever possible.

3. Make your survey “smart.” For example, if a particular volunteer event involved multiple locations or groups, use Conditional Logic to customize sets of questions based on where people worked, who they collaborated with, or what types of activities they were involved in. Conditional Logic is also a great way to request additional feedback, such as after someone selects “no” when asked if they’re likely to invite friends to future volunteer events. So…what kinds of volunteer survey questions should you ask? Based on our experiences with successful post-event surveys, here are a few essentials to get you started:

Matrix questions:

  • How would you rate your overall experience?
  • How satisfied did you feel after volunteering?
  • How likely are you to recommend future volunteer opportunities to your friends?
Nonprofit Volunteer Survey: Matrix Questions

Radio Button questions:

  • Where did you learn about our volunteer opportunities?
  • Did the experience meet your expectations?
  • Do you plan to volunteer with us again in the future?

(Note: For “no” and “maybe” answers, we recommend using Conditional Logic to find out why.)

Nonprofit Volunteer Survey: Radio Button

Short and Long Answer questions:

  • What could have been better?
  • Is there anything else you’d like for us to know about your volunteer experience?
Nonprofit Volunteer Survey: Long Answer Question

We know from past research that surveys tend to have higher-than-average form conversion rates, which makes them an excellent tool for collecting feedback you can use to guide future volunteer efforts. Regularly gathering feedback from volunteers makes it much easier to design effective programs and boost registrations.

The volunteer satisfaction survey is one of the numerous online forms that can be used to boost registrations, increase signups, and more. Click the link below to see what else you can do with mobile forms.

Collecting payments with online forms is easy, but first, you have to choose the right payment gateway. Browse the providers in our gateway credit card processing comparison chart to find the best option for your business. Then sign up for Formstack Forms, customize your payment forms, and start collecting profits in minutes.

Online Payment Gateway Comparison Chart

NOTE: These amounts reflect the monthly subscription for the payment provider. Formstack does not charge a fee to integrate with any of our payment partners.

FEATURES
Authorize.Net
Bambora
Chargify
First Data
PayPal
PayPal Pro
PayPal Payflow
Stripe
WePay
Monthly Fees
$25
$25
$149+
Contact First Data
$0
$25
$0-$25
$0
$0
Transaction Fees
$2.9% + 30¢
$2.9% + 30¢
N/A
Contact First Data
$2.9% + 30¢
$2.9% + 30¢
10¢
$2.9% + 30¢
$2.9% + 30¢
Countries
5
8
Based on payment gateway
50+
203
3
4
25
USA
Currencies
11
2
23
140
25
23
25
135+
1
Card Types
6
13
Based on payment gateway
5
9
9
5
6
4
Limits
None
None
Based on payment gateway
None
$10,000
None
None
None
None
Form Payments
Recurring Billing
Mobile Payments
PSD2 Compliant

At Formstack, we understand that giving involves a lot more than just dollars and cents. If you’re like other nonprofits we work with, volunteers are the lifeblood of your organization. But recruiting, scheduling, maintaining, and managing a steady pool of volunteers is no easy task. One especially valuable tool for inspiring people to support your cause is the volunteer satisfaction survey. Asking for feedback is one of the most potent—and underutilized—ways to enhance your volunteer program.

Why Use a Volunteer Satisfaction Survey?

Volunteer activities are just like any other event: You won’t know what people liked (or didn’t like) unless you ask them. When you have a list of people who just devoted their time to your cause, the experience is fresh in their minds, and they’re bound to have opinions about it. This is what makes the volunteer satisfaction survey such a powerful tool. By surveying volunteers shortly after their service, you can gain firsthand insights and then use that feedback to improve the experience and boost volunteer registration in the future. An effective volunteer survey checks these boxes:

  • Focuses on questions that will lead to easy-to-analyze answers
  • Is distributed within 24 hours of the event’s conclusion
  • Requires no more than a few minutes for volunteers to complete
  • May include a small incentive to help boost the response rate

How to Survey Volunteers

When formulating your questions, keep the following tips in mind:

1. Shorter is usually better. Brief surveys tend to have higher response rates than lengthy ones. And since your volunteers have already donated their time, it’s important to keep your follow-up requests minimal. A good rule of thumb is to keep your surveys to 12 or fewer questions, with a focus on volunteer survey questions that will get the feedback you really need. If you feel that extending a particular survey beyond 12 questions is absolutely necessary, consider using page breaks and progress bars to make it more manageable.

2. Make it easy to fill out. Avoid the temptation to include a lot of open-ended questions in your survey. Volunteers are often just as ready to relax as you are, so the faster they can respond, the more likely you are to get their feedback. Instead of Long and Short Answer fields, use Radio Button, Dropdown List, and Matrix fields wherever possible.

3. Make your survey “smart.” For example, if a particular volunteer event involved multiple locations or groups, use Conditional Logic to customize sets of questions based on where people worked, who they collaborated with, or what types of activities they were involved in. Conditional Logic is also a great way to request additional feedback, such as after someone selects “no” when asked if they’re likely to invite friends to future volunteer events. So…what kinds of volunteer survey questions should you ask? Based on our experiences with successful post-event surveys, here are a few essentials to get you started:

Matrix questions:

  • How would you rate your overall experience?
  • How satisfied did you feel after volunteering?
  • How likely are you to recommend future volunteer opportunities to your friends?
Nonprofit Volunteer Survey: Matrix Questions

Radio Button questions:

  • Where did you learn about our volunteer opportunities?
  • Did the experience meet your expectations?
  • Do you plan to volunteer with us again in the future?

(Note: For “no” and “maybe” answers, we recommend using Conditional Logic to find out why.)

Nonprofit Volunteer Survey: Radio Button

Short and Long Answer questions:

  • What could have been better?
  • Is there anything else you’d like for us to know about your volunteer experience?
Nonprofit Volunteer Survey: Long Answer Question

We know from past research that surveys tend to have higher-than-average form conversion rates, which makes them an excellent tool for collecting feedback you can use to guide future volunteer efforts. Regularly gathering feedback from volunteers makes it much easier to design effective programs and boost registrations.

The volunteer satisfaction survey is one of the numerous online forms that can be used to boost registrations, increase signups, and more. Click the link below to see what else you can do with mobile forms.

At Formstack, we understand that giving involves a lot more than just dollars and cents. If you’re like other nonprofits we work with, volunteers are the lifeblood of your organization. But recruiting, scheduling, maintaining, and managing a steady pool of volunteers is no easy task. One especially valuable tool for inspiring people to support your cause is the volunteer satisfaction survey. Asking for feedback is one of the most potent—and underutilized—ways to enhance your volunteer program.

Why Use a Volunteer Satisfaction Survey?

Volunteer activities are just like any other event: You won’t know what people liked (or didn’t like) unless you ask them. When you have a list of people who just devoted their time to your cause, the experience is fresh in their minds, and they’re bound to have opinions about it. This is what makes the volunteer satisfaction survey such a powerful tool. By surveying volunteers shortly after their service, you can gain firsthand insights and then use that feedback to improve the experience and boost volunteer registration in the future. An effective volunteer survey checks these boxes:

  • Focuses on questions that will lead to easy-to-analyze answers
  • Is distributed within 24 hours of the event’s conclusion
  • Requires no more than a few minutes for volunteers to complete
  • May include a small incentive to help boost the response rate

How to Survey Volunteers

When formulating your questions, keep the following tips in mind:

1. Shorter is usually better. Brief surveys tend to have higher response rates than lengthy ones. And since your volunteers have already donated their time, it’s important to keep your follow-up requests minimal. A good rule of thumb is to keep your surveys to 12 or fewer questions, with a focus on volunteer survey questions that will get the feedback you really need. If you feel that extending a particular survey beyond 12 questions is absolutely necessary, consider using page breaks and progress bars to make it more manageable.

2. Make it easy to fill out. Avoid the temptation to include a lot of open-ended questions in your survey. Volunteers are often just as ready to relax as you are, so the faster they can respond, the more likely you are to get their feedback. Instead of Long and Short Answer fields, use Radio Button, Dropdown List, and Matrix fields wherever possible.

3. Make your survey “smart.” For example, if a particular volunteer event involved multiple locations or groups, use Conditional Logic to customize sets of questions based on where people worked, who they collaborated with, or what types of activities they were involved in. Conditional Logic is also a great way to request additional feedback, such as after someone selects “no” when asked if they’re likely to invite friends to future volunteer events. So…what kinds of volunteer survey questions should you ask? Based on our experiences with successful post-event surveys, here are a few essentials to get you started:

Matrix questions:

  • How would you rate your overall experience?
  • How satisfied did you feel after volunteering?
  • How likely are you to recommend future volunteer opportunities to your friends?
Nonprofit Volunteer Survey: Matrix Questions

Radio Button questions:

  • Where did you learn about our volunteer opportunities?
  • Did the experience meet your expectations?
  • Do you plan to volunteer with us again in the future?

(Note: For “no” and “maybe” answers, we recommend using Conditional Logic to find out why.)

Nonprofit Volunteer Survey: Radio Button

Short and Long Answer questions:

  • What could have been better?
  • Is there anything else you’d like for us to know about your volunteer experience?
Nonprofit Volunteer Survey: Long Answer Question

We know from past research that surveys tend to have higher-than-average form conversion rates, which makes them an excellent tool for collecting feedback you can use to guide future volunteer efforts. Regularly gathering feedback from volunteers makes it much easier to design effective programs and boost registrations.

The volunteer satisfaction survey is one of the numerous online forms that can be used to boost registrations, increase signups, and more. Click the link below to see what else you can do with mobile forms.

At Formstack, we understand that giving involves a lot more than just dollars and cents. If you’re like other nonprofits we work with, volunteers are the lifeblood of your organization. But recruiting, scheduling, maintaining, and managing a steady pool of volunteers is no easy task. One especially valuable tool for inspiring people to support your cause is the volunteer satisfaction survey. Asking for feedback is one of the most potent—and underutilized—ways to enhance your volunteer program.

Why Use a Volunteer Satisfaction Survey?

Volunteer activities are just like any other event: You won’t know what people liked (or didn’t like) unless you ask them. When you have a list of people who just devoted their time to your cause, the experience is fresh in their minds, and they’re bound to have opinions about it. This is what makes the volunteer satisfaction survey such a powerful tool. By surveying volunteers shortly after their service, you can gain firsthand insights and then use that feedback to improve the experience and boost volunteer registration in the future. An effective volunteer survey checks these boxes:

  • Focuses on questions that will lead to easy-to-analyze answers
  • Is distributed within 24 hours of the event’s conclusion
  • Requires no more than a few minutes for volunteers to complete
  • May include a small incentive to help boost the response rate

How to Survey Volunteers

When formulating your questions, keep the following tips in mind:

1. Shorter is usually better. Brief surveys tend to have higher response rates than lengthy ones. And since your volunteers have already donated their time, it’s important to keep your follow-up requests minimal. A good rule of thumb is to keep your surveys to 12 or fewer questions, with a focus on volunteer survey questions that will get the feedback you really need. If you feel that extending a particular survey beyond 12 questions is absolutely necessary, consider using page breaks and progress bars to make it more manageable.

2. Make it easy to fill out. Avoid the temptation to include a lot of open-ended questions in your survey. Volunteers are often just as ready to relax as you are, so the faster they can respond, the more likely you are to get their feedback. Instead of Long and Short Answer fields, use Radio Button, Dropdown List, and Matrix fields wherever possible.

3. Make your survey “smart.” For example, if a particular volunteer event involved multiple locations or groups, use Conditional Logic to customize sets of questions based on where people worked, who they collaborated with, or what types of activities they were involved in. Conditional Logic is also a great way to request additional feedback, such as after someone selects “no” when asked if they’re likely to invite friends to future volunteer events. So…what kinds of volunteer survey questions should you ask? Based on our experiences with successful post-event surveys, here are a few essentials to get you started:

Matrix questions:

  • How would you rate your overall experience?
  • How satisfied did you feel after volunteering?
  • How likely are you to recommend future volunteer opportunities to your friends?
Nonprofit Volunteer Survey: Matrix Questions

Radio Button questions:

  • Where did you learn about our volunteer opportunities?
  • Did the experience meet your expectations?
  • Do you plan to volunteer with us again in the future?

(Note: For “no” and “maybe” answers, we recommend using Conditional Logic to find out why.)

Nonprofit Volunteer Survey: Radio Button

Short and Long Answer questions:

  • What could have been better?
  • Is there anything else you’d like for us to know about your volunteer experience?
Nonprofit Volunteer Survey: Long Answer Question

We know from past research that surveys tend to have higher-than-average form conversion rates, which makes them an excellent tool for collecting feedback you can use to guide future volunteer efforts. Regularly gathering feedback from volunteers makes it much easier to design effective programs and boost registrations.

The volunteer satisfaction survey is one of the numerous online forms that can be used to boost registrations, increase signups, and more. Click the link below to see what else you can do with mobile forms.

At Formstack, we understand that giving involves a lot more than just dollars and cents. If you’re like other nonprofits we work with, volunteers are the lifeblood of your organization. But recruiting, scheduling, maintaining, and managing a steady pool of volunteers is no easy task. One especially valuable tool for inspiring people to support your cause is the volunteer satisfaction survey. Asking for feedback is one of the most potent—and underutilized—ways to enhance your volunteer program.

Why Use a Volunteer Satisfaction Survey?

Volunteer activities are just like any other event: You won’t know what people liked (or didn’t like) unless you ask them. When you have a list of people who just devoted their time to your cause, the experience is fresh in their minds, and they’re bound to have opinions about it. This is what makes the volunteer satisfaction survey such a powerful tool. By surveying volunteers shortly after their service, you can gain firsthand insights and then use that feedback to improve the experience and boost volunteer registration in the future. An effective volunteer survey checks these boxes:

  • Focuses on questions that will lead to easy-to-analyze answers
  • Is distributed within 24 hours of the event’s conclusion
  • Requires no more than a few minutes for volunteers to complete
  • May include a small incentive to help boost the response rate

How to Survey Volunteers

When formulating your questions, keep the following tips in mind:

1. Shorter is usually better. Brief surveys tend to have higher response rates than lengthy ones. And since your volunteers have already donated their time, it’s important to keep your follow-up requests minimal. A good rule of thumb is to keep your surveys to 12 or fewer questions, with a focus on volunteer survey questions that will get the feedback you really need. If you feel that extending a particular survey beyond 12 questions is absolutely necessary, consider using page breaks and progress bars to make it more manageable.

2. Make it easy to fill out. Avoid the temptation to include a lot of open-ended questions in your survey. Volunteers are often just as ready to relax as you are, so the faster they can respond, the more likely you are to get their feedback. Instead of Long and Short Answer fields, use Radio Button, Dropdown List, and Matrix fields wherever possible.

3. Make your survey “smart.” For example, if a particular volunteer event involved multiple locations or groups, use Conditional Logic to customize sets of questions based on where people worked, who they collaborated with, or what types of activities they were involved in. Conditional Logic is also a great way to request additional feedback, such as after someone selects “no” when asked if they’re likely to invite friends to future volunteer events. So…what kinds of volunteer survey questions should you ask? Based on our experiences with successful post-event surveys, here are a few essentials to get you started:

Matrix questions:

  • How would you rate your overall experience?
  • How satisfied did you feel after volunteering?
  • How likely are you to recommend future volunteer opportunities to your friends?
Nonprofit Volunteer Survey: Matrix Questions

Radio Button questions:

  • Where did you learn about our volunteer opportunities?
  • Did the experience meet your expectations?
  • Do you plan to volunteer with us again in the future?

(Note: For “no” and “maybe” answers, we recommend using Conditional Logic to find out why.)

Nonprofit Volunteer Survey: Radio Button

Short and Long Answer questions:

  • What could have been better?
  • Is there anything else you’d like for us to know about your volunteer experience?
Nonprofit Volunteer Survey: Long Answer Question

We know from past research that surveys tend to have higher-than-average form conversion rates, which makes them an excellent tool for collecting feedback you can use to guide future volunteer efforts. Regularly gathering feedback from volunteers makes it much easier to design effective programs and boost registrations.

The volunteer satisfaction survey is one of the numerous online forms that can be used to boost registrations, increase signups, and more. Click the link below to see what else you can do with mobile forms.

At Formstack, we understand that giving involves a lot more than just dollars and cents. If you’re like other nonprofits we work with, volunteers are the lifeblood of your organization. But recruiting, scheduling, maintaining, and managing a steady pool of volunteers is no easy task. One especially valuable tool for inspiring people to support your cause is the volunteer satisfaction survey. Asking for feedback is one of the most potent—and underutilized—ways to enhance your volunteer program.

Why Use a Volunteer Satisfaction Survey?

Volunteer activities are just like any other event: You won’t know what people liked (or didn’t like) unless you ask them. When you have a list of people who just devoted their time to your cause, the experience is fresh in their minds, and they’re bound to have opinions about it. This is what makes the volunteer satisfaction survey such a powerful tool. By surveying volunteers shortly after their service, you can gain firsthand insights and then use that feedback to improve the experience and boost volunteer registration in the future. An effective volunteer survey checks these boxes:

  • Focuses on questions that will lead to easy-to-analyze answers
  • Is distributed within 24 hours of the event’s conclusion
  • Requires no more than a few minutes for volunteers to complete
  • May include a small incentive to help boost the response rate

How to Survey Volunteers

When formulating your questions, keep the following tips in mind:

1. Shorter is usually better. Brief surveys tend to have higher response rates than lengthy ones. And since your volunteers have already donated their time, it’s important to keep your follow-up requests minimal. A good rule of thumb is to keep your surveys to 12 or fewer questions, with a focus on volunteer survey questions that will get the feedback you really need. If you feel that extending a particular survey beyond 12 questions is absolutely necessary, consider using page breaks and progress bars to make it more manageable.

2. Make it easy to fill out. Avoid the temptation to include a lot of open-ended questions in your survey. Volunteers are often just as ready to relax as you are, so the faster they can respond, the more likely you are to get their feedback. Instead of Long and Short Answer fields, use Radio Button, Dropdown List, and Matrix fields wherever possible.

3. Make your survey “smart.” For example, if a particular volunteer event involved multiple locations or groups, use Conditional Logic to customize sets of questions based on where people worked, who they collaborated with, or what types of activities they were involved in. Conditional Logic is also a great way to request additional feedback, such as after someone selects “no” when asked if they’re likely to invite friends to future volunteer events. So…what kinds of volunteer survey questions should you ask? Based on our experiences with successful post-event surveys, here are a few essentials to get you started:

Matrix questions:

  • How would you rate your overall experience?
  • How satisfied did you feel after volunteering?
  • How likely are you to recommend future volunteer opportunities to your friends?
Nonprofit Volunteer Survey: Matrix Questions

Radio Button questions:

  • Where did you learn about our volunteer opportunities?
  • Did the experience meet your expectations?
  • Do you plan to volunteer with us again in the future?

(Note: For “no” and “maybe” answers, we recommend using Conditional Logic to find out why.)

Nonprofit Volunteer Survey: Radio Button

Short and Long Answer questions:

  • What could have been better?
  • Is there anything else you’d like for us to know about your volunteer experience?
Nonprofit Volunteer Survey: Long Answer Question

We know from past research that surveys tend to have higher-than-average form conversion rates, which makes them an excellent tool for collecting feedback you can use to guide future volunteer efforts. Regularly gathering feedback from volunteers makes it much easier to design effective programs and boost registrations.

The volunteer satisfaction survey is one of the numerous online forms that can be used to boost registrations, increase signups, and more. Click the link below to see what else you can do with mobile forms.

Meet The Host
Content Marketing Manager
Connect
Lindsay is a writer with a background in journalism and loves getting to flex her interview skills as host of Practically Genius. She manages Formstack's blog and long-form reports, like the 2022 State of Digital Maturity: Advancing Workflow Automation.