Strategic Professional Development. The nonprofit survey asked which skills listed in 6 core job areas – if improved – could help you the most.
2021 Nonprofit Survey Results from Nonprofit Professionals
This important nonprofit survey on nonprofit skills is about your use of techniques to help you manage your job more efficiently–and get more done.
Nonprofit Survey: Nonprofit Skills the Pros Want to Improve
Do you agree or disagree with the results? We value your comments.
Who Participated: Executive Directors, Directors of Development, Board Members, Grant Writers, Communications Directors and Program/Project Managers (among others) responded to the nonprofit survey. Their nonprofits worked in a number of different areas including:
- 42%. Education
- 29%. Human and social services
- 25%. Health services/healthcare reform
- 25%. Youth programs
- 21%. Environmental sustainability
- 21%. Grant giving foundation
- 17%. Housing/homelessness
- 17%. Community development
- 12%. Arts & Culture
- 12%. International development
- 12%. Poverty and social justice
- 8%. Economic opportunity
- 8%. Sustainable food and agriculture
Nonprofit Survey Results about Nonprofit Skills: The greatest percentage of respondents felt they needed the most help the following areas:
1. Marketing and Communications. I need help with:
- 70%. Increasing active engagement with our donors and supporters.
- 56%. Collecting compelling stories from our programs to share with donors.
- 48%. Effectively orchestrating social media.
- 44%. Using tools, techniques and editable templates to speed up the writing process.
- 44%. Clearly articulating what our organization does in a sound bite.
- 39%. Identifying foundations for funding our programs.
- 35%. Writing regular, effective donor email newsletters.
- 26%. Identifying specifically what potential supporters are looking for, where they look for it, and how they ask for it.
- 22%. Writing an achievable communications calendar.
- 17%. Clearly identifying who your target supporters are.
Nonprofit survey respondents can receive the help they are looking for here:
2. Online Donations and Fundraising. I need help with:
- 55%. Optimizing our site so that potential donors find us first (SEO).
- 50%. Determining the best things to ask donors for that will lead to a commitment.
- 50%. Building our mailing list by getting website visitors to subscribe to our newsletter.
- 40%. Learning effective online fundraising techniques.
- 40%. Developing website landing pages that quickly call donors to action.
Nonprofit survey respondents can receive the help they are looking for here:
3. Grant Development. I want to be better prepared for contacting donors by:
- 50%. Being able to better identify potential donors for funding the project.
- 45%. Learning how to better design monitoring and evaluation plans.
- 40%. Learning how to better develop a program/project that is attractive to donors.
- 40%. Learning how to better design a program/project that is manageable.
- 35%. Conducting a needs assessment to determine specific, verifiable community need.
- 35%. Identifying activities proven to solve community need.
- 35%. Learning how to better write budgets, action plans and schedules.
Nonprofit survey respondents can receive the help they are looking for here:
4. Program/Project Management. I would like to learn more about:
- 53%. Project reporting.
- 47%. Project monitoring and evaluation.
- 42%. Finding, managing and keeping volunteers.
- 37%. Running projects using the tools written during grant development.
- 26%. Launching projects.
Nonprofit survey respondents can receive the help they are looking for here:
5. Internet & Technology needs at your nonprofit. We need to be:
- 43%. Modernizing our website to be mobile friendly for visitors with tablets and smart phones.
- 43%. Developing an effective email newsletter program.
- 43%. Learning effective ways to convert website visitors into new subscribers.
- 43%. Modernizing our website to be more engaging for visitors and quickly call them to action.
- 33%. Learning how to manage and regularly update our website.
- 10%. Learning how to send newsletters through our newsletter service provider.
Nonprofit survey respondents can receive the help they are looking for here:
Nonprofit survey respondents can receive the help they are looking for here:
Professional Development Conclusions. Based upon reviewing the nonprofit skills options listed in the nonprofit survey, respondents then analyzed their professional development needs for the balance of 2017.
Are you considering participating in a training program this year?
- 71%. Yes
- 29%. No
If I could participate in a training program I would like to focus on:
- 54%. Social media development and management.
- 50%. Marketing and communications.
- 33%. Grant development.
- 29%. Online donations and fundraising.
- 25%. Project management.
- 17%. Newsletter and mailing list development.
- 8%. Website development and management.
| MORE INFORMATION: Do you like the ideas discussed in the nonprofit survey? Then subscribe to our informative and educational newsletter and receive articles that provide cutting-edge information, time-saving templates and lead you in developing fundable, impact oriented projects. |  |
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The Beginner’s Guide to Online Donations. CSDi is offering a complimentary nonprofit book on online fundraising.
Boost your donations in 10 weeks:  |
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Each of the 10 chapters include 3 step-by-step guides that lead you in setting up a modern website, launching a donor newsletter program and accepting online donations. See what the 30 guides include.
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If You Haven’t Done So Already, Take the Survey Now! We will continue to fine tune the results.
We look forward to your insights and comments!
Sincerely,
Tim Magee
