A highly regarded community foundation in a county of fewer than one million residents wanted to survey the residents of that county in order to gauge their awareness of the foundation, their perceptions of life in the region, and their attitudes toward philanthropy. The challenge was to create a sufficiently robust representative sample of respondents to draw actionable conclusions confidently.

Instead of relying exclusively on a research panel provider to reach these respondents—a mode of access closed off to us by the limited size of the population—City Square Associates purchased a contact list from a trusted data partner which was curated from publicly available records like voter rolls and real estate transactions; CSA incentivized study participation with a guaranteed incentive in the form of a Starbucks or Dunkin gift card. Using this sampling and incentive strategy, we were able to build of representative sample of over 800 respondents.

The research uncovered promising avenues for elevating awareness of the foundation in the community and differentiating it more clearly from larger national and regional organizations. It also highlighted a need to simplify messaging and provide a more concise and relatable way of describing the organization’s mission to prospective donors. Using these insights, the foundation has begun to refine its marketing strategy with the goal of raising its visibility in the region and reaching the next generation of donors.