EVIDENCE works with service organizations across the province of Ontario. EVIDENCE offers a free service to any organization: consultation on your surveys. For example, if you are creating a survey, for any purpose, and want to make sure you will get the information you are looking for, you can ask EVIDENCE for advice.

Example: Feedback on an Existing Survey

A service organization in eastern Ontario needed to gather information about a website they had set up over 10 years ago that listed community resources and volunteer opportunities. The funder wanted to know if the intended outcomes had been achieved, and staff wanted to know how community members were using the website and what they thought of it. They drafted a survey and e-mailed it to EVIDENCE, asking for feedback. We discussed what they could do to tweak it such as:

• Including a statement about what they will do with the information and how it will be kept confidential in the introduction
• Dividing the survey up into sections with an explanatory heading for each section
• Switching the order of questions so the most broad are at the beginning and the most specific are at the end
• Altering the wording of questions so they are clear and precise
• Adding a question that directly asked why people used the website
• Using a four-point scale instead of a five-point scale
• Adding contact information so if a respondent wanted to talk to someone about the survey, they knew who to get a hold of and how.

We also sent them examples of other surveys. They made changes and sent it back to us, and then we discussed how to interpret the results. Overall, staff walked away feeling much more confident that they could get the information they needed.

So if you are planning a research or evaluation project, or even something as basic as developing to get information on program outcomes (or you already have one you are using) and want feedback on it, call EVIDENCE. We’d be happy to talk to you about it, and it‘s free.