Inquisite Enables American Diabetes Association to Improve Outreach Effectiveness

Communicating with thousands of volunteers in more than 800 communities across the nation was once a logistically demanding, expensive and time-consuming process for the American Diabetes Association. Now, using web survey technology from Inquisite Inc., the 64-year-old advocacy organization is saving thousands of dollars and hundreds of man hours as it reaches out to its core constituency.

Keeping volunteers committed to the cause and donating their time and money is key to keeping the country's leading nonprofit health organization viable and relevant, according to Marty Moore, the ADA's director of strategic marketing.

"We want to understand what our constituents are all about," said Moore, who began using the Inquisite solution in early 2003 to poll volunteers and other key stakeholders on their perceptions of the organization, its programs and the 150,000 special events it sponsors each year. Inquisite is a scalable, customizable, do-it-yourself web survey system for organizations like the ADA that deploy surveys for high-volume data collection across large respondent populations.

Moore said Inquisite was a natural choice for the ADA, which was seeking to improve its efficiency in outreach and fundraising programs, provide better responsiveness and service, and cultivate lasting and productive constituent relationships. "Every time you do some type of activity, there are costs involved: actual dollar costs, the time element and the human resource component. So, if we conduct an event and constituents don't react positively, we need to think about re-examining that event or dropping it altogether."

Rapid Feedback Builds Stronger Relationships

Before switching to Inquisite, the ADA used traditional paper surveys to gauge the success of events like the Tour de Cure, a national cycling fund-raiser. Using Inquisite, the ADA achieved a response rate of more than 50 percent for a survey polling hundreds of cyclists who participated in the event. And, in addition to saving paper, printing and postage costs (84 cents per survey), Moore was able to obtain almost immediate feedback, a feat paper surveys are unable to achieve. Cyclists received the survey on the Monday after the Saturday event and, in only five days, the response rate topped 41 percent. Moore said this kind of rapid, improved feedback is helping to make future Tour de Cures even larger and financially successful.

"Using paper surveys, it often took weeks after deployment to begin receiving responses. Using Inquisite, we're receiving feedback within 48 to 72 hours," Moore said. "This rapid turnaround is enabling us to be even more responsive, as we measure the attitudes, values and beliefs of our diverse constituent groups across the nation."

While speed is one factor, Inquisite's ease of use and customization are other advantages, Moore said. Using the survey solution, individual chapters can tailor a survey's format as well as the questions that are asked.

"We're making strategic decisions based on what our constituents are telling us," Moore said, adding that this kind of give and take is boosting volunteer satisfaction, which in turn builds the strength of the organization as a whole. Using Inquisite, we're able to make volunteers feel they have a voice in steering the direction of the ADA."