East Bay Coalition for the Homeless - Roger Williams University

What is the Board’s perception of how aware people in RI are of the EBCH
What is the Board’s perception of what people in RI know about the EBCH and its programs
What is the Board’s perception of how people in RI evaluate the EBCH
What is known about donors (past, current, & repeat)
What activities might increase donors and donations
How well known (in RI) are EBCH board members
To what extent are EBCH board members perceived to be community leaders
To what extent are EBCH board members identified with the EBCH
What is the level of personal relevance of the EBCH to board members
What do board members think about current EBCH fundraising activities
What are board preferences for additional/different fundraising activities
Survey Development
We designed a survey for distribution to the EBCH and EBCAP board members. Using the Qualtrics online survey
platform, we created an anonymous survey of with 29 questions grouped into five topic areas.
Roles of current or former EBCH and EBCAP board members
How established the organization is in the community
Awareness of the EBCH and perceptions of its image
What the most effective messages would be for telling the EBCH “story”
Information about fundraising efforts
To avoid bias in responses, questions that might be taken as sensitive were constructed using accepted protocols. For
example, instead of directly asking about EBCH weaknesses, the question was phrased to make it acceptable to suggest
areas that might need improvement.
We collaborated with an honors junior service–learning class to construct the narratives that were presented in the
“most effective messages” section. Students in this course investigated homelessness in Rhode Island and wrote six
potential narratives. We refined that set to the four that were tested in the survey.
We remained in contact with the Director while developing the survey to make sure that we were on track and that
the questions were appropriate for the board members. The survey was fielded only after the Director approved both
the survey and the email invitation wording.
Survey Distribution
The survey link was emailed to 28 board members, 13 current and former EBCH board members and the 15 members
of the EBCAP board (two board members were provided paper copies). Survey respondents were ensured anonymity
and confidentiality.
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