Donor Perception Report

Donor Perception Report 

In the increasingly competitive search for donor dollars, community foundations of all sizes need relevant feedback from their donors in order to strengthen their work.

The Only Tool of its Kind

The Donor Perception Report (DPR) asks your donors to tell you what they think are your community foundation’s strengths and areas for improvement. The DPR is the only donor survey that compares how your donors rate you to how other community foundations are rated by their donors.

Through the DPR, community foundations are able to identify strategies for most effectively engaging their donors. The DPR covers a wide range of critical topics, including:

  • Donor satisfaction and motivations
  • Donor engagement and preferences
  • Perceptions of impact on the community and impact on donor giving
  • Communications
  • Use of resources
  • Future giving 

The Donor Perception Report has been used by more than 40 community foundations in North America.

Customized to Meet Your Needs

The DPR can be customized to meet your budget and your needs. The core donor survey has customizable portions and the option to add additional standalone custom questions. The survey is fielded either in an online format or via a paper mailing, and the cost of the survey is based on the number of donors and the type of survey needed. 

The entire DPR process takes about four months, starting when surveys are sent to donors and concluding when CEP finalizes your report and presents its findings. CEP’s expert staff will work closely with you throughout the process to make it as easy as possible.

To learn more about our new online report, schedule a demo, or see how we can create a DPR that meets your needs and your budget, please contact a CEP Tools manager.

DPR Data in Action

"[We had a] great experience with the Donor Perception Survey we just completed. [CEP staff] did a masterful job – not only in executing the study, but in preparing the analysis, and presenting the data to my staff and Board of Directors. They were able to go very deep into the data with us, explain nuances and patterns, and make connections between seemingly disparate data points. And they did it in way that was lucid, sensitive and direct. I couldn’t have asked for better.

The Arizona Community Foundation has now for the first time in our 34 year history a true and objective baseline of how our donors perceive us and how we compare nationally. We’ve never really known that before – and the report now catalyzes our business planning and gives us a set of real targets to aim for. Thanks for such a wonderful tool and for the great support and skill brought to us by [your staff.]"  

- Steve Seleznow, President and CEO, Arizona Community Foundation 

  • The Rhode Island Foundation has made its DPR public here.
  • “The Center for Effective Philanthropy’s staff and research tools were invaluable to our effort to learn more about our donor’s perceptions of our impact on our community, our services, and the resources we provide to enable them to reach their philanthropic goals. The quality of the report and staff interaction throughout the process ensured that the final product could be used to advance our efforts to better serve our donors and our community.”
             - Beth Fisher, Vice President for Donor Services and Development at The Columbus                   Foundation
  • "The Donor Perception Report has given us the deepest and most useful insights we've ever had into how our donors are experiencing, valuing, and utilizing our services and our communications with them. We have been both affirmed by the report's overall findings, and challenged in the areas where donors expressed needs still to be addressed…The Center for Effective Philanthropy did an excellent job conducting the survey and preparing the report."
    -Shelley Hoss, president, Orange County Community Foundation