You spoke, we listened
Date: 8 November 2014
In 2013 we asked WDM supporters to share their views with us through our third supporter survey. We did this for one very simple reason: you, our supporters make our campaigns. Therefore by getting to know you better and listening to what you say we can take action to improve and adapt what we do and thereby make our campaigns even more effective.
A total of 1,225 people took the time to complete the survey (an increase of 11 per cent on 2011) and we would like to say thank you to each and every one!
This was a year in which we began a process of evaluating our name and looking at whether it helps or hinders our campaigns. The opinions shared by our supporters in our supporter survey were a fundamental part of this.
Large numbers of you identified the word ‘development’ as being problematic and often a barrier to accurately communicating who we are. Another commonly voiced concern was around the lack of a reference to justice or equity in our name. It’s therefore perhaps not surprising that our strapline (‘Justice for the world’s poor’) was the most popular element of our brand, although some supporters pointed out issues with the term ‘poor’ and others stated that ‘justice’ should be for everyone.
All of these points were central both to WDM’s decision to change our name and to the new name we have chosen: Global Justice Now.
Aside from the opinions voiced about WDM’s name, some of the most interesting information that came out of the survey was around the growing importance of the internet in communicating our work with supporters and beyond.
It’s not surprising that our online presence has now become the primary medium by which younger supporters (those aged below 40) first heard of us. However we were struck by the substantially increased level of internet engagement by supporters in their 50s, 60s, 70s and even 80s. When we looked at the responses for social media usage, donating via the internet, visits to our website, taking online petitions and a preference for email contact (now by far the most favoured means of communication by supporters) it was clear just how important our digital communications have become for all generations.
However, it would be wrong of us to conclude that everybody is now online. Roughly 1 in 8 supporters told us they do not use the internet for any of these things and this is something we must bear in mind. Another important consideration for us in future is that our female supporters were consistently less likely to respond positively to all the questions about internet usage than males.
Results to our question “How important do you think WDM’s work is on campaigning for positive alternatives (for example our work on food sovereignty)?” We also asked for your opinions on our campaigns and were truly encouraged by your overwhelmingly positive feedback. We were particularly interested to hear what you thought about our work on positive alternatives in balance with our campaigning against damaging policies or practices. You rated the importance of this work extremely highly (giving it an average score of six point four out of seven) and the vast majority of you felt we are getting the balance right (82 per cent). It is clear that this part of our work, such as our work on food sovereignty and energy justice, needs to remain a central part of our campaigns.
When we asked you about our communications we were once again reassured by your positive responses. A massive 85 per cent of respondents said that we are contacting them about the right amount and 73 per cent said that they are receiving enough information on our campaigns and what your support is helping us achieve. However we see there is room for improvement here. Since 2011 there has been an increase in the number of people saying we are contacting them too much, corresponding with a decrease in the number of people saying they are not contacted enough. And so we shall continue to adjust our communications to try and find the perfect balance.
We were also really pleased to hear that you are happy with the way we are dealing with your queries – our responses were rated an average of six out of seven. This was higher than in 2011 and so we’re very happy to know that our commitment to helping you is paying off and we will endeavour to improve yet further.
All in all we learnt so much from what supporters told us in our survey that it’s simply impossible to include it all here in a short(ish) blog. However I hope this will give you a flavour of just how useful this information is to our work as we campaign together for global justice. We look forward to hearing from you again shortly!