Events

Why is a post-event feedback strategy critical for boosting participation?

Why is a post-event feedback strategy critical for boosting participation?

By

Kyle

|

February 18, 2020

Last modified: 

February 18, 2020

Events play a significant role in maintaining a highly engaged alumni community and advancement teams around the world leave no stone unturned to plan their events with meticulous detail. So, why is it that this planning stops with the end of an event?

GIF


Post-event feedback is one key aspect of event planning as it plays a crucial role in improving the quality of future events and boosting participation. It reveals what attendees, sponsors, and stakeholders loved about your event and what you can do to make it even better next time.

Collecting feedback


While post-event feedback strategy largely depends on the type of event that you’re organizing, here’s a step-by-step guide to creating an effective feedback strategy :

1. Finalize your questions

Before you start reaching out to your event attendees to collect feedback, identify the most relevant questions that need to be asked. Simply put, frame your questions in a way that you receive the most out of it. In addition to basic questions such as name, contact details, etc., include questions that help you analyze the positive and negative outcomes of the event, based on your attendees’ opinions. Here’s how Centenary College of Lousiana gauges the opinions and interests of its alumni post an event.


2. Create a survey form

Once you’re done creating your list of questions, the next step is to add them to a survey form. It is highly recommended to move away from traditional paper forms. Paper forms are difficult to organize, access, and there is a high risk of data inconsistency involved while transferring the information onto your database. Online survey forms are one of the most commonly used methods for collecting feedback from event attendees. There are multiple free and paid tools that can help you create customizable survey forms. Here are some of the most popular tools for creating online survey forms: Google Forms, Survey Monkey, and Jotform.
Centenary College of Louisiana adds event photos to the landing page where the survey form is added.

Survey Email

3. Spread the word through email/social media

Now that your survey form with questions is in place, it is time to spread the word and gather responses. The most popular channels for collecting post-event feedback are social media and emails.
Here’s how QuestBridge encourages alumni to share feedback post its ‘Dinner with QuestBridge Strangers’ event.

Dinner with strangers

Read more about the event here: How QuestBridge promotes local connections between alumni via ‘Dinner with QuestBridge Strangers’ program

In 3 simple steps, your post-event feedback strategy is complete! 

Events play a significant role in maintaining a highly engaged alumni community and advancement teams around the world leave no stone unturned to plan their events with meticulous detail. So, why is it that this planning stops with the end of an event?

GIF


Post-event feedback is one key aspect of event planning as it plays a crucial role in improving the quality of future events and boosting participation. It reveals what attendees, sponsors, and stakeholders loved about your event and what you can do to make it even better next time.

Collecting feedback


While post-event feedback strategy largely depends on the type of event that you’re organizing, here’s a step-by-step guide to creating an effective feedback strategy :

1. Finalize your questions

Before you start reaching out to your event attendees to collect feedback, identify the most relevant questions that need to be asked. Simply put, frame your questions in a way that you receive the most out of it. In addition to basic questions such as name, contact details, etc., include questions that help you analyze the positive and negative outcomes of the event, based on your attendees’ opinions. Here’s how Centenary College of Lousiana gauges the opinions and interests of its alumni post an event.


2. Create a survey form

Once you’re done creating your list of questions, the next step is to add them to a survey form. It is highly recommended to move away from traditional paper forms. Paper forms are difficult to organize, access, and there is a high risk of data inconsistency involved while transferring the information onto your database. Online survey forms are one of the most commonly used methods for collecting feedback from event attendees. There are multiple free and paid tools that can help you create customizable survey forms. Here are some of the most popular tools for creating online survey forms: Google Forms, Survey Monkey, and Jotform.
Centenary College of Louisiana adds event photos to the landing page where the survey form is added.

Survey Email

3. Spread the word through email/social media

Now that your survey form with questions is in place, it is time to spread the word and gather responses. The most popular channels for collecting post-event feedback are social media and emails.
Here’s how QuestBridge encourages alumni to share feedback post its ‘Dinner with QuestBridge Strangers’ event.

Dinner with strangers

Read more about the event here: How QuestBridge promotes local connections between alumni via ‘Dinner with QuestBridge Strangers’ program

In 3 simple steps, your post-event feedback strategy is complete! 

Blackbaud, the leading provider of software for powering social impact, and Almabase, the digital-first alumni engagement solution, have announced the expansion of their partnership to the education sectors of Canada and the United Kingdom. The partnership will provide institutions with a modern, digital-first solution to improve constituent data, drive self-serve engagement, and boost event participation.

A Unified Vision

The partnership aligns with Blackbaud’s commitment to customer-centric innovation across digital engagement, Advancement CRM, and financials.

“Partners bring integrated capabilities that extend capabilities and outcomes for Blackbaud customers. We are thrilled that Almabase’s offering, integrated with Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT® and leveraging Blackbaud’s best-in-class payment solution, Blackbaud Merchant Services™, is now available to even more of our customers around the world.”

- Liz Price, Sr. Director of Global Partners at Blackbaud

Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form

Related Blog Posts

Events

Why is the end-of-the-year best time for high school alumni reunions?

After observing over a hundred schools organize successful alumni reunions, we’ve finally settled on the end-of-the-year/holiday season as the best time for high school alumni reunions. Let's take a closer look at why the holiday season is ideal for high school alumni reunions.

Events

7 Tested Ideas To Promote Alumni Reunions On Social Media

Wondering how to use social media to promote your alumni reunions ? Here are 7 tested techniques that have brought reunion success to over a hundred schools.

Events

What we learned by analyzing the attendance at 300 reunions across 100 schools

Looking for ways to maximize alumni participation for your upcoming reunion? These are the 8 key learnings from analyzing over 300 reunions.

Events

How to make an awesome alumni reunion promo video

Alumni reunion promo videos are a great way to capture your alumni’s attention, evoking curiosity and nostalgia but, there’s a lot of planning and prepping that needs to be done well in advance. Take a look at the key elements pivotal to making an awesome alumni reunion promo video.