Grantee Survey Administration Toolkit (a "how to" document)

ArtBeat Survey

PR Toolkit

INTRODUCTION

On behalf of the National Endowment for the Arts, thank you for taking part in the ArtBeat Survey. This survey, which should take less than five minutes to complete, will help us better understand how audiences and visitors are affected by their attendance at NEA-funded performing arts, visual arts, media arts, and folk and traditional arts projects. This toolkit provides tips, tactics, and sample materials to help you encourage audiences to complete the survey.

What is the ArtBeat Survey?

This new online survey is made up of approximately 15 questions that will a) help reveal how audiences respond to art projects and b) capture demographic data.

If your project is taking place between early March and July 31, 2013, your organization is eligible to participate. The survey will be available for the duration of your event. Shortly after you notify us that your event is closed, we will provide you with data collected about your project and a summary report. Also, once all events are concluded, the NEA will host a webinar dedicated to this project and provide a report summarizing the data aggregated from all participants. More information will be forthcoming. To help you with your questions, contact us at research@arts.gov or Roman Ivanchenko at 202.682.5743.

How will it benefit you?

These data may be valuable for your program planning, evaluation, marketing, and strategic planning. By participating, you will receive demographic data on your audiences' age, gender, race/ethnicity, and education level. The survey also offers a rare opportunity for your audiences to report on the moods, feelings, thoughts, and inspiration that your event evoked. The survey will include a comment section, which may provide you with valuable testimonials about your art project. Participating arts organizations will receive data on their audiences' responses as well as aggregated data from other project participants, which gives you a chance to compare findings.

What are we asking of you?

• Encourage your audiences to participate in the survey

• Gather overall attendance counts for the timeframe in which you encourage survey participation and send these counts to us within one week of your event closing.

What are "attendance counts"?

In order to accurately assess the rate of response to this survey, we will need to know the number of people who attended your event(s) during the survey timeframe. An actual count of attendees is preferable, but where that is not possible, an approximate count (e.g., an approximate count of attendees for a particular day multiplied by the number of days the event was open to the public) will also work.

We ask that you send us this information within one week of your event closing.

What this PR toolkit offers

• Tips and tactics to get your audiences to participate, including social media tactics

• Sample promotional copy (email, curtain speech)

• Downloadable poster/flyer for a visually effective message

• Frequently Asked Questions

• Don't stop at these ideas, feel free to devise your own promotional tactics to get audiences to visit the online survey! We ask only that you include your unique keyword in your correspondence with your audience members.

SAMPLE MARKETING MATERIALS

Promote the ArtBeat Survey with marketing materials. Use these visual materials to entice your audience to compete the survey as soon after the event/performance as possible, while it's fresh in their minds. This downloadable graphic can be used as a poster or flyer, and is available in color and black and white versions.

((include jpeg visual of the poster))

The marketing materials include:

• A downloadable poster/flyer with QR code and survey web address. Sizes 8.5 x 11 in PDF format . Your unique keyword is already added to the downloadable poster/flyer. By going to www.arts.gov/survey, your audience will enter the keyword to begin the survey, and their responses will be automatically attributed to your event.

• A downloadable QR code and survey web address for use on other print/online materials. You will need to add your unique keyword to these other materials. Your unique keyword is shown at the bottom of this page.

Download ArtBeat survey marketing materials:

• Click on www.arts.gov/survey/KEYWORD_poster to download the poster/flyer PDF file

• Click on www.arts.gov/survey/KEYWORD_qrcode to download the QR code

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YOUR UNIQUE KEYWORD: conscientiousness

TIPS AND TACTICS

Consider these promotional ideas, and add your own!

• Email your audiences before and after the event to encourage them to participate. Include the survey flyer as an attachment and/or include the relevant survey links in your email.

• Insert the flyer in the program or exhibit brochure. Leave copies of the flyer at the visitors desk.

• Have ushers or event staff hand out the survey flyer as people enter or leave the auditorium or exhibit hall. Ushers/event staff can remind audiences to visit the survey website after the event.

• Use the "curtain speech" copy provided here before or after a show or at an exhibit.

• Hang the poster at your museum front desk or theater box office to encourage audience survey participation.

• Post the ArtBeat Survey flyer on your website homepage, include a link to the survey site.

• Post a notice on Facebook before and after the event to remind audiences to fill out the survey. Add a visual, such as the flyer image, or post a photo of an usher handing a flyer to an audience member.

• Post a "tweet" about the survey on your Twitter feed. A sample tweet: Guests at today's event/tonight's performance have the chance to take part in a survey. Don't miss this chance to give us feedback. (add link).

• You Tube - Do you have a YouTube Channel? Use the email promotional copy provided here to create a one-minute "survey alert" video. It could be as simple as a message from the director, or a graphics-based slide show, or something more creative.

• If your event takes place over an extended period of time, consider a "Survey Week." For example, museums generally host exhibitions for long periods of time, so it may be best to distribute the audience survey within a particular timeframe (for example a week to account for variation across days of the week). By using a contained timeframe, you're also more likely to capture 'fresh' responses within 3 days of the event.

• If your event takes place in a number of locations, contact the organizers at these locations and provide them with promotional materials (posters, flyers, etc.) in advance. Contact them sufficiently in advance in order to communicate the survey and explain what type of assistance you may need to disseminate promotion materials.

SAMPLE EMAIL // CURTAIN SPEECH

Dear Audience member,

In five minutes, you could give us 10 thousand ideas to improve our services to you.

We want to know how you were affected by today's event [specify as appropriate].

We invite you to participate in pilot testing the ArtBeat Survey, a collaborative effort with the National Endowment for the Arts to better understand the impact of the arts in our community.

This is an online survey of about a dozen questions where we learn more about you and what you thought and felt about today's event.

Your survey responses are completely anonymous, so feel free to be candid. You must be at least 18 years old to participate.

Please visit www.arts.gov/survey and enter the keyword conscientiousness to be redirected to the brief survey.

Like fresh baked bread, surveys are best within 24 hours. Share your opinions while they're fresh!

We look forward to hearing from you! Please let us know if you have any questions, and thank you again.

Sincerely,

Name of Representative

Name of Organization

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

What is the survey?

The ArtBeat Survey is an online survey that seeks to understand how audiences and visitors are affected by their attendance at NEA-funded performing arts, visual arts, media arts, and folk and traditional arts projects.

Who participates in the survey?

Audience members and visitors at select NEA-funded projects are eligible to participate.

When do you participate in the survey?

The survey (approximately 15 questions) takes less than five minutes to complete. The timeframe for survey participation is between early March and July 31st, 2013.

What will you do with the data?

The NEA will gather survey results and will provide each participating grantee with data on its grant project as well as data aggregated from all participants in the project by August 2013.

Will you make the results public? When?

The NEA will not collect any individually identifiable information from respondents in the survey. However responses themselves and their association with particular grantees may be releasable under the Freedom of Information Act.

Why is it being conducted?

The survey will help the NEA understand how audiences are affected by the performances, exhibitions and film screenings it supports.

Who is the sponsor of the survey?

The National Endowment for the Arts is the sponsor of the ArtBeat Survey.

Is it mandatory?

The ArtBeat Survey is a voluntary effort for both the grantees (who opt-in) and the survey respondents.

Are the data anonymous?

The NEA will not collect any individually identifiable information in the survey; all data gathered in the ArtBeat Survey are anonymous. The actual answers and their association with grantees may be releasable under the Freedom of Information Act

Do I get anything for participating in the survey?

By participating, you receive access to all to data relating to your survey (including raw data, data tables, data summaries, and data visualizations) at the conclusion of the event. You also receive our gratitude for helping us develop this process for better understanding how audiences are affected by NEA-supported projects.

POSTER/FLYER/AD COPY (FOR DON/DESIGNER ONLY)

Give us your input!

Take part in our ArtBeat Survey. Your feedback will help us improve our programs and services.

Visit www.arts.gov/survey and enter the keyword conscientiousness to be redirected to the brief online survey.

It only takes a moment, and we thank you for your time!

((QR CODE GRAPHIC))

All responses are completely anonymous. Survey administered by the National Endowment for the Arts. (NEA Logo)

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www.arts.gov/survey Your unique keyword is: conscientiousness