Mixing Marketing Research and Philanthropy

I have blogged a few times about the opportunity to use your marketing research dollars to support causes while also getting your project done. It’s an idea that especially intrigues me now, when so many non-profit organizations are struggling to find new sources of revenue and to increase donations. And it’s a bad new double whammy, as non-profit organizations are also finding demand for their services skyrocketing from Americans who are also struggling with the economy.

So it’s very good to learn that you don’t sacrific quality or representative data by supporting non-profit organizations with a portion of your research budget! Guest blogger Baillie Buchanan, co-founder of Research For Good shares the results of recently completed research on research.

Market Research For Good: Add a Halo to your Research Budget

As an industry we take a lot – we take time and insights from our respondents, we cull information from social-media to form theories about purchase intent or brand affinity. What are we giving back?

RFG Logo resized 600Research For Good is an online sample company that allows any researcher to incorporate social-responsibility and charity into your existing project budget. You and your clients can do good without changing the scope or cost of your projects. By using a sample supplier that is making a donation with every survey complete, including sample with a 100% charitable incentive, your existing and upcoming online research studies can be doing more than just driving insights for your business and clients. You can also help fund research to find a cure for cancer, save endangered animals and feed the hungry.

You might be thinking, “Sure, that sounds nice, but what are the implications for my research insights? Isn’t this sample different from the sources I’m already using?” Based on an independent research study conducted by Echelon Research Group who was commissioned by Research For Good to evaluate 5 separate sample sources with N=500 completed interviews each (charitable, panel, social-medial, river and loyalty), the Research For Good sample demographically, behaviorally and attitudinally mirrors what you expect to see from your current sample suppliers. Besides an obvious affinity for nonprofits and a higher rate of charitable contributions (monetary and time), Research For Good sample fits into your current sample frameworks and can deliver representative sample to meet your needs.

To demonstrate, here are a few attitudinal findings from our research. When it comes to politics, Research For Good sample was generally ‘average’ in how they view the world politically. There were no statistically significant differences across any of the panels when it came to political leanings, although social-media and loyalty sample were slightly more likely to indicate they identify as Republican. In terms of the economy, our findings showed that compared to 4-5 years ago, all panels are comparable in terms of how their household income has changed (32% income has increased, 30% income stayed the same, 38% decreased). An indication of the charitable slant of Research For Good sample comes from the finding that when asked about trustworthiness, RFG respondents had a statistically more favorable impression towards charitable organizations than the rest of the samples tested (51% vs. 38% average), but otherwise, no major differences for other groups or institutions – politics, lawyers, research for good infographicdoctors, etc.

To easily share more statistics from our Research on Research, we put together an infographic: (Click image on the right).

For more information about our findings, or to further discuss how your research can do good, please contact Research For Good at sayhi@researchforgood.com.

About Research For Good:

Research For Good (RFG) is a social-enterprise bringing together corporate market research budgets and nonprofit missions for mutual benefit. RFG provides access to reliable, high-quality sample for online market research and makes a donation to the respondent’s charity of choice for EVERY completed survey. Launched in early 2012, Research For Good grew from a shared passion for quality research & giving back and is now serving clients throughout the US and Canada with reliable and GOOD sample and research services. For additional information, visit www.researchforgood.com .

Topics: marketing research, marketing research companies, marketing researchers, marketing researcher, marketers