Building Community Voices Survey

Welcome to the Building Community Voices Survey

Incentives and Barriers to Civic Engagement

The Building Community Voices surveys closed on Friday May 12th, 2006.

To view the CEO/Executive Director survey instrument, click here [.PDF]

To view the Board Member survey instrument, click here [.PDF]

Purpose: To create a better picture of the practices and views of CEOs and board members in order to increase the capacity of the sector to participate in critical policy decisions. The online survey asks CEOs to consider their agencies' advocacy function, and will ask board members to reflect on their own involvement and identify any barriers they perceive to further engagement. CEOs will pass the survey on to their board members.

This survey is part of the Alliance's Building Community Voices project, supported by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. The project attempts to build capacity for mission-based advocacy within the nonprofit human services sector by engaging volunteers and board members as well as agency staff in advocating for issues that are important to the agency's mission.

Background: The notion of civic engagement, or mission-based advocacy, is the subject of this survey. Mission-based advocacy is a process of establishing and reinforcing an accurate understanding of the needs and experiences of the children, families, and communities that participate in your services and initiatives. It is important that this understanding is assertively represented to individuals and institutions that affect their well-being through public policy, whether through legislation or regulation.

Confidentiality: Your answers will be confidential, held by the Alliance, and will be used only in-house to determine the views and level of involvement in advocacy of board members of Alliance agencies. No other use will be made of your individual answers without your permission.