Richmond-based Brand Federation is a nationally known consultancy that specializes in brand development. Powering the company’s insights is research – research that informs strategy and helps to articulate a clear-cut path forward. By tapping into the preferences and opinions of a representative group of consumers, Brand Federation takes the guesswork out of forward-leaning decisions – not only for its corporate clients, but also for a range of nonprofit and government agencies like Mercy Corps, CancerLINC, the Children’s Hospital of Richmond, UMFS, Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia Commonwealth University and Virginia529.
Research is only as good as the underlying composition of the panels of consumers who provide their unvarnished insights. Nonprofits, in particular, often make the mistake of exclusively tapping their existing database of supporters for their opinions. While it is critical to understand the viewpoint of supporters, soliciting input from the outside can prevent blind spots and expose new opportunities. That’s why constructing representative and impartial research panels is key to producing reliable results.
Enter Brand Federation’s first Virginia-based research panel for nonprofits, Voices for Good. Rather than relying on an external research vendor every time it needs qualitative research, Brand Federation will look to this panel composed of Virginia residents who have donated at least $100 to a nonprofit organization within the past year. The Phil talked to Rian Chandler-Dovis, managing director at Brand Federation, about its new Virginia-centric research panel.
What’s behind the idea for a research panel dedicated to Virginia nonprofit organizations?
What we’ve encountered historically is that we’ve had a hard time getting great, high-quality panels in the state. We go to big panel providers, and we end up having holes in terms of coverage, especially within the Richmond region, and that means we have less insight, less data on which to build recommendations. At Brand Federation, we love good data. And so we thought the best way forward would be to build our own research panel.
How will the panel be used?
Two ways. First, we’ll screen everybody based on being a donor in Virginia, and we’ll frame participation in the panel as a way to help support nonprofits in your community by lending your voice. In other words, you can donate with your voice. Then the panel will be on board to answer questions as they pertain to our nonprofit clients. So, for example, UMFS is a client in Virginia. They’re amazing. We love them. If they wanted to understand their donors better – or their prospective donors better – we might design a survey based on questions that will allow them to get tighter with their donor strategy, and then we would launch that survey with the panel.
That’s why having a panel unaffiliated with the organization is important.
Yes, exactly. Let’s say I wanted to look within the Greater Richmond area to understand who knows about XYZ charity. Organizations can’t do that with their own database because their database already knows them. But we can go to our nonprofit panel and say, “Have you heard of XYZ charity?” and now we know a true level of awareness. Then we can ask, “What organizations have you given to? How many organizations do you give to in a given year? Are you going to give more or less this year than last?” Those sorts of questions help us get to answers in different ways.
Given all that’s going on with the federal government and the uncertainty about grant funding, this seems like a particularly important time to understand donor sentiment.
I think we want to take advantage of this moment – people are cued in to the fact that nonprofits are hurting, and we want nonprofits to know that one of the ways that Brand Federation is committed to being an advocate for them is through this research panel. Our standard discount for nonprofits is 25%, but beyond that, we see the need for nonprofits to better understand their perspective, their donor landscape, by way of this project. We are looking at partnership opportunities to help grow the panel and ensure that it is designed to provide the maximum benefit to Virginia.
At the time of publication, Brand Federation is a client of The Hodges Partnership.
To learn more about Brand Federation, visit its website.
