The OpenWater Blog

How to Create Surveys for Your Awards Program

Your call for entry is long gone, all judging is complete, and you’re fresh off your successful awards gala. So, what comes next? A complete, program-wide assessment.

Evaluating your program is a crucial last step in your awards cycle. It helps you determine the performance of your program this year: what successes you had, where you misstepped, and how things have progressed or changed from the previous year.

While a protion of this assessment should be made internally, you should also take the time to gather feedback from other involved in the awards, like entrants and judges. Outside parties like your entrants are able to provide valuable insight that you wouldn’t be able to get otherwise.

One great way to get this information is through surveys. But it can be tricky to figure out exactly what to ask and why.

What to Consider When Creating Your Surveys

The first step in creating a survey is to figure out what you hope to achieve with the information? Are you interested in demographic information, do you want to learn about the submission experience, how the overall program went? Determining what your goal is will help you make informed decisions when creating your survey questions.

As you begin to create your survey, consider the following questions:

1. What were the goals of your program?
2. Why did entrants or judges participate this year? If they didn’t, why not?
3. What attracted new entrants or judges?
4. What specific metrics are you trying to track for your program?
5. What have you learned or what do you need to learn from your entrants this year?
6. Did your expectations/goals of the program align with the experience of those involved?
7. What other insight could those involved provide that could benefit your program?
8. What do you hope to achieve through these surveys?

Thinking through each of these eight questions will help you create an informed, well thought-out survey that will ensure you get the feedback you need.

Miriam Hancock

Miriam Hancock
Miriam is the Marketing Coordinator for OpenWater. When she isn't writing and designing content she paints and cooks for her own personal blog.

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