Radical Concept: Asking the Donors to Decide

The title of the email was bland: "Help us Serve You Better." I opened it anyway, and the first words from the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Foundation caught my interest: "The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund (NLEOMF) strives to communicate with you in a timely manner to keep you abreast of our efforts..." It went on to ask,"

Please take two minutes to complete our seven-question survey to help us better serve you. Your answers will enable us to modify the type and frequency which we send information to our supporters and subscribers.

We aim to provide only the information you wish to receive and in the format you choose. Participating in this survey today will allow us to better serve your needs through direct communication.

Please click here to begin the survey and thank you, in advance, for your participation.

So I did. It asked me what kind of information I wanted to receive, via what channels (hard copy, email, RSS, or "I'll would prefer go to the web site on my own to get updates" (which is so much nicer than saying, "Don't call me, I'll call you"). The survey went on to collect a little bit of interest and demographic information.

We preach this all the time. It's so nice to see someone doing it. I was tempted to submit a few different submissions just to see how the different answers are used. That's the hard part, of course. It's easy to ask your email supporters their preferences. It's another thing to be prepared to truly delivery on them.