From the Research Team

Strategic Planning Surveys

NASAA’s updated Strategic Planning Surveys page offers a collection of surveys that state arts agencies use to accurately gauge the impact of their work and guide them in their strategic planning process. Implementing these surveys—which constitutes an important part of engaging a wide selection of stakeholders—requires considering multiple factors that influence responses, ranging from the design to the timing of the survey.

To facilitate dialogue around planning surveys and to showcase recent examples of exemplary work, NASAA now offers recent examples of surveys conducted by California, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and South Dakota. Highlights from the surveys include:

A greater focus on unique, inclusionary survey questions and methods
Surveys with branching logic that ask questions relevant to the respondent
A high level of postsurvey analysis and a demographic breakdown of answers
Polling geared toward understanding public opinion of those within and outside of the arts sector

NASAA can provide greater detail about these and other surveys upon request. NASAA also can assist in planning and creating strategic surveys for state arts agencies on a case-by-case basis. For more information on survey design and implementation, contact Senior Director of Research Ryan Stubbs. For planning practices and processes, contact Chief Program and Planning Officer Kelly Barsdate.