For each of the four Calls under the Civil Society Programme of the Swiss–Croatian Cooperation Programme, one of the mandatory indicators is the aggregated result of survey research on citizens’ attitudes towards their ability to influence change in their local community.
Within the call “Strengthening the Contribution of Civil Society Organisations to Education for Sustainable Development”, the survey or research must be conducted with at least 100 participants in project activities, using entry (baseline) and exit survey forms that are an integral part of the call documentation. This is a mandatory indicator and must be implemented to the best possible standard.
The first step is planning. Based on the activities planned within your project, it is important to assess where and when it is most practical to distribute the survey forms (which are a mandatory part of the call documentation and available in the folder Sample Forms – Implementation) to participants.
As this call focuses on education for sustainable development targeting children and young people, as well as additional capacity-building in sustainable development for volunteers, civil society organisation staff, and educators from educational and other institutions, the most appropriate moment to include participants is at the beginning of the training activities.
It is important to keep in mind that, unless you plan to use an electronic version of the survey (e.g. Google Forms) and send it to participants’ email addresses, the survey will need to be distributed in paper format.
Conducting the survey itself can be demanding, but analysing the survey results is even more demanding. For a sample of 100 respondents, you will need to process all questionnaires by question and calculate percentages (and charts) based on responses.
The survey includes five questions using different methodologies:
The most practical solution is to use an Excel spreadsheet, which you design yourself, transferring the questions from the survey form and creating fields for entering descriptive responses such as participants’ age, reasons for participation, and similar information. Descriptive responses require additional analysis and must later be quantified and categorized.
Most participants will be between 3 and 18 years of age, noting that preschool children are not required to complete surveys.
Once you have collected responses and calculated percentages for each question (including descriptive questions on participants’ age, reasons for participation, and proposals for activities important for community development), the first phase of the work can be considered complete.
Please note that for primary school students from 1st to 4th grade, a special questionnaire adapted to their age group has been designed under this Call, and all collected data should be processed together. The difference between General Questionnaire No. 1 and the questionnaire for primary school students is that the latter contains one fewer question—the final question from the general entry questionnaire is not included in the questionnaire for primary school students.
When reporting, combine the results of these two forms by question, while for the fifth question you should present results only from the general questionnaire.
The same applies to the exit surveys. Combine the results of both questionnaires—the general exit questionnaire and the adapted questionnaire for primary school students—by question. For the sixth question in the general form, include only the results from the general exit questionnaire, since the questionnaire for primary school students does not contain a sixth question.
At the end of project activities, you must repeat the process using the exit survey form, which is also available in an adapted version for primary school pupils. Both forms are part of the call documentation.
The results of the final surveys should be compared with the baseline survey results. Once the comparison is completed, percentages and charts should be prepared and reported in the interim report to the Government Office for Coopeation with NGOs.
The procedure can always be accelerated by preparing a Google Form with the survey questions and sending it to the email list of project participants. For this, you will need to have participants’ email addresses collected in advance.
This approach is feasible for older primary school pupils and secondary school students, as they or their parents/guardians will usually have email addresses. For younger primary school pupils, survey completion will need to be supported by parents/guardians or project activity coordinators. Nevertheless, this approach is still feasible.
When collecting attendance lists for project activities, it is common practice to include an email address as a required data field—bringing you one step closer to this solution.
Create the survey using Google Forms, selecting the option with questions and structuring them accordingly. In the introductory section, in addition to general information stating that the survey is intended for beneficiaries, we recommend including basic information about the call, such as the call title, reference number, name of the lead applicant, partners, project title, and the date of completion.
Follow the structure of the survey forms provided in the Sample Forms – Implementation folder and ensure that the question-and-answer formats match those in the sample questionnaires. If a question uses a 1–5 rating scale, apply the same format in Google Forms.
Once the questionnaire is finalized, copy the link and send it via email to all project participants, clearly indicating the deadline for responses. Google Forms automatically stores responses in an Excel-style spreadsheet, where answers are organised by question, making analysis easier.
Once responses are counted and analysed, they can be converted into charts in Excel or Word and attached to the narrative report presenting the survey results (e.g. baseline survey results).
All procedures described for the entry (baseline) survey also apply to the exit survey at the end of project activities. The only difference is that the analysis of results must be submitted to the project manager. This means comparing baseline and final survey results and presenting these findings in the survey results document.
Good luck with your surveys!
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