Debriefing Interview Correspondence

Attachment E
Debriefing Interview Correspondence

Contact 1a: E-mail from Ms. Britt to NPRA Respondent
Dear [Dr./Mr./Ms. Last Name]:
To better understand the important contributions that nonprofit organizations make to society and
the economy, the National Science Foundation (NSF) recently completed the Nonprofit Research
Activities Pilot Survey. Thank you so much for participating!
I need your help once more. Before we move forward and finalize our plans for implementing
the survey next year, we are evaluating the pilot survey. Part of this evaluation includes
conducting interviews with organizations that completed the survey to better understand the
organization’s experience completing the survey and feedback about the content of the survey.
We will use the information that we gather to refine the web survey.
NSF has partnered with ICF International to carry out this survey. Within the next few days, a
member of the ICF project team will call you to discuss the possibility of scheduling a 1-hour
telephone interview. If you would prefer to contact ICF directly, please use the information
below.
[ICF Team Member’s Name]
[Telephone Number]
[E-mail Address]
If you have any questions about this interview, please contact me at [email protected] or at 703-2927765.
Sincerely,
Ronda Britt
Project Officer, Nonprofit Research Activities Survey
National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics
National Science Foundation
4201 Wilson Blvd. Suite 965
Arlington, VA 22230

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Contact 1b: E-mail from Ms. Britt to NPRA Non-respondent
Dear [Dr./Mr./Ms. Last Name]:
To better understand the important contributions that nonprofit organizations make to society and
the economy, the National Science Foundation (NSF) recently completed the Nonprofit Research
Activities Pilot Survey. While we recognize that your organization chose not to participate, we
would like to understand the reasons behind this choice.
We intend to implement the final version of the survey next year with a much larger sample of
nonprofit organizations, and we are interested in determining if there is anything we could do to
encourage the participation of nonprofit organizations like yours.
NSF has partnered with ICF International to carry out this survey. Within the next few days, a
member of the ICF project team will call you to discuss the possibility of scheduling a 30 minute
telephone interview. If you would prefer to contact ICF directly, please use the information
below.
[ICF Team Member’s Name]
[Telephone Number]
[E-mail Address]
If you have any questions about this interview, please contact me at [email protected] or at 703-2927765.
Sincerely,
Ronda Britt
Project Officer, Nonprofit Research Activities Survey
National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics
National Science Foundation
4201 Wilson Blvd. Suite 965
Arlington, VA 22230

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Contact 2a: NPRA Debriefing Interview with Respondents Recruitment Script
NPO Name:
Address:
City and State:
Contact Person:
Phone number:
E-mail address:
Hello, my name is [recruiter’s name]. I am calling from ICF International for the National
Science Foundation. May I speak to [insert interviewee’s name].
If a receptionist/gatekeeper asks, “What is this in regard to?” say: Within the last week, NSF
sent an e-mail to [name] requesting a telephone interview to discuss the Nonprofit Research
Activities Pilot Survey your organization recently completed. I am following up on this e-mail.
 Yes [Continue]
 No [If the person is unavailable. Do not leave a message. If someone other than the
person answers, ask when can I call back? ___________________ ]
If you are transferred to the person by a gatekeeper/receptionist, say:
Hello, my name is [recruiter’s name]. I am calling from ICF International for the National
Science Foundation. Thank you for taking my call. In the past week, you should have received
an e-mail from Ronda Britt at NSF about scheduling a telephone interview with [name] to
discuss the Nonprofit Research Activities Pilot Survey your organization recently completed.
As mentioned in the e-mail, NSF has partnered with ICF International (my company) to evaluate
the implementation of the survey. We are very interested in hearing about your experience in
completing the survey. We are especially interested in the experience of completing the survey
online and any thoughts you had about the content of the survey.
When you speak to the person you want to interview, say: You were listed as one of the people
who completed the survey. Is that correct?
Hello, my name is [recruiter’s name]. I am calling from ICF International for the National
Science Foundation. Thank you for taking my call. In the past week, you should have received
an e-mail from Ronda Britt at NSF about scheduling a telephone interview with [name] to
discuss the Nonprofit Research Activities Pilot Survey your organization recently completed.
We would like to set up a 60-minute interview with you to go over the pilot survey to get your
perspective about it, the ease or difficulty you have navigating the web survey and completing it
online, and your feedback about the survey content.

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Can we schedule an interview with you?
 Yes [Continue to the end to schedule meeting and verify contact information.]
 No [Say: “Thank you for your time. Good-bye.”]
Great! I would like to set up a date and time for our meeting.
Date:
Time:
Confirm the following information:
Complete address:
Phone number:
E-mail address:
Name of person to be interviewed:
I will send you an e-mail confirming the date and time of our telephone call. I’ll also provide you
with a toll-free conference line to call in. To facilitate our discussion, I would like to share my
computer screen with you in order to walk through your organization’s completed survey. If you
agree, I’ll include the URL to a Join.me meeting in my confirmation e-mail. Join.me is a
program that will allow me to share my screen with your Internet browser. The only thing that
you’ll need is a computer with Internet access and a telephone. In addition to the e-mail
reminder, I will also e-mail you an invitation so that it is in your calendar.
Finally, just as a reminder, this research is being conducted by the National Science Foundation
to assess the Nonprofit Research Activities Pilot Survey. Your participation is voluntary, and the
names of the individual(s) who participate will remain confidential.
Our discussion should last no more than 60 minutes. If you have any questions, please contact
me at:
[State your name again, phone number, and e-mail address.]
Again, thank you very much for your time and for agreeing to participate in this research. We
look forward to talking to you on [date] at [time].

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Contact 2b: NPRA Debriefing Interview with Non-respondents Recruitment Script
NPO Name: [insert name]
Address: [insert address]
City and State: [insert city/state]
Contact Person: [insert point of contact]
Phone number: [insert phone]
E-mail address: [insert address]
Hello, my name is [recruiter’s name]. I am calling from ICF International for the National
Science Foundation. May I speak to [insert name].
If a receptionist/gatekeeper asks, “What is this in regards to?” say: Recently Mr./Ms./Dr.
[name] was asked to complete a survey for the National Science Foundation. We are conducting
debriefing interviews with some select nonprofit organizations.
□ Yes [Continue]
□ No [If the person is unavailable. Do not leave a message. If someone other than the person
answers, ask when can I call back? ___________________ ]
If you are transferred to the person by a gatekeeper/receptionist, say:
Hello, my name is [recruiter’s name]. I am calling from ICF International for the National
Science Foundation. Thank you for taking my call. Recently, we invited you to participate in the
Nonprofit Research Activities Pilot Survey. While we did not receive a response from your
organization and we respect your decision not to respond, we would like to understand your
reasons for not responding.
Your input is valuable to us because you will represent nonprofit organizations of similar size
and interests. The interview would take no more than a half an hour of your time and would be
conducted over the phone.
We would specifically be asking your reasons for not participating and a couple of questions
about our communications to your organization.
Assuming all interviews will be over the phone:
We would like to schedule for some time between [Month, day] and [Month, day]. As I
mentioned, the interview will take approximately a half an hour [if needed] and it will be
conducted over the phone.

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[If Schedule – Continue]
Can we schedule an interview with you or other representatives from your organization?
□ Yes [Continue to the end to schedule meeting and verify contact information.]
□ No [Say: “Thank you for your time. Good-bye.”]
Great! I would like to set up a date and time for our meeting.
Appointment Information:
Date: [insert date]
Time: [insert time]
Confirm the following information:
Phone number: [insert phone]
E-mail address: [insert e-mail]
Name of individual(s) we will meet: [insert name of interviewee]
I will send you an e-mail confirming the date and time of our meeting.
Finally, just a reminder this research is being conducted by the National Science Foundation to
examine the Nonprofit Research Activities Pilot Survey and refine it for full implementation for
next year. Your participation is completely voluntary. Your name and the name of your
organization will remain confidential.
Our discussion should last no more than 30 minutes. If you have any questions, please contact
me at:
[State your name again, phone number, and e-mail address.]
Again, thank you very much for your time and for agreeing to participate in this research. We
look forward to talking with you on [insert date and time].

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Contact 3a: Respondents Confirmation Letter
Dear [Name],
This e-mail serves as confirmation of the date and time for our telephone interview to discuss the
National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Nonprofit Research Activities Pilot Survey that your
organization recently completed.
Interview Date and Time:
Name/Title
Conference Phone
Number:

[Day of week], [Month] [date], 2016, [time]
a.m./p.m. [EST/CST/MST/PST]
[Name/title of Interviewee]
[Toll-free line]

As we mentioned, you will also need access to your computer and the Internet when we talk. Just
before the interview, our interviewer will send you an e-mail. The subject line will say “Please
join.me.” You will be given a URL to click on. Once you click on it you will be able to see the
interviewer’s screen. Our interviewer will be sharing your completed survey with you.
The interview will take about 60 minutes to complete. We will walk through your completed
survey together and I will ask for your experience interacting with the survey and about the
survey content. For example, we are interested in


what your experience was navigating through the survey online;



whether the questions were clear and concise; and



how easy or difficult it was to answer the questions.

Two members of the ICF team [and an observer from NSF] will be present at the interview. If
you need to reschedule, please contact me by telephone at [telephone number] or by e-mail at
[email protected] as soon as possible.
Thank you for your time and we look forward to talking to you.
[Recruiter’s name]
NSF Nonprofit Research Activities Survey
ICF International
[Telephone number]

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Contact 3b: Non-respondents Confirmation Letter
Dear [Name]:
This e-mail serves as confirmation of the time for our interview to discuss the National Science
Foundation’s (NSF) Pilot Survey of Nonprofit Research Activities.
Interview Date and Time:
Name/Title
Conference Phone
Number:

[Day of week], [Month] [date], 2016, [time]
a.m./p.m. [EST/CST/MST/PST]
[Name/title of Interviewee]
[Toll-free line]

The interview will take about 30 minutes to complete. We will talk about your organization’s
decision not to complete the survey and any information we could include that would encourage
your organization to participate in the future.
Two members of the ICF team, and possibly a representative from NSF, will be calling in for
this interview. If you need to reschedule, please contact me by telephone at [insert phone] or by
e-mail at [email protected] soon as possible.
Thank you for your time and we look forward to talking with you.
[Recruiter’s name]
NSF Nonprofit Research Activities Survey
ICF International
[Telephone number]

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Contact 4a: Respondent Electronic Meeting Invitation
To:

Participant’s e-mail address

Subject:

Interview to Discuss the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Nonprofit
Research Activities Pilot Survey you recently completed

Location:

Toll-free conference line: 1-877-423-6338, Passcode 593456
https://www.join.me/

Start time:

[Date and time]

End time:

[Date and time]

Just as a reminder, you will need access to your computer/Internet during the interview. The
interviewer will be sharing [his/her] screen with you using join.me. You will receive an e-mail
from the interviewer just before the start of the interview. The subject line will say “Please
join.me”—once you access this, you will be able to see the interviewer’s computer screen.
The interview will take about 60 minutes to complete. We will walk through your completed
survey together and I will ask for your experience interacting with the survey and about the
survey content. For example, we are interested in


what your experience was navigating through the survey online;



whether the questions were clear and concise; and



how easy or difficult it was to answer the questions.

Please e-mail or call me if you have any questions.
[Interviewer’s name]
[Telephone number]
[E-mail address]

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Contact 4b: Non-respondent Electronic Meeting Invitation
To:

Participant’s e-mail address

Subject:

Interview to Discuss the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Nonprofit
Research Activities Pilot Survey you recently completed

Location:

Toll-free conference line: 1-877-423-6338, Passcode 593456

Start time:

Date and time

End time:

Date and time

The interview will take no more than 30 minutes to complete. We will talk about your
organization’s decision not to complete the survey and any information we could include that
would encourage your organization to participate in the future.
For your reference, I have also attached a copy of the prenotification letter and handout that we
sent to [Name] in [Month] 2016.
Please e-mail or call me if you have any questions.
[Interviewer’s name]
[Telephone number]
[E-mail address]

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Contact 5: Thank you letter on NSF Letterhead
[Month] [day], 2016
Dear [Name],
We greatly appreciate your participation in the interview on [Month] [day], 2016. We
appreciated your willingness to share your thinking and experiences about the National Science
Foundation’s Nonprofit Research Activities Pilot Survey. Your thoughtful feedback will help us
make final revisions to the survey prior to conducting a full implementation of the survey in
2017.
If you have any questions or would like to be updated on the status of this project at any point in
the future, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Sincerely,

Ronda Britt
Project Officer
Nonprofit Research Activities Survey
National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics
National Science Foundation
4201 Wilson Blvd. Room 965
Arlington, VA 22230
703-292-7765
[email protected]

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