Debriefing Correspondence for respondents

Attachment D. Debriefing Interview Correspondence

Contact 1a: E-mail from Ms. Britt to NPRA Respondent
Dear [Dr./Mr./Ms. Last Name]:
Thank you so much for participating in the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Survey of
Nonprofit Research Activities. Your response is invaluable to our efforts to measure the U.S.
nonprofit research enterprise. Now that your organization has submitted its survey, I am writing
to request your participation in a telephone follow up interview.
We are conducting interviews with a variety of organizations to better understand their
experience completing the survey and to get feedback about the content. We will use the
information gathered to refine the survey before we field it again next winter.
Our survey contractor, ICF, will conduct these interviews. Within the next few days, a member
of the ICF project team will call you to discuss the possibility of scheduling a 45-60 minute
telephone interview. If you would prefer to contact ICF directly, please use the information
below.
Recruiter’s name
301-572-0XXX
[email protected]
If you have any questions about this interview, please contact me at [email protected] or at 703-2927765.
Sincerely,
Ronda Britt
Project Officer, Survey of Nonprofit Research Activities
National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics
National Science Foundation

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Contact 1b: E-mail from Ms. Britt to NPRA Non-respondent
Dear [Dr./Mr./Ms. Last Name]:
You may recall recently receiving a request from the National Science Foundation to respond to
the Survey of Nonprofit Research Activities. The survey is now closed, but we are reaching out
again to ask for your help to understand the reasons why some organizations chose not to
participate.
We will be conducting the survey again later this year and we are interested in identifying the
challenges of participation for nonprofit organizations like yours. We also want to identify
organizations that may not have research activity and thus feel that the survey is not applicable.
One of the goals of the survey is to identify ineligible organizations so that we can remove them
from our contact list. Your feedback can help us meet these goals.
Our survey contractor, ICF, will conduct these interviews. Within the next few days, a member
of the ICF project team will call you to discuss the possibility of scheduling a 20-30 minute
telephone interview. If you would prefer to contact ICF directly, please use the information
below.
Recruiter’s name
301-572-0XXX
[email protected]
If you have any questions about this interview, please contact me at [email protected] or at 703-2927765.
Sincerely,
Ronda Britt
Project Officer, Survey of Nonprofit Research Activities
National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics
National Science Foundation

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Contact 1c: E-mail from Ms. Britt to NPRA partial complete respondents
Dear [Dr./Mr./Ms. Last Name]:
Thank you so much for your help answering a few key questions on the National Science
Foundation’s (NSF) Survey of Nonprofit Research Activities. The survey is now closed, but we
are reaching out again to ask for your help to understand the reasons why some organizations
decided not to complete the full survey.
We will be conducting the survey again later this year and we are interested in determining if
there is anything we could do to encourage the full participation of nonprofit organizations like
yours.
Our survey contractor, ICF, will conduct these interviews. Within the next few days, a member
of the ICF project team will call you to discuss the possibility of scheduling a 20-30 minute
telephone interview. If you would prefer to contact ICF directly, please use the information
below.
Recruiter’s name
301-572-0XXX
[email protected]
If you have any questions about this interview, please contact me at [email protected] or at 703-2927765.
Sincerely,
Ronda Britt
Project Officer, Survey of Nonprofit Research Activities
National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics
National Science Foundation

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Contact 2a: NPRA Debriefing Interview with Respondents who Submitted
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 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 Survey of Nonprofit
Research Activities 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 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
Survey of Nonprofit Research Activities your organization recently completed.
As mentioned in the e-mail, NSF has partnered with ICF (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 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
Survey of Nonprofit Research Activities your organization recently completed.
We would like to set up a 45-60-minute interview with you to go over the 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 number and passcode to call in. If respondent completed survey
online say: To facilitate our discussion, the interviewer would like to share his/her computer
screen with you in order to walk through your organization’s completed survey. He/she will use
Join.me, a program that will allows him/her to share the screen via 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 confirmation, I will also e-mail you an Outlook 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 Survey of Nonprofit Research Activities. 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/Partial Completers
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 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
follow up 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 for the National Science
Foundation. Thank you for taking my call. Recently, we invited you to participate in the Survey
of Nonprofit Research Activities. For non-respondents say: 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. For partial completers say: Thank you for answering a few of
the questions on the survey. We would like to better understand your reasons for not responding
to the entire survey.
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.
We would like to schedule for some time between [Month, day] and [Month, day]. As I
mentioned, the interview will take 20 to 30 minutes hour and it will be conducted over the
phone.

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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:
Year
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 Survey of Nonprofit Research Activities and, if needed, make any changes to it
before we field the survey again this 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: Confirmation Letter for Respondents who Submitted
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) Survey of Nonprofit Research Activities that your
organization recently completed.
Interview Date and Time:
Name/Title
Conference Phone
Number:

[Day of week], [Month] [date], 2018, [time]
a.m./p.m. [EST/CST/MST/PST]
[Name/title of Interviewee]
[Toll-free line and passcode]

As I mentioned, you will also need access to your computer and the Internet when we talk.
About 15 minutes 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 no more than 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.

One or 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 Survey of Nonprofit Research Activities
ICF
[Telephone number]

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

[Day of week], [Month] [date], 2018, [time]
a.m./p.m. [EST/CST/MST/PST]
[Name/title of Interviewee]
[Toll-free line and passcode]

The interview will take no more than 30 minutes to complete. We will talk about your
organization’s decision not to complete the full survey and any information we could include that
would encourage your organization to participate in the future.
One or 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 Survey of Nonprofit Research Activities
ICF
[Telephone number]

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Contact 4a: Respondent who Submited Electronic Meeting Invitation
Note – interviewer sends this email
To:

Participant’s e-mail address

Subject:

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

Location:

Toll-free conference line: 1-855-XXX-XXXX, Passcode XXXXXX

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. I will be
sharing my screen with you using join.me. You will receive an e-mail from me 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 no more than 60 minutes to complete. I’ll walk through your completed
survey together and 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/Partial Complete Electronic Meeting Invitation
Note: this will be sent by the interviewer
To:

Participant’s e-mail address

Subject:

Interview to Discuss the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Survey of
Nonprofit Research Activities

Location:

Toll-free conference line: 1-855-XXX-XXXX, Passcode XXXXXX

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 screener card
that we sent to [Name] in January 2018.
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], 2018
Dear [Name],
We greatly appreciate your participation in the interview on [Month] [day], 2018. We
appreciated your willingness to share your thinking and experiences about the National Science
Foundation’s Survey of Nonprofit Research Activities. Your thoughtful feedback will help us
determine if we make to make any revisions to the survey before we conduct it again later this
year.
If you have any questions about his survey, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Sincerely,

Ronda Britt
Project Officer
Survey of Nonprofit Research Activities
National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics
National Science Foundation
703-292-7765
[email protected]

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