About the Survey
The CASE Europe Development Survey was developed by a team of experienced development services practitioners with support from CASE Europe. The survey aims to capture industry progress within the development and alumni relations professions whilst allowing institutions to share success and best practice. Since its inception in 2014, this annual survey has continued to grow, with 51 institutions taking part in 2016. Increased participation allows participants to more effectively benchmark their programmes, comparing their operations and performance to peers and industry leaders and using this information for continuous improvement.
This survey is not a ranking system; rather, it is geared towards helping participants understand what they are doing well, where they might improve, how the sector has changed over time and how it might develop in the future. Institutions of all shapes, sizes and setups are encouraged to participate. The aim of the survey is to gain an accurate picture of development services in the sector as a whole, not just to collate the views of the largest, most complex or most heavily resourced operations.
The survey is organized in the following sections:
- You & Your Institution
- Your Team & Investments
- Technology & Systems
- Data & Information Management
- Compliance, Data Protection & GDPR
- Privacy Statements
- Training & User Support
- Reporting & Analytics
- Campaign Planning
- Prospect Research
- Due Diligence
- Finance & Gift Processing
You do not have to answer every question, although the best results will be derived if your submission is as complete as possible.
Where is the survey hosted?
The survey is hosted on the CASE Benchmarking Toolkit, a powerful software application developed by CASE to collect data. Participants can complete the survey in parts and save completed sections. Participants can also download an Excel template of the survey from the toolkit to circulate internally across departments.
This detailed guide explains how to complete a survey on the toolkit.
Survey Committee
CASE Europe Development Services Survey Committee 2017-18:
- Julian Szego, deputy director, advancement operations at The London School of Economics and Political Science [CHAIR]
- Dan Keyworth, head of analytics and data at University of Southampton (TBC)
- Tom Jirat, information manager at University of Manchester
- Chris Newson, head of campaign operations at the Royal Academy of Music
- Jordan Scammell, development services team manager at University of Westminster
CASE runs the survey data sets through rigorous checks to ensure that the data submitted is free from errors and as robust as possible.
All committee members sign non-disclosure agreements with CASE Europe to safeguard the data submitted by participating institutions. As part of the data querying process, committee members may get access to un-anonymised survey data to enable them to conduct meaningful checks and use their experience and knowledge of the sector to flag any oddities in the data (for instance, if a very small institution reports a relatively large alumni staff number). Apart from these checks, CASE staff also run a number of logic, arithmetic and ratio checks.
By taking part in the survey you agree for your institution's data to be used by CASE in the above listed ways.
