As a junior in college, I was given a copy of Robert S. Lynd’s 1939 book, Knowledge for What? In it, Lynd asserts that social scientific research should be applied to real-world problems. As both an experimental psychology major and a student activist, I appreciated its thesis. The question “knowledge for what?” is the cornerstone of my more than four decades of work in the nonprofit sector. I believe in using data to change the world. 

Since 1991, I have been doing survey research about fundraising outcomes in the United States, first as the research director and author of Giving USA, the annual report on philanthropy in the United States, and then as the director of the Voluntary Support of Education survey at the Council for Aid to Education and, starting in 2018, at CASE. I have been directing the VSE program for over two decades.

Good data can be used to make the case for support and to chronicle trends so we can better navigate changing environments. The 2022 VSE survey opens in June. It has been modified to reflect the CASE Global Reporting Standards as well as to implement modifications from user experiences and requests. There is a short version of the new survey that is even simpler than it was in 2021. It will also, for the first time, offer the opportunity to answer some or all of the optional questions that full and partial survey participants can access. You do not have to respond to these questions, but you might find that some are of interest.