Staff questions that show what keeps people doing the work
Ask employees how the job feels, from workload and pay to the people they serve. Each question below comes with when to ask it and what the answer tells you.
What nonprofit employee survey questions tell you
Nonprofit employee survey questions ask your staff how the job feels: whether the work serves the mission, whether the workload is manageable, what support would help and what would make them stay. People join a charity for the cause and carry a lot for it. A survey shows the strain before it turns into a resignation.
Ask once or twice a year, with a short pulse of three or four questions in between. Share it by link or QR code with anonymous responses on, so no user ID, traits or visitor ID is stored, and say so in the invitation. On a small team, leave out the tenure question when it could identify someone.
Each written answer is read as it arrives and given a category, a theme, a sentiment and an urgency, so a message about burnout or feeling unsafe to speak up reaches leadership quickly. Share the themes with the whole team, and give each agreed change an owner in the inbox.
- Questions
- 14
- Best asked
- Once or twice a year, with a pulse between
- Industry
- Nonprofits
- Where to find them
- From library in the Usertick survey editor, on every plan
The 14 working at a nonprofit questions, with when to ask each
Grouped by what they tell you. Use them as they are or change the wording.
The job and the mission
Start with the grid and the recommend score, then how connected people feel to the people they serve.
- 01Matrix
How much do you agree about your job here?
Four statements about the job, from serving the mission to speaking up safely, rated from strongly disagree to strongly agree. The heat map shows the weakest statement, with an average per row to follow year by year.
- 07NPS
How likely are you to recommend this charity as a place to work?
Asks how likely the employee is to recommend the charity as a place to work. Results shows the score with detractors, passives and promoters. Follow it from one survey to the next.
- 02Big scale
How connected do you feel to the people we serve?
How connected the employee feels to the people the charity serves, from 1 to 10. Split it by role to see whether office staff feel cut off from the mission.
- 13Emoji
How was your last month at work?
How the last month at work felt, on a row of faces. It is quick enough for a monthly pulse, and Results shows each face with its share, compared with the month before.
Workload and pressure
These questions show where the week goes and what weighs on people, so you can see whether the strain comes from hours, paperwork or the work itself.
- 03Multiple choice
What is the hardest part of the job?
Names the hardest part of the job, from workload to the emotional weight. Results shows the share of each, which tells you whether to start with pay, staffing or support.
- 08Ruler
How many hours do you work in a normal week?
Hours worked in a normal week, on a ruler. Results shows the median and the middle half. A middle half well above contracted hours points at a workload problem.
- 04Number
How many days a week do you work at our offices?
How many days a week the employee works at your offices. Results shows the median and the middle half, a plain fact for planning desks and team days.
- 10Points allocation
Split 100 points across where your week goes
The employee splits 100 points across frontline work, paperwork, meetings, fundraising and learning. Results shows the average points per item, a picture of where the week goes.
- 11Multiple choice
How is the balance between paperwork and frontline work?
How the balance between paperwork and frontline work feels. Results shows the share of each answer. Read it with the points split to see how big the gap is.
Support and staying
Ask what would help and how often people think of leaving, and read the open answers before you plan next year's budget.
- 06Multiple choice
Which support would help most?
Lets employees pick every kind of support that would help, from supervision to clearer priorities. Results shows bars per option, a list to set against your budget.
- 09Dropdown
How often do you think about leaving?
How often the employee thinks about leaving. Results shows the share of each, and a rising share for Often is an early warning to act on before resignations arrive.
- 05Text
What would make you stay another two years?
An open question on what would make the employee stay another two years. Each answer arrives with its theme, so the changes that come up most stand out from the one-off.
- 12Text
What should leadership hear that nobody says out loud?
An open question on what leadership should hear that nobody says out loud. Keep the survey anonymous for this one, and share the themes with the team, so people see it was read.
- 14Dropdown
How long have you worked for this charity?
How long the employee has worked for the charity. Use it to split the other answers, and leave it out on a small team where it could identify someone.
Tips for asking about working at a nonprofit
Small choices that get honest, useful answers.
- 01
Promise only what holds
Anonymous responses hold for website, link or QR code surveys. Share this survey by link, and don't promise anonymity for a survey sent through Usertick email.
- 02
Pulse between the big surveys
Ask three or four questions each month or quarter, such as how the month felt and the hours worked, between the yearly surveys.
- 03
Share the results back
Share the scores and themes with the whole team within a month, and say what you will change.
- 04
Act on the weight of the work
When the emotional weight is the hardest part, offer support such as supervision before you ask again, so the next survey shows whether it helped.
Add these questions to a survey
From the library to the first answers.
- 1
Open the library
In the Usertick survey editor, choose From library, filter by industry and topic, and add several questions at once.
- 2
Or paste your own list
Paste questions reads up to 10 questions from any text on Free, 100 on Starter and 200 on Pro and above, keeps your wording and picks an answer type for each.
- 3
Choose where it runs
Show the survey on your website, send it by email, share its link and QR code, or switch it to a conversation.
- 4
Read the answers
Results counts every score and choice, and Usertick reads each written answer and files it by topic, on every plan.
Templates and more questions about working at a nonprofit
Full surveys that ask about the same things, and neighboring topics in the library.
Templates
Browse all templatesFrequently asked questions
Once or twice a year, with a short pulse in between. Use the same questions each time, so each card in Results compares with the period before.
Yes, on a website, link or QR code survey with anonymous responses on: no user ID, traits or visitor ID is stored. Surveys sent through Usertick email aren't anonymous.
Eight to twelve for the yearly survey, with the grid first and the open questions last. A monthly pulse needs three or four.
Ask volunteers separately, since pay, hours and leaving mean different things for them. Volunteer questions cover the shift, the team and what brings people back.
Yes. The question library comes with every plan, the free plan included, and the free plan covers 150 responses a month across your surveys.
Yes. Once a question is in your survey, reword it, change its options or its answer type, and add logic to skip it for some answers.
Yes. The library is translated into Usertick's built-in languages, and in any other language it shows in English for you to translate.
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