HallMeasurement Issues Measurement Issues in Surveys of Giving and Volunteering and Strategies Applied in the Design of Canada’s National Survey of Giving, Volunteering and Participating

Despite the frequent use of surveys to study charitable giving and volunteering, little is known about the quality of the data collected. This article discusses the challenges associ-ated with designing giving and volunteering surveys, suggests strategies for improving measures of giving and volunteering, and shows how they were applied in the design of Canada’s 1997 National Survey of Giving, Volunteering and Participating. Surveys are frequently used to collect data about giving and volunteering; however, the quality of the data is seldom known, and the measurement chal-lenges inherent in such surveys are not well recognized. For example, the inability of respondents to accurately recall past behaviors introduces both random errors and probable downward biases to estimates of giving and vol-unteering. On the other hand, the tendency of some respondents to provide socially desirable responses may lead to an overreporting of giving and volun-teering. The extent to which these two potential sources of bias may offset one another is seldom known and varies from survey to survey according to the particular way in which giving and volunteering are measured. Such threat