Keystone Development Partnerships Survey

Keystone Accountability’s Partner Survey gives international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) vital information to improve their performance.

Since 2010, Keystone Accountability has been conducting benchmark surveys of partners of international non-governmental organizations. Partners are asked to rate and comment on different aspects of the INGO’s performance. The surveys are confidential and Keystone doesn’t reveal respondents identities to the INGO. This provides local partners with a safe space to express their feelings about working with international partners and enables a more open, data-driven dialogue for improving performance by both.

To date, 78 organizations have taken the survey (including Plan International, WaterAid, Oxfam and Save the Children, UK, US and International) and 18 have repeated the process. While they have different goals and structures they all tackle poverty, injustice and suffering in developing countries by working in partnership with organizations. With data from thousands of local partners, the comparative data – the benchmarks – provide a sounding that reliably alerts INGOs to where you stand on each question against your peers.

The results provide scope for INGOs to explore what is and what isn’t working in their relationships with local NGOs. INGOs are making real changes to how they do business as a result of taking the survey including how field staff manage relationships, introducing monthly reports from the INGO to the partners, and creating a new role focussing on partnerships. These changes are reflected in improved scores in follow up feedback, and lead to better outcomes.

As an addition to the Partnership Survey, clients receive six months free subscription to the Feedback Commons. The Feedback Commons is an online tool developed by Keystone Accountability allowing organizations to easily and cheaply obtain feedback data, which, can be benchmarked against peers. All the survey data will be uploaded to the Feedback Commons and clients can select a subset of questions to administer again anonymously at regular intervals, providing a way to track progress over time. Keystone Accountability will provide support to use the tool and there are also online guides and resources to support each step of the process.

See some examples of survey reports here.