Hello.
I work for a nonprofit and we’re looking to update how we collect data on our participants’ income. Can anyone share how your organization collects income data?
- If you use income ranges, what ranges do you use?
- Do you differentiate between earned income and unearned income?
- Is this data collected via a survey or a conversation?
- How are the question(s) worded?
- Anything else you think would be useful?
We know we want to do self-report without a verification process, but that’s about all we’ve decided so far.
Thanks!
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Great question @JillianB we’re putting together some examples from our work and I’m sure others will chime in here too.
When you are collecting your participants’ income, what specifically are you trying to measure? For example, is an accurate dollar amount important vs trying to get a sense of whether they’re above the poverty line as two of many possibilities.
Great question. Thanks for prompting me to clarify, @Heather.
I think the two things we’re primarily trying to measure are 1) get a sense of whether they’re above the poverty line and 2) how their income changes over time. We already gather a small amount of updated information from our participants on an annual basis, and would like to add income to that list. Right now we only collect it upon enrollment and then never update it, despite some families being enrolled in our programming for years.