Toward Representation in Evaluation Surveys

Think of a time you were serving your community. Perhaps you sent out a survey to town residents at a community gathering, and you received 35 out of 60 answers, making you confident that you had responses to apply to the entire town. However, what if the 25 people who chose not to respond to the survey were people who varied strongly from the rest of the group? Maybe they lived in a different neighborhood than the other 35 people. Without knowing it, you may have gathered responses that are not actually representative of an entire community. And without those 25 responses, it might be more difficult to make decisions that truly benefit the whole community.