Wednesday 15th March 2023

Supporter Survey Feedback

Thank you to everyone who responded to our Supporter Survey that we conducted last September. It was great to hear from so many of you and we wanted to share some of the highlights and insights that you shared with us

Where you are

As you can see from the map, more respondents were from the East of England than anywhere else, although once we add the South of England and London to that, we get to 60% of respondents. We’re glad to see some pockets of support elsewhere, and apologies for not including the Midlands as an option!

Faithful support

The vast majority of respondents were 61 years old or older. Many of you have been connected to Pilgrims’ Friend Society for many years and we are so grateful for such faithful support. While we continue to work with you, we are also looking at ways to reach a slightly younger age group, both so that the value of older people is appreciated across the generations and to make sure we have lots of support for the decades to come.

Powerful prayer

We are always so encouraged by the prayer support that our supporters give us. It is far and away the most important way you can stand with us. Lots of you find the prayer guide included in The Pilgrims' Magazine really helpful, and we were encouraged to see that a many of you use prayer points included in our Family News email and on our social media platforms as well. We were also really pleased to see that a number of you value the points included in the newsletters which come from the homes as well.

We’re aware that we could give you a little more detail at more frequent times to support your prayers so we have already made some important changes to help with this:

The Prayer Guide (pull-out from magazine)

You may notice that the Prayer Guide now includes more detail for your daily prayers.

Prayer Points

Within The Pilgrims' Magazine, you’ll see that there are more indicators across the pages of things you can pray for. We hope you’ll be able to refer to this hand in hand with the Prayer Guide.

Regular Prayer News email

We are launching a brand new regular Prayer News email for those of you who would appreciate more frequent and detailed prayer points. You can sign up for this here.

Faithful finances

We are always blown away by the faithfulness of financial giving that comes from so many of you. We so appreciate the generosity that you consistently show. As you can see from the pie chart, just over 40% prefer to give by cheque with just over 50% preferring to give online or through regular giving. Cash has become a smaller but much-appreciated stream.

We asked you how frequently you preferred to give. Of those of you who give, over half prefer to give occasionally, with the rest of you giving regularly either monthly, twice a year, or annually.

Pilgrims Friend Supporter Survey Pie Chart 1

Pilgrims Friend Supporter Survey Bar Chart 2

If you’ll allow us a moment of total honestly, the most beneficial way for us to receive giving is via a monthly regular payment such as a Direct Debit or Standing Order. This kind of regularity allows us to plan for the future, and automated payments reduce the processing and administration costs. If you felt you could give this way, we would be so grateful.

That said, we are, of course, incredibly grateful for any financial support however it arrives with us. We know that not all of you are able to set up automated monthly giving so, if you do give to us, please continue to do so in the way that is best for you.

We also asked about legacy giving. Just over a quarter of you have already included Pilgrims’ Friend Society in your Will, plan to do so, or are considering doing so. Once again, we are so grateful for this kind of lasting gift. If this is something you’d like to think more about, please do visit www.pilgrimsfriend.org.uk/legacy or get in touch with the Support Office.

And finally, we wanted to share some of the lovely things you said about Pilgrims’ Friend Society. We asked you what three words you would use to describe us and here’s a sample of your responses: