Culture Survey - Animal Charity Evaluators

2021 Charity Evaluations Culture Survey

We believe that a healthy workplace culture is an essential component of any effective organization—that’s why “Leadership and Culture” is one of our four charity evaluation criteria. Since 2018, we have sent a culture survey to the staff of charities under review in order to have a better understanding of staff members’ perspectives of their organization’s leadership and culture. In 2021, we also distributed a version of the culture survey to volunteers working at least five hours per week. We aim to protect respondents’ safety and anonymity, and therefore we do not ask for identifying information and keep responses confidential. We use Qualtrics to administer the survey, and we translate it into other languages when requested.

We utilize our culture survey to ask staff and volunteers about specific topics we consider relevant to our assessment:

Volunteering. We ask about volunteer hours because volunteering may be a special case of uncertain work conditions due to the absence of a contract and pay.
Engagement and satisfaction. We elicit employee engagement using the Gallup Q¹² survey to capture whether staff have non-material incentives (e.g., goal-related intangible rewards). We elicit staff satisfaction with wage and benefits to capture whether staff have appropriate material incentives.
Leadership. We ask staff to identify the extent to which they feel that leadership competently guides the organization.
Representation/diversity, equity and inclusion (R/DEI). ACE believes that the animal advocacy movement should be safe and inclusive for everyone and that cases of harassment¹ and/or discrimination² in the workplace should be appropriately addressed. We ask staff and volunteers whether they have experienced or witnessed any instances of harassment or discrimination in the workplace, and whether or not they believe that such cases were appropriately addressed by leadership.

Since 2019, participation in our culture survey has been an eligibility requirement for receiving a recommendation from ACE. However, ACE does not require individual staff members or volunteers at participating charities to complete the survey. We recognize that surveying staff and volunteers could (i) lead to inaccuracies due to selection bias, and (ii) may not reflect employees’ true opinions as they are aware that their responses could influence ACE’s evaluation of their employer.

For transparency, below are the culture survey questions that were distributed to staff and volunteers of charities we evaluated in 2021. Please note that culture survey responses represent only one aspect of our leadership and culture assessment. We also request information from charities’ top leadership, and in some cases, we receive unsolicited testimonials from former and current staff.

2021 Survey Questions

[Volunteers only] Approximately how many hours per month do you volunteer for the organization?

[Volunteers only] Do you get paid for the work you do at the organization? yes/no

[staff only] Please rate each of the following statements on a scale from 1 (no, I strongly disagree) to 7 (yes, I strongly agree):

Do you know what is expected of you at work?
Do you have the materials and equipment to do your work well?
At work, do you have the opportunity to do what you do best every day?
In the last seven days, have you received recognition or praise for doing good work?
Does your supervisor, or someone at work, seem to care about you as a person?
Is there someone at work who encourages your development?
At work, do your opinions count?
Does the mission/purpose of your organization make you feel your job is important?
Are your associates (fellow employees) committed to doing quality work?
Do you have a best friend at work?
In the last six months, has someone at work talked to you about your progress?
In the last year, have you had opportunities to learn and grow?

[Staff only] Do you agree that the leaders of your organization competently guide the organization?

1–7 rating choices
Please elaborate (optional):

[Staff only] Please rate each question on a scale from 1 (completely dissatisfied) to 7 (completely satisfied). You may optionally elaborate on your ratings in the text boxes.

How satisfied are you with the wage you receive for your work?

1–7 rating choices
Please elaborate (optional):

How satisfied are you with benefits provided other than your wage (e.g., paid time off, flexible working hours, health insurance, vacation time)?

1–7 rating choices
Please elaborate (optional):

Please respond to each question. You may optionally elaborate in the text boxes.

Definitions

Harassment

Harassment can be non-sexual or sexual in nature:

Non-sexual harassment refers to unwelcome conduct—including physical, verbal, and nonverbal behavior—that upsets, demeans, humiliates, intimidates, or threatens an individual or group. Harassment may occur in one incident or many.
Sexual harassment is defined as unwelcome sexual advances; requests for sexual favors; and other physical, verbal, and nonverbal behaviors of a sexual nature when (i) submission to such conduct is made explicitly or implicitly a term or condition of an individual’s employment; (ii) submission to or rejection of such conduct by an individual is used as the basis for employment decisions affecting the targeted individual; or (iii) such conduct has the purpose or effect of interfering with an individual’s work performance or creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive working environment.

Discrimination

Discrimination is the unjust or prejudicial treatment of or hostility toward an individual on the basis of certain characteristics (called “protected classes” in some countries), such as race, color, ethnicity, religion, sex, gender or gender expression, sexual orientation, pregnancy or parental status, marital status, national origin, citizenship, amnesty, veteran status, political beliefs, age, ability, or genetic information.

During the past year, have you yourself experienced any instances of harassment or discrimination in your workplace?

Yes/no
If yes, please elaborate (optional):

During the past year, have you witnessed any instances of harassment or discrimination of others in your workplace?

Yes/no
If yes, please elaborate (optional):

[If answered yes in at least one of the questions above] Do you agree that your organization’s leadership handled the situation(s) appropriately?

7-point agreement scale
Optional: text

(Optional) Is there anything else you would like to share with ACE about your organization’s culture?

[text box]

Harassment can be non-sexual or sexual in nature: ACE defines non-sexual harassment as unwelcome conduct—including physical, verbal, and nonverbal behavior—that upsets, demeans, humiliates, intimidates, or threatens an individual or group. Harassment may occur in one incident or many. ACE defines sexual harassment as unwelcome sexual advances; requests for sexual favors; and other physical, verbal, and nonverbal behaviors of a sexual nature when (i) submission to such conduct is made explicitly or implicitly a term or condition of an individual’s employment; (ii) submission to or rejection of such conduct by an individual is used as the basis for employment decisions affecting the targeted individual; or (iii) such conduct has the purpose or effect of interfering with an individual’s work performance or creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive working environment.
ACE defines discrimination as the unjust or prejudicial treatment of or hostility toward an individual on the basis of certain characteristics (called “protected classes” in some countries), such as race, color, ethnicity, religion, sex, gender or gender expression, sexual orientation, pregnancy or parental status, marital status, national origin, citizenship, amnesty, veteran status, political beliefs, age, ability, or genetic information.