Employee Engagement Surveys for Nonprofits and Organizations
Best Christian Workplaces (BCW) provides employee engagement surveys, benchmarking, and consultant-guided interpretation for nonprofits, schools, churches, higher education, and businesses. We help leaders understand what employees experience at work, identify barriers to engagement, and choose practical improvements.
For nonprofit leaders, the goal is to strengthen the people who carry out your mission. This guide explains how employee engagement services work, what to look for in a provider, and how to turn feedback into a healthier workplace.
See what your results could look like. Get a Sample Report to explore the reporting and learn about pricing.
Understanding Employee Engagement
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What is an employee engagement survey
An employee engagement survey measures how employees experience their workplace and how invested they are in their work. It gives leaders a structured way to understand strengths, barriers, and differences that may be difficult to see through everyday conversations alone.
BCW assesses engagement through indicators of energy, enthusiasm, commitment, and passion. Our survey also examines workplace conditions associated with engagement, such as leadership, communication, teamwork, growth, compensation, and strategy. Together, these measures help you understand both how people feel and where leadership can focus its attention.
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What is the difference between employee engagement and employee satisfaction
Satisfaction describes how content someone is with aspects of their job. Engagement describes their investment in the work and organization. An employee can appreciate their benefits or colleagues while feeling disconnected from the work or uncertain about staying.
A useful assessment goes beyond whether people are happy. It explores whether they feel supported, trust leaders, understand expectations, have opportunities to grow, and can contribute effectively. Leaders can then distinguish a comfortable workplace from one in which people have the conditions to do their best work.
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Why does employee engagement matter for a nonprofit
Employee engagement matters because nonprofit services depend on people who can carry out the mission consistently and sustainably. Problems with communication, trust, development, or workload can weaken that capacity even when employees deeply believe in the cause.
BCW's 2026 State of the Christian Workplace report found that 65% of employees in its surveyed “Other Nonprofits” group were engaged in 2025. The remaining 35% represented an opportunity to understand and address barriers. This group includes nonprofit media, camps and conference centers, nonprofit health care, and nonprofit products and services; it does not represent every nonprofit.
Read the 2026 research report, pages 64–66.
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Does a strong mission mean our employees are engaged
A strong mission can attract and motivate employees, but it does not establish that their everyday workplace experience is healthy. People also need trustworthy leadership, clear expectations, meaningful involvement, and support for their development.
In BCW's 2025 all-sector survey findings, passion scored 4.40 on a five-point scale while commitment scored 3.91. These separate measures show why enthusiasm for a mission should not be treated as assurance that people intend to remain. Surveying helps leaders investigate that gap in their own organization.
Source: 2026 research report, page 11. Related reading: Vision Can Inspire People. Trust Is What Makes Them Stay.
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How are engagement wellbeing and burnout related
Engagement, wellbeing, and burnout describe different aspects of the employee experience. Engagement concerns investment in work. Wellbeing concerns how people are doing more broadly. Burnout concerns exhaustion and strain associated with prolonged demands.
An engagement survey can surface concerns about support, leadership, or sustainability that merit further conversation. It is not a clinical diagnosis. Leaders should combine organizational feedback with appropriate support and specific follow-up rather than treating one overall score as a complete picture of employee wellbeing.
Choosing a provider and budgeting
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How do we choose an employee engagement survey provider
Choose a provider that can explain its methodology, protect employee feedback, provide relevant comparisons, and help you interpret results. Evaluate what happens after the survey as carefully as the survey platform itself.
Ask how questions were developed, which organizations form the benchmark, how small groups are protected, what reports are included, and who helps leaders decide what to do next. Request a sample report and a clear account of included services and optional charges. A provider's fit depends on your workforce, mission, and capacity to act on the findings.
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How much does an employee engagement survey cost
BCW's employee engagement survey pricing combines a base fee with a per-person fee for each employee invited to participate. The base fee varies by organization size. Optional reporting and additional consulting can affect the total investment.
The value of the engagement includes more than collecting responses: the standard nonprofit offering includes an engagement report, a customized executive summary, and a 90-minute executive debrief with an experienced consultant. Leaders receive interpretation to help them move from feedback to priorities. Your quote should confirm what is included for your organization and what is optional.
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Is the per-person fee based on invitations or completed responses
BCW's standard nonprofit pricing is based on the number of employees invited to participate. Budget using your eligible employee population rather than assuming charges depend on how many responses are completed.
Confirm the invitation count and any changes to the workforce with BCW before launch. Your proposal should also specify additional reporting or services you choose, so the total investment is clear before the survey begins.
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What is included and what costs extra
The standard nonprofit offering includes the employee engagement report, a customized executive summary, and a 90-minute executive debrief. Additional team snapshot reports and further consulting are separately priced in the current nonprofit offering.
Reporting availability also depends on organization size and confidentiality safeguards. Discuss demographic reporting, comprehensive reporting, and team-level views before purchasing. The most useful package gives your leaders enough detail to act without exposing employees or generating more reporting than your organization can use.
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How should we explain the value of a survey to our board
Explain the survey as an investment in better decisions about the workforce that delivers your mission. Connect it to specific concerns: staff retention, management effectiveness, collaboration, leadership trust, or capacity to serve.
Show what the engagement delivers and how leadership will respond. Assign responsibility for reviewing the results, selecting priorities, and reporting progress. The strongest investment case includes the cost of the survey and the time and resources needed to make improvements. A survey supplies evidence; its value depends on how leaders use it.
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What does the research say about engagement and organizational capacity
BCW research shows an association between healthier workplace culture and greater capacity in the populations studied. That supports taking culture seriously, while distinguishing observed relationships from promised outcomes.
A BCW analysis of 100 Christian schools using 2020–2024 data found that schools scoring at least 4.00 served an average of 9.13 students per employee, compared with 6.87 for schools below 4.00—approximately 33% more. This was school-sector research, not proof that every nonprofit will achieve a 33% improvement or that surveying alone creates the difference.
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Can we estimate the financial impact of disengagement
You can use research to explore the potential scale of lost capacity, but an estimate is not a prediction of cash savings. Start with your workforce, your engagement results, and your own operating measures.
BCW's 2026 report uses an estimated $19,680 in annual lost productivity per non-engaged employee. Its footnote identifies a separate K–12 analysis as the basis. If you use that figure for another sector, state the assumption explicitly. For illustration, applying it to 10 non-engaged employees produces $196,800 in modeled capacity; it does not establish that amount of recoverable budget or revenue.
For a nonprofit, monitor mission-relevant outcomes alongside engagement: service consistency, turnover, vacancies, workload, or capacity per employee. Source: 2026 research report, page 8.
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Should we use a third party or build our own survey
A third party can provide an established methodology, benchmark data, and experienced interpretation. An internal survey may suit a narrow operational question when the organization has the skills and trust needed to collect and analyze feedback appropriately.
Compare the complete effort, including design, administration, confidentiality, analysis, and action planning. Simple software can distribute questions, but distribution alone does not establish that a survey measures engagement reliably. BCW's process combines a structured assessment with reporting and a consultant debrief.
Confidentiality and participation
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Are employee engagement surveys anonymous
BCW collects anonymous employee feedback to help people respond candidly about their workplace. Its survey process includes confidentiality safeguards, and its published privacy policy describes survey submissions as anonymized.
Before launch, explain those safeguards in concrete terms: how results are reported, how small groups are handled, which leaders receive reports, and how written comments are treated. Anonymity and confidentiality are not interchangeable terms. Comments can also reveal identity through their content, even when names are not shown. Give employees BCW's current participant guidance so they understand both the protections and how feedback is used. Read BCW's privacy policy.
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Can managers see individual employee answers
Managers should be told exactly what their reporting access allows before the survey starts. Participation administration, aggregate scores, subgroup reports, and written comments are different kinds of information and require different explanations.
For your BCW engagement, confirm the current access and reporting rules with the survey team, and use that explanation consistently in employee communications. Do not tell employees that a manager can see nothing—or everything—without checking how your survey and reports are configured.
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Can we see results for small teams or departments
Team reporting depends on enough participation to support useful interpretation and protect confidentiality. Smaller groups may need to be combined or withheld from separate reporting under the applicable rules.
Discuss proposed teams, role levels, and other categories with BCW during setup. A breakdown is useful when it helps leaders improve a shared experience without making individual employees identifiable. Do not create ever-smaller groups simply because a platform makes the filters available.
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How do we encourage honest responses
Build trust before asking for feedback. Explain why you are surveying, how feedback is protected, and what leaders will do with the findings. Give employees reasonable time to participate and make clear that candid feedback is welcome.
Then follow through. Share themes, acknowledge difficult findings, and show the actions taken. In its 2026 report, BCW identifies eroding trust, limited involvement in decisions, and feedback that is not heard or acted on as recurring barriers. Employees need evidence that speaking up leads to useful action.
Source: 2026 research report, pages 13–14.
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What is a good survey response rate
A useful response rate is high enough to give leaders confidence that the results reflect the workforce, including different teams and roles. There is no single percentage that proves every organization's results are representative.
Track completed responses divided by employees invited, and review which groups may be underrepresented. A high overall rate can still conceal a missing team. Ask your consultant how participation affects interpretation and subgroup reporting. Evaluate response patterns alongside confidentiality, accessibility, and employees' confidence that leaders will act.
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What if participation is low
Low participation calls for investigation rather than assumptions about employee attitudes. Employees may have concerns about trust, limited access, competing demands, or uncertainty about the purpose of the survey.
Check invitation delivery, make participation accessible, and explain the process again without pressuring people to answer positively. Review the resulting limits with your consultant. Do not treat silence as satisfaction, and avoid incentives or manager behavior that could make participation feel coerced.
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Can employees without work email or in other countries participate
Confirm participation arrangements with BCW before inviting employees who lack work email or need a different language. Access requirements, translations, and reporting need to match your workforce.
BCW's public survey information lists availability in more than 20 languages. Verify your specific language and invitation needs rather than assuming any language or access method is supported. Plan for people working different shifts, locations, or time zones so the invitation process does not unintentionally exclude them.
Survey design and timing
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What questions does BCW ask in its employee engagement survey
The standard nonprofit survey includes 56 standard questions and three open-ended questions, with setup options for teams, role levels, and custom questions. It measures workplace experiences through the FLOURISH Model and provides space for employees to add context.
Quantitative responses help leaders compare patterns. Written feedback can explain the experiences behind those patterns. Use the findings together, while remembering that a memorable comment should not automatically outweigh the wider response data.
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What is the FLOURISH Model
The FLOURISH Model is BCW's research-backed framework for understanding eight drivers of workplace culture associated with employee engagement. It helps leaders organize feedback into areas where they can take action.
Driver
Workplace experience to examine
Fantastic Teams
Collaboration and shared direction
Life-Giving Work
Work that uses people's abilities and provides energy
Outstanding Talent
Attracting, retaining, and supporting capable colleagues
Uplifting Growth
Learning and development opportunities
Rewarding Compensation
Employees' experience of pay and benefits
Inspirational Leadership
Trustworthy leadership behavior
Sustainable Strategy
Clear goals and effective execution
Healthy Communication
Listening, information sharing, and feedback
The report describes the framework and how BCW analyzes the relative contribution of its drivers. Explore the research, page 12.
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Can we add custom questions
BCW's public engagement survey information describes the option to add up to five custom questions. These can address a specific initiative, organizational value, or local concern alongside the standard assessment.
Keep the standard questions consistent when tracking change. Confirm wording and reporting with the survey team, and distinguish custom-question results from benchmarked measures. A question that is useful to your organization may not have a comparable external benchmark.
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How often should we conduct an employee engagement survey
BCW recommends an annual full employee engagement survey, followed by action and ongoing listening. Annual measurement gives leaders a regular opportunity to review changes, maintain accountability, and plan the next year's priorities.
A five-year BCW study of 475 partner organizations reported that annual survey participants improved culture health nearly twice as fast as those with less frequent survey cycles. This is an observed pattern among BCW partners, not a guarantee or proof that frequency alone caused improvement.
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What is the difference between a pulse survey and a full engagement survey
A full engagement survey provides a broad assessment. A pulse survey provides a shorter check on progress between fuller assessments. Choose the format based on what you need to learn and what action has already been taken.
Feature
Full engagement survey
BCW pulse survey
Purpose
Establish a broad view of workplace health
Check progress between full surveys
Standard format
56 standard questions and three open-ended questions in the nonprofit offering
16 questions focused on engagement
Timing
Annual cycle recommended by BCW
Often around six months after a full survey
Employee time
Confirm with BCW during planning
Public product page describes about five minutes
Eligibility
Discuss organization fit with BCW
Existing ministry partners only
Certification
Subject to eligibility and current criteria
Does not award certification
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When should we schedule the survey
Schedule the survey when employees can participate and leaders can use the findings in planning. BCW's guidance notes that many partners survey two to three months before budgeting or strategic planning.
Allow time for setup, collection, analysis, the executive debrief, and communication to employees. Avoid assuming that the employee response period is the entire project. Choose dates with BCW based on your operating calendar and workforce needs.
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Should we wait until a difficult transition is over
A transition can make current employee feedback more useful, especially when leaders need to understand changes in trust, clarity, or workload. Consider timing and readiness with your consultant rather than automatically postponing assessment.
Explain what leadership can act on and avoid promising immediate solutions to every concern. A recent BCW article describes the continuing work of rebuilding trust after a crisis: listening to unresolved experiences and acknowledging what employees have carried into the next season.
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How do we avoid survey fatigue
Make each request for feedback purposeful and show what changed because of earlier input. Fatigue can arise when employees are repeatedly asked to respond without seeing a useful result.
Use the annual survey as a structured checkpoint, supplement it with focused listening, and add a pulse survey when it can answer a meaningful progress question. Tell staff what you heard, what you chose to address, and when you will report back. Do not confuse frequent measurement with frequent improvement.
Scores and benchmarks
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What is a good employee engagement score
A good score depends on the instrument and scoring method. In BCW's five-point framework, overall scores of 4.00 or higher are classified as healthy, with 4.25 or higher classified as flourishing. Lower ranges indicate inconsistent or unhealthy workplace experiences.
BCW score range
Workplace health category
4.25–5.00
Flourishing
4.00–4.24
Healthy
3.75–3.99
Inconsistent
Below 3.75
Unhealthy
A composite score is not the percentage of employees who are engaged. Review the drivers, individual items, and relevant group patterns with your consultant before deciding what the overall score means for action.
Source: 2026 research report, page 65.
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How do employee engagement benchmarks work
Benchmarks put your results beside those of a relevant comparison group. They help you see where a score that looks acceptable in isolation may still reveal an opportunity relative to peers.
BCW's reporting provides sector comparisons, and your consultant helps interpret the applicable benchmark. Ask about the population, period, and definitions used. Also compare your organization with its own earlier results. A change in question wording, workforce composition, or survey method can limit comparability.
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What does BCW research show about nonprofit engagement
In the “Other Nonprofits” group of BCW's 2026 report, 65% of employees were engaged in 2025, compared with 61% in 2024: a four-percentage-point increase. In 2025, 75% of organizations in that group met the healthy or flourishing threshold.
The sector section covers 14,473 survey participants across 2021–2025; 40 organizations in this group surveyed in 2025. The five-year participant total should not be described as the 2025 sample. Other nonprofit-related sectors are reported separately, so these numbers are not an estimate for all nonprofit workers.
Source: 2026 research report, pages 64–65 and 71.
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Can we compare our score directly with another provider's score
Do not assume scores from different providers are interchangeable. Instruments may use different questions, populations, response scales, and rules for classifying engagement.
Compare like with like when evaluating progress. A BCW five-point score, a percent-favorable result, a percentile ranking, and a percentage classified as engaged answer different questions. Keep the metric's definition next to the number and ask your consultant to explain the limits of external comparisons.
Results and action planning
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What will our employee engagement report show
Your report helps leaders identify strengths and improvement opportunities in workplace culture. The nonprofit offering includes the engagement report and an executive summary, with additional reporting options depending on size and scope.
Review the sample report before choosing your package. Ask which views will help you understand your workforce and which are optional. Useful reporting turns data into decisions: where to listen more closely, what to protect, and which leadership practices to change.
See the reporting for yourself. Get a Sample Report.
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What happens during the executive debrief
The standard nonprofit engagement includes a 90-minute executive debrief with an experienced BCW consultant. The session helps your leadership team interpret the findings, understand strengths and concerns, and consider priorities for improvement.
Bring the people who will own the response. Use the session to clarify what the data supports, what needs further listening, and which steps are realistic. The customized executive summary helps organize the discussion; further consulting can provide additional support when needed.
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What should we do after receiving survey results
Review the findings with your consultant, communicate the major themes to staff, and choose a small number of meaningful priorities. For each priority, assign an owner, resources, a measure of progress, and a review date.
Connect the work to your planning cycle and include managers who shape employees' daily experience. Employees should be able to see how their feedback informed the choices. When progress is slower than expected, explain the constraints and revise the plan rather than allowing the feedback to disappear.
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How do we choose the most important improvement areas
Choose priorities using several kinds of evidence: the score, its relationship to engagement, employee comments, and the organization's ability to act. The lowest score is not automatically the highest-value starting point.
The 2026 report describes Relative Weights Analysis to examine the contributions of the eight FLOURISH drivers. Your consultant can help interpret patterns and decide where further investigation is needed. Do not try to repair every item at once; focused commitments are easier for employees to recognize and leaders to sustain.
Source: 2026 research report, page 12.
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Should we share results with employees
Share meaningful themes and planned actions while protecting confidentiality. Employees need to know their feedback was considered, including when the results are uncomfortable.
Communicate strengths, acknowledge concerns, and explain the next steps. Avoid identifiable comments or small-group details that undermine the protections employees were promised. Keep reporting progress after the initial announcement. BCW's DiscipleMakers case study illustrates how early input and sustained listening can become normal leadership practices.
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What if our results are poor or our leaders receive difficult feedback
Poor results provide a starting point for improvement. Respond with curiosity, acknowledge the findings, and work with your consultant to distinguish broad patterns from individual comments or assumptions.
Avoid searching for who gave a particular answer. Examine leadership behavior and organizational conditions, then commit to practical changes. If the survey indicates concerns that require investigation or specialized support, address those through the appropriate process; an engagement survey is not a substitute for an investigation.
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Can an engagement survey help us retain employees
An engagement survey can help leaders identify conditions related to employees' willingness to stay. It does not predict every departure or guarantee a retention outcome.
In the report's “Other Nonprofits” sample, 62% of Gen Z respondents and 86% of Boomers agreed that they would prefer to remain even if a comparable higher-paying role were available. The item included 2,235 respondents in 2025. These are stated preferences, not measured turnover rates. Use such findings to investigate growth, trust, compensation, and sustainability in your own workforce.
Source: 2026 research report, page 69. Related reading: Mission Buy-In Won't Keep Gen Z If They Can't See a Future.
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How do we measure progress after taking action
Repeat comparable survey measures and track whether the actions you committed to were completed. Combine those results with appropriate operating indicators, such as retention, vacancies, workload, or service consistency.
Document changes in workforce size and survey participation so you can interpret trends fairly. A higher score alongside visible changes is useful evidence of progress, but it does not isolate the cause. A mid-cycle pulse survey may help existing BCW partners check whether selected improvements are being experienced by employees.
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Should we keep surveying if our culture is already healthy
Yes. Healthy results are a reason to protect strengths and watch for change. New employees, leadership transitions, growth, and shifting expectations can alter the workplace experience even when the overall score remains strong.
ECFA's BCW case study describes how the organization uses annual feedback in leadership and board planning despite consistently strong results. Continued assessment is valuable when leaders continue listening and responding rather than treating certification or a high score as the finish line.
Nonprofit and sector needs
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Does BCW provide employee engagement services for nonprofits
Yes. Best Christian Workplaces provides employee engagement surveys and consultant-guided interpretation for nonprofits. We help nonprofit leaders assess workplace culture, understand staff experiences, and choose improvements that support their people and mission.
Our nonprofit work includes organizations in services, missions, education, health care, camps, media, and other settings represented in our research. We bring particular experience with faith-based and Christian-led organizations. Discuss your organization's mission and workforce with us to confirm fit and the most relevant comparison group.
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How should nonprofits evaluate an employee engagement survey
Look for a survey that helps you understand the employee experience behind mission delivery. Evaluate leadership trust, communication, development, collaboration, compensation, and employees' ability to carry out their work sustainably.
Your operating context matters: frontline services, donor-supported work, geographically distributed teams, and specialist roles can create different pressures. Ask which benchmark fits your organization and how reports will support decisions. Measure staff experience directly rather than assuming strong commitment to the cause resolves workplace problems.
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How do churches, schools, universities, and businesses use the survey
These organizations use employee feedback to assess culture and guide leadership action, with sector-specific interpretation. A church may focus on staff trust and coordination; a school on support and development; a university on differences between roles; a business on collaboration and execution.
BCW's report provides separate sector analyses rather than treating every organization as the same. Your consultant can help identify relevant comparisons while keeping attention on what your own employees say.
Explore churches, education, and businesses.
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Can we assess multiple locations role levels or teams
BCW's nonprofit survey setup includes teams and role levels. Discuss the workforce structure you need to understand before launching the survey, including locations and departments.
Choose groupings that are useful for leadership action and meet reporting safeguards. In the report's “Other Nonprofits” sample, 78% of leaders versus 61% of managers agreed that their organization promotes highly capable employees. The item included 2,150 respondents in 2025. This illustrates how an overall average can conceal different experiences; it is not a finding about your organization.
Source: 2026 research report, page 69.
Getting started with BCW
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What makes BCW's employee engagement service distinctive
BCW combines its FLOURISH framework, sector research, reporting, and an experienced consultant's interpretation. The service helps leaders move from employee feedback to informed decisions about workplace culture.
Our 2026 report describes a 2025 survey program that invited 40,137 employees across 441 Christian-led organizations. Those figures describe invitations and participating organizations, not a universal workforce sample or a count of completed responses. Our purpose is to help you understand your own people using an established framework and relevant context.
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How does employee engagement surveying relate to certification
Eligible organizations can receive BCW certification through the employee engagement survey process when they meet the current requirements. Certification is based on employee feedback and survey data; it is not an independent audit or investigation of organizational practices.
The report's workplace health framework classifies scores of 4.00 or higher as healthy. Confirm current certification eligibility and all requirements with BCW rather than assuming the score is the only condition. A pulse survey does not award certification.
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What is the difference between an engagement survey and Leadership 360
An employee engagement survey examines the workplace experience across an organization or workforce. Leadership 360 gathers feedback to help an individual leader understand behavior and development opportunities.
The tools can complement each other. Organization-wide feedback may reveal leadership themes, while a 360 assessment supports a leader's focused development. BCW's Leadership 360 includes a consultant debrief. Choose the assessment based on the decision you need to make rather than using one as a substitute for the other.
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Can BCW help us understand the reasons behind our results
Yes. Your executive debrief helps interpret patterns, and additional consulting can support deeper exploration or implementation. BCW also offers Discovery Groups to investigate themes and workplace issues that survey scores alone may not explain.
Use follow-up listening to clarify the employee experience before committing to a solution. Confirm the scope, confidentiality arrangements, and pricing for additional services. The right next step depends on what your results show and what your leadership team is ready to address.
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What is the first step and how long will the process take
Start by reviewing a sample report and discussing your employee population, goals, timing, and reporting needs with BCW. The process includes registration, setup, surveying, the executive debrief, and action planning.
The calendar depends on the scope of your engagement and readiness to launch. Ask for a schedule that distinguishes employee completion time from setup, response collection, reporting, and debrief availability. That lets you plan the assessment around leadership decisions and staff communication.
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What does employee feedback reveal
Your mission depends on people who have the clarity, support, and trust to do their best work. An employee engagement survey gives your leadership team a starting point grounded in employees' actual experiences.
Explore the reporting, see how the findings can guide decisions, and learn about pricing for your organization.
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About the research used in the State of the Christian Workplace Report
The 2026 State of the Christian Workplace report presents findings from BCW's surveyed organizations, with 2025 data and multiyear sector context. These organizations are primarily Christian-led; findings should not be generalized to every nonprofit or employer. Sample sizes and reporting periods differ between charts and questions. Comparisons, modeled financial estimates, and case studies do not guarantee outcomes from purchasing a survey.
Explore BCW's Data and Trends articles and download the 2026 report.