Hello,
Here at the Regional District of Nanaimo, we are in the beginning stages of program development for a Rural Water Quality Stewardship program, using the CBSM model.
We have run into some difficulty with regards to offering a stipend for community members (target area, random mail-out) to attend our focus group sessions. Our Board of Directors feel uncomfortable offering money ($40 in this instance) for people to come to a focus group in case it sets the precedent for paying people to come to ALL public meetings. It is our challenge to show that this stipend is only used as a part of the CBSM PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT process, and why it is necessary.
I am wondering if there are any cases out there where a local govt had a policy passed for CBSM Program Development Strategies, that condoned the use of stipends to encourage participation of the less-engaged.
In our target area, it is a rural audience, with medium to low-income, middle-aged single people or couples. Our rationale is that if we offer $40 to attend our focus group (to discuss barriers and benefits), we will get a more representative cross-section of the target area, rather than just all the keeners! We are also striving to do all our CBSM program development in-house.
Basically I would like to see examples of other local govts that have used stipends in program development, as a precedent for us. If your government organization has successfully held paid focus groups for CBSM program development, it would be great to hear about your experiences and how your have made it politically acceptable in your area.
Thank you!
Julie Pisani
Special Projects Assistant - Team WaterSmart
Regional District of Nanaimo
Canada
Use of Stipends for Focus Group Participation
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In my bullet 2, that should say "two," not "too." Sheesh.
Ken Donnelly
Vice President, Atlantic Canada
Lura Consulting
Canada
www.beyondattitude.com
Hi Julie,
Sorry to hear you are running into a stumbling block on incentives for the focus groups.
While the approach that Jane presents is viable and frequently used (we often provide the incentives when contracted to do focus grous and recover it through the contract), in the end it still amounts to paying people who attend, which your Board currently opposes. I am going to suggest another approach in case Jane's does not fly with your Board.
In my opinion, you need to convince your Board of the merits of paying incentives for focus groups, and the risks of not doing so. Some points that may be considered in making that argument:
1. The purpose of the incentive is not to pay people to be there, it is to try to reduce bias in the group. If people are not coming for the money, they are almost certainly coming because they want to tell you something in particular. The target audience for a WQ program is not just the "keeners", it is everyone in the community. The "keeners" will be easy to convince. You need to hear from the people who are not so keen and will not be so easy to convince.
2. Focus groups are not public meetings. Focus groups are private meetings by invitation. The thinking that paying for FG attendance may mean that there will be a need to pay for public meetings is flawed. They are too very different things.
3. You are going to be spending money and HR on this project. In order to ensure that it is as effective as possible, you need to have sound research. Paying incentives for focus groups is part of ensuring that you have a strong foundation for your project. If the project is worth doing, it is worth doing well.
4. I suspect your Board does not have experience with focus groups. You need to bring them up-to-speed. If you google "focus group incentives" you will find lots of links that explain why incentives are important (like: http://rmsbunkerblog.wordpress.com/2011/03/14/qualitative-research-incentives-5-reasons-why-more-is-better/). Perhaps hitting them with a bunch of information from 3rd-parties that clearly illustrates that this is the best practice would help? Often Boards are more likely to be convinced by "3rd-party experts" than by their own staff. Unfortunate, but true.
5. I have been doing focus groups for 20 years. I have been trying to recall not providing an incentive for attendance at a focus group, and cannot think of any in the last 15 years or so. You might tell them that. It is the norm, and conducting focus groups without providing an incentive is an exception to best practices.
I hope this helps. Good luck with it.
Cheers,
Ken
Ken Donnelly
Vice President, Atlantic Canada
Lura Consulting
Canada
www.beyondattitude.com
Hi Julie,
I have been working on an evaluation of an environmental education program, which has been funded by state government. We provided AUD$50 for our focus group attendees who were not involved in the program, as they were recruited from a panel and regularly receive payments to attend focus groups, generally for market research purposes. Our stipend was lower than the usual amount, reflecting our tight budget, but we had no problem in providing this as we felt that we would otherwise only attract people who were already interested in the issues we wanted to discuss, rather than our target group of average members of the public not involved in environmental education.
Sara Johnston
Project Officer
BirdLife Australia
Australia
www.birdsinbackyards.net
We faced similar concern about providing stipends to people to participate in focus groups. We have approached this in two ways. If a contractor is running the focus groups, the stipends are part of their contract and the contractor provides stipends to participants. The other way is to give gift cards to grocery stores, or "general stores" like Target, Walmart, Fred Meyers (a local chain)rather than cash. Good luck!
Jane Mountjoy-Venning
Thurston County Environmental Health
United States
"Perhaps hitting them with a bunch of information from 3rd-parties that clearly illustrates that this is the best practice would help? Often Boards are more likely to be convinced by "3rd-party experts" than by their own staff. Unfortunate, but true."
This is exactly it, Ken! Thanks to everyone for the feedback. Everything helps. I am still on the trail of examples of local government program development that used in-house paid focus groups. I have some examples of grocery vouchers and stipends offered through consultants, but am still digging for examples more similar to what we are proposing.
Thanks again!
Julie Pisani
Special Projects Assistant - Team WaterSmart
Regional District of Nanaimo
Canada