How to feedback
When you’re deciding how to thank your participants and tell them how their input will be used, there are some things to think about.
How should I give feedback?
Feedback should be appropriate to the level of participation. But the method you choose should also be feasible in terms of your own time and resources.
Consider:
- How much detail you need to include
- The best way to communicate with the people you’re feeding back to
- How much time you have
You may find it helpful to write standard responses for regular activities to save time. If you do this, take the time to address each response to the individual person. Where possible, add detail to make it feel as personal as possible.
Here are some ideas of different formats and methods you could use:
- Letter
- Thank you card
- You said, we did flyer, email or poster
- Newsletter
- E-bulletin
- Webpage
- Social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter
- Celebratory event
Reporting
If you can, regularly report about your influence and participation work to your organisation’s senior managers and directors.
This helps to demonstrates its value, and shows that influence and participation is acknowledged at the highest level. You may need to develop a system for how you'll report back.
Organisations will often put their board and strategy papers online. This means staff and members of the public can see the impact of influence and participation work.
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