Do you ever play 20 questions? If so, you’re familiar with questions like “is it bigger than a breadbox,” and “is the person alive?” We’ve spent many family hiking trips using this fun game to make it up a big hill. Surveys also involve a lot of questions and while they don’t always seem as cheery, you can think of them as ways to gather information to help us collectively climb that big hill – and get to the other side.

With that in mind – believe me when I tell you – we’ve got an awesome survey for you and we need your help! River Network is launching our State of the Network Survey, an every five-year survey for all of us working on water issues in our communities nationwide.

Survey questions cover the basics of your organization’s capacity, achievements, challenges, and needs, and are straightforward enough that anyone in your organization should be able to fill them out. The survey is designed to:

• Help understand and tell the story of the collective reach and impact of our nationwide network;
• Track and share the demographic trends of staff, leadership-level staff, and boards of groups working on water issues and identify the biggest challenges groups face in addressing equity, diversity, inclusion and justice;
• Assess the most pressing needs of organizations working on water across a range of key programmatic issues, organizational development, and climate change.

Why take this survey? Take this survey because:

• You could win Patagonia gear!
• You’ll feel less isolated – we’re going to report back on our collective strength of our network of water protectors;
• You can help inform how funders, policymakers, and other partners understand the benefit of collaborating and supporting our amazing nationwide network of groups working on water;
• You’ll be part of tracking the trends relating to diversity among our network and identifying the most pressing needs to address equity, diversity, inclusion and justice in our water work;
• You’ll help River Network be responsive to our network and better target and tailor our work to support and connect all of you;
• Yes, you could win Patagonia gear!

We’re asking all of you to participate in the State of the Network Survey by April 15th. It should only take 20-30 minutes – and then you won’t have to take it for another five years! We’ll report back with the results in the fall, including materials you can use to tell the story of our collective power.

You can view the full list of questions ahead of time here, and reach out to Erin Kanzig if you have any questions.

Help us show the amazing impact of all we do and better understand how we can be most responsive to support all water leaders in the climb to a future of clean and accessible water and rivers for all.