FAQs by Cities & Towns

Q: How can a city or town participate in eTownPanel?

Your city or town can participate by building a local panel in your area of at least 300 citizens. We can provide web and email tools that nonprofit groups or government agencies can use to build their local panel. We can also help you do a direct mail postcard campaign to your local citizens at a reasonable cost.  Just email us at info@etownpanel.com to find out more.

Q: What does it cost a city or town to be included in eTownPanel?

Basic participation in eTownPanel is free for any city, town, or county in the United States.  To do a custom survey using either national or local panelists, or to obtain more specialized data analysis, contact eTownPanel at info@etownpanel.com for a cost estimate.

Q: How can a city or town use eTownPanel to do a custom survey?

Any nonprofit group or government agency from a participating city or town can do their own, custom survey using eTownPanel. We require a brief written proposal describing the sponsor and the purpose of the research along with a draft questionnaire. Questionnaires must be composed of primarily close-ended questions and limited to no more than 30 questions or 15 minutes in length. eTownPanel will set up the web-based questionnaire, invite panelists by email, collect the data online, and provide you with a final dataset and documentation. (Because the identities of individual respondents must remain confidential, the datasets do not contain any email addresses or other personal identifiers.) Please contact us at info@etownpanel.com for a cost estimate.

Q: What topics are appropriate for a custom survey?

Custom surveys must be sponsored by a nonprofit group, academic institution, or government organization and must relate to the general topic domain of eTownPanel -- government performance and community quality of life. This topic domain is broad and includes: the environment, public safety, transportation, recreation, education, issue awareness, taxation, public works, culture and the arts, and other important community issues.  For some examples of prior studies, see our Special Reports.  However, eTownPanel cannot be used for political polls, market research, or surveys about sensitive or potentially offensive topics. eTownPanel reserves the right to judge which questionnaires or individual questions are appropriate for an eTownPanel survey.

Q: Can eTownPanel be used to do a statewide or nationwide survey?

Yes -- provided the sponsor of the survey is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization and the topic of the survey is an appropriate one for eTownPanel.

Q:  Are eTownPanel surveys "scientific"?

eTownPanel surveys are based on a sample of volunteer panelists from a localities across the US and not a random sample.  Strictly speaking, therefore, the results are not statistically projectable to the larger population.  In presenting results, we compare the characteristics of the panel to the general population.  We also weight the results so that they better reflect the general population.