Introduction:

The purpose of my memorandum is to support nonprofit organizations in obtaining donations. I'll assist by analyzing and interpreting data that will best inform the organizations on how to target audiences in ways that will bring about empathy.

Conclusions:

Upon surveying 660 respondents in the years 2002 and 2004, data shows that most people are typically empathetic. The respondents were mostly from the middle and working classes, but the average empathy score was 4.08. Considering 5 was the highest empathy rating, this shows a general tendency for people to be more empathetic than not. Data shows that, when rated on scales of empathy across ten separate categories, respondents typically rate highly empathetic.

Discussion:

Main Analysis:

The respondents of the survey were labeled by class, making them an ordinal scale of measurement, for which I've included a bar graph as a visual representation. As the graph depicts, most respondents were from the working and middle classes with few from the lower and upper classes (the measure of central tendency being mode). The empathy ratings were all ordinal as well and the use of the measure of central tendency was mode for these as well. I created bar graphs to easily analyze the information for each empathy category, but did not include all of those graphs into this memorandum. The graphic depictions reflected greater ratings of empathy amongst respondents, as could be seen in the category of 'empathy average' as well. This final category used an interval/ratio scale of measurement and the mean as the measure of central tendency. I have used a histogram to relay this information and have included it in this memorandum as well.  The histogram also reflects greater empathy responses from survey respondents.

Graph One:

Graph Two:

Recommendations:

Data suggests that people tend to be more empathetic, therefore my recommendations  to the organization are to appeal to that tendency. By using tactics that play on people empathetic feelings, donations may be more likely. Including strategies that inform respondents about the legitimate need of their help or the plights of others may result in them donating more money.

Limitations:

Some limitations of the data include the questions asked. People may not want to represent themselves in a negative light, therefore answers that make them seem empathetic may not be chosen as often. Another limitation is representativeness. Most respondents of this survey were from middle and working classes and, therefore, aren't completely representative of upper and lower class citizens