Feedback futures for charities: turn input into priorities
- Helen Vaterlaws
- Jun 25, 2025
- 2 min read
Updated: Jan 2
When everything feels urgent, feedback futures for charities turns input into a ranked shortlist. Give people a small number of tokens to “invest” in the issues they want fixed first. You move from “we heard 40 things” to “these 5 matter most to the people who use it.”It also gives you a transparent story you can take to boards and funders.
When to use it
✅ You’ve got a long list and limited capacity.
✅ You need a transparent way to choose.
✅ You want buy-in from staff, volunteers and communities.
How to run it
Set simple rules (10 tokens each; 5–10 options).
Offer inclusive channels (online + paper + assisted voting).
Publish results and actions so people see it works.
Review equity: check who voted, who didn’t, and run extra outreach to groups who were missing.who voted, who didn’t and top up missing voices.
🚩Risks to watch: Prevent dominance by vocal groups: cap tokens per person and monitor participation across demographics.
Illustrative example
A community centre’s token vote put after-school support top. Funding and effort followed, and satisfaction rose because the choice was clearly community-led.
Feedback Futures: Why it matters for charities
Token voting turns many ideas into a ranked, defensible shortlist. People see how priorities are set, you secure buy-in across teams and communities, and limited resources focus on what matters most. It’s transparent, repeatable, and easy to explain to boards and funders when they ask, “Why this first?”
Next steps:
Read the main guide From information overload to strategic clarity (for charities), and run relational feedback mapping (to check balance) plus feedback fasting (to act and report back).
Change doesn’t start with a workshop; it starts with one honest conversation.
Note: Examples are for illustrative purposes only; no official affiliation with the organisations or tools mentioned is claimed. AI systems can be unpredictable, so always keep personal or sensitive data out of third-party tools and ensure your implementation follows your own organisation’s data protection policies.
