Parish Market Research
Engage your parishioners
If you want you a thriving parish, you have to know your parishioners better
Many Catholic parishes struggle to connect with their parishioners. And the Church is hemorrhaging members.
Vinea Research helps you listen to your people intentionally and strategically. You'll get actionable information and insights from parishioners that can greatly inform decisions by the pastor, parish leadership, and ministry members. This will lead to lasting impact at your parish.
Parish Challenges
Many in the pews feel they do not have a personal encounter with Christ at their parish. Failure to resonate with parishioners and facilitate this encounter means lower engagement and funding, but, more importantly, it means people leave.
The most common issues we hear about include:
Parish events have low turnout.
Only a small percentage of parishioners are willing to volunteer, or only do so with much coaxing.
Long-standing programs and events (fall festivals, parish picnics, etc.) have become too expensive to continue.
Fewer people participate in the Mass.
The parents of children who attend religious education don’t go to Mass themselves.
Parish Solutions
Whether you need a general overview assessment of your parish or want to focus on a targeted issue, Vinea takes a customized, organized, multi-level approach to your market research, going far beyond the superficial parishioner surveys often administered “in the pews.”
Vinea gathers information through a variety of applications—in-depth interviews, focus groups, and surveys—collaborating with you to determine which methods will work best for helping your parish achieve its unique goals.
In-Depth Interviews
Dynamic forum for organically evolving questions and discussion that can reveal new insights and information.
Focus Groups
Informal, interactive group setting that allows participants to talk freely with other members.
Surveys
Method to get quick and comprehensive information when based on good questions and question syntax.
This provides the foundation to better understand parishioners’ attitudes, behaviors, spirituality, motivators, and demographics. We then compare and contrast the data through statistical analysis. We find correlations and insights that provide valuable information for understanding parishioners at a more in-depth, personal level.
Sample parish projects:
A wide-ranging survey can produce a "state-of-the-parish" assessment.
Focus groups or one-on-one interviews can yield better understanding of financial contributors' motivations and their "journey" to high giving.
A new parishioner survey can help you to understand why new parishioners are joining and show you how to keep them engaged.
Sample parish projects:
Am I getting through to my parishioners? Are the homilies relatable?
What should be our priority areas for improvement? Liturgy? Youth ministry? Religious education? Outreach?
What are the best ways to communicate with parishioners? Do they really read the bulletin every week? Which groups are most and least likely to read the bulletin, and what does this imply for communicating with parishioners?
What kinds of social outreach will generate the greatest interest? How can we best inform our parishioners of the good we are doing in the area? What is the value of informing parishioners in this way?
What faith formation topics are most likely to draw attendance? What is the best day and time to offer these?
Ensuring Long-Term Success
Once your parish implements recommended changes, measuring progress is extremely important. To do this, Vinea can reliably reproduce all of our research methods over time in a tracking study, the best way to determine long-term effectiveness of programs and implementations.
We also work with you when analyzing the results, reporting on progress, as well as determining what alterations could be made to promote further positive change.
Finally, the use of professional marketing techniques based on market research can add credibility to your efforts. This can be a persuasive talking point in making your appeal to potential and current benefactors.