Data Collection for the Societal Mirror

Survey Background

The Shambhala Mirror initiative measures dimensions of wellbeing, as these are evidenced across the Shambhala community. To identify the core principles of wellbeing, in mid-2021 we held five two-hour focus group meetings with people who represent diverse aspects of Shambhala. Each focus group considered a different domain:

• Practice and education,

• Care, conduct and protection,

• Culture and community well-being,

• Economy and resources,

• Governance and leadership.

In addition, ten community conversations, two for each domain, were opened to the broader Shambhala community. These discussions helped the working group formulate the metrics and indicators needed to answer these questions. We shared them back with the focus group participants for feedback.

Although we anticipated that each activity domain in Shambhala could have its own features of wellbeing, we found that the focus group discussions of well being could in fact be summarised into four core principles of wellbeing that were relevant across all activity domains. Based on the transcripts of the focus groups and community conversations we identified two indicator questions for each core principle, as shown below.

• Kindness, inclusivity, and mutual respect

  • How supportive are we of each other?

  • How inclusive are we?

• Responsibility and accountability

  • How effective is our leadership?

  • How is responsibility in Shambhala distributed?

• Vitality, energy and resources

  • How much do community members participate?

  • How sufficient are our resources and capacity?

• Trustworthiness and transparency

  • How trustworthy is Shambhala?

  • How well do we communicate?

These four principles and eight indicator questions have been used to present the survey results.

Survey Instruments

For the initial survey instruments in 2022, we reviewed multiple sources of survey questions for the concepts embedded in our wellbeing framework. Among the most relevant sources were ARDA, Association of Religion Data Archives, the Behavioral Model of Interpersonal Trust as described in the Mental Measurements Yearbook, USAID’s Good Governance Barometer and the Pew Research Center. We modified the standardised questions to be relevant for Shambhala. For concepts where no standardised questions were relevant, we created our own questions in standardised style.

We based the 2023 survey instruments on those used in 2022, highlighting those areas where we particularly wanted to track changes over time. In the members and friends survey for 2023, we added questions that explored in more detail individuals’ perceptions of membership and reasons for being or not being a member. We also added questions that probed more deeply into the basis of a sense of belonging in Shambhala. In the Shambhala leaders’ survey for 2023, we added questions about positive features present in the community and about changes in the availability of physical spaces for group and centre activities. In 2023, both surveys included opportunities for some open text responses.

In both 2022 and 2023, we used the SurveyMonkey online platform to create three surveys: one for members and friends, one for centre and group leaders and one for Shambhala Global Services staff. Quality control features built into SurveyMonkey helped us improve our question format. All surveys were pretested with volunteers from the target group and modified based on this feedback. The members and friends survey was translated into French and Spanish by volunteer Shambhala translators. The leaders survey was distributed in English only.

Members and Friends Survey

A copy of the instrument used for the 2023 members and friends survey is available here.

The 2023 members and friends survey sample was drawn from the Shambhala Database (SDB) on January 3, 2023. The sample included only members and friends of Shambhala as recorded in the SDB, and was stratified by language of preference (English, French and Spanish) and by time of first contact with Shambhala, as imputed from dates in the SDB. A total of 7,418 contacts were identified in this process, compared to the 7,886 contacts identified by the same process in January 2022. We retained the centre size and region as shown in the SDB on the responses received to the survey. The survey opened on January 16th, 2023. Four reminders were sent to non-respondents. The survey closed on February 10th, 2023.

Of the 7,418 contacts drawn from the Shambhala Database, 6,940, or 93%, were valid and unblocked email addresses. This compares to the 95% contacts that had valid and unblocked email addresses in 2022, and indicates that a larger portion of SDB contacts have recently changed emails or requested not to be contacted for surveys.

We received 1,319 responses to the 2023 survey. Response rates are calculated as the percentage of invitations that yield a response. This is an overall response rate of 19% for 2023, and compares to the 20% response rate recorded for the 2022 survey.

The table below shows response rates by individuals grouped by time of first contact and preferred language. As in 2022, the response rate was highest for those who had been in Shambhala the longest, and was lowest for those who began participating between 2012 and 2018. For all time periods but the earliest one, the response rate was lower for the Spanish translation of the survey than for the other languages.

Response Rates for the 2023 Members and Friends survey

Time of First Contact*	Language	Invitations to valid and unblocked emails	Number of responses	Response Rate (%)
Total	All	6,940	1,319	19.0%
Before 1999	English	1,402	424	30.2%
	French	55	22	40.0%
	Spanish	24	8	33.3%
	All languages	1,481	454	30.7%
1999-mid 2007	English	1,107	264	23.8%
	French	33	8	24.2%
	Spanish	29	3	10.3%
	All languages	1,169	275	23.5%
Mid 2007-mid 2012	English	1,761	244	13.9%
	French	72	18	25.0%
	Spanish	56	6	10.7%
	All languages	1,889	268	14.2%
Mid 2012 - mid 2018	English	1,722	200	11.6%
	French	130	31	23.8%
	Spanish	84	8	9.5%
	All languages	1,936	239	12.3%
Mid 2018 to present	English	417	73	17.5%
	French	44	10	22.7%
	Spanish	4	0	0
	All languages	465	83	17.8%

Leaders Survey

A copy of the instrument used for the 2023 leaders survey is available here.

The leaders survey sample was drawn from the Shambhala Database (SDB) on January 3, 2023. We included all individuals listed as serving on a Shambhala Centre or Group Council, plus the individuals listed as director or coordinator and the individuals listed as director of Practice and Education. A total of 632 contacts were identified in this way, compared to 688 contacts identified using the same process in 2022. We retained the centre size and region as shown in the SDB on the responses received to the survey. The leadership survey opened on January 16th, 2023. Non-respondents received four email reminders each. The survey closed on February 10th, 2023.

It is important to note that this is a survey of individuals with centre or group leadership roles in Shambhala; there are multiple responses from each centre and group, and respondents were not asked to coordinate their responses with others from their same centre or group.

Of the 632 contacts drawn from the Shambhala Database in January 2023, 610, or 96%, were valid and unblocked email addresses. This compares to the 97% of leader contacts that had valid and unblocked email addresses in 2022.

We received 203 responses to the 2023 leaders survey. Response rates are calculated as the percentage of invitations that yield a response. This is an overall response rate of 33.3% for 2023, which is the same as the response rate for the leaders survey in 2022.