NYC Wasted $9M on Trashed Surveys
New York City spent $8.8 million sending out mental health surveys to residents, along with $5 bills. Most of the surveys were thrown away, The New York Post reported.
The packages look like junk mail, and most likely were tossed in the trash — along with the cold, hard cash.
The New York City Health Department worked with the City University of New York to sponsor the survey, including $5 bills as an incentive to fill out the surveys. Ipsos, a research firm, was paid $7.5 million to conduct the survey.
The envelopes containing the surveys and money bore a note saying that residents could receive $20, the reward for completing the survey, but there was no mention of any money inside.
The surveys were sent to over 210,000 households, but only about 13,000 were completed and returned, about 6%. Sending $5 to each participant cost about over $1 million, and shelling out another $20 for each response cost an additional $260,000. Including the $7.5 million paid to Ipsos, the total cost of this botched survey program was about $8.8 million.
Of course, NYC could have avoided some of this waste by sending checks which would not have cost the city money if they were thrown away without being cashed.
Additionally, giving out a total of $25 to everyone that was sent the surveys could have cost a total of $5.25 million, an absurd amount to give away to complete a survey. This is especially true considering New York City’s dire budget deficit projections.
While there may be an argument to incentivize survey participation by providing a reward, New York City is a textbook case of how not to do it.
The #WasteOfTheDay is brought to you by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com
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