Case Study: Guided Discoveries achieves data-driven program improvements and faster feedback with Alchemer

How Guided Discoveries Leverages Alchemer to Help More Kids Learn Hands On

Guided Discoveries, a Southern California nonprofit founded in 1978 that runs hands-on camps like Catalina Island Marine Institute and AstroCamp, needed a better way to gather and act on feedback from staff, chaperones, and students to inform limited nonprofit investments and improve programs. Having moved from paper surveys to Alchemer in 2011, the organization faces the challenge of collecting and organizing a high volume of responses (30,000–40,000 surveys a year) while avoiding the cost and complexity of enterprise platforms.

Alchemer’s survey logic, notifications, live reporting, and teams & folders allowed Guided Discoveries to standardize feedback collection, send immediate staff-level alerts, and give program directors aggregated dashboards to spot trends. Using Alchemer, the organization now makes in‑season changes rather than waiting until the end of the season, has made data-driven investments (for example outsourcing food service after survey signals), and uses benchmarks to measure whether changes move the needle on satisfaction.

Guided Discoveries

Matt Mishalow

Chief Financial Officer