This FAQ covers the most common queries on joining our research programme IMPACT, but if you have other questions, please contact us.

What? Who? What research programme? 

We are thrive and we are the research and evaluation people for the arts sector in Northern Ireland. We’ve spent the last 20 years working with hundreds of arts organisations, big and small, to tell the story of cultural engagement on our patch. You can find out more about us here.  

Three years ago, we built a research programme called IMPACT (Impact Measurement for People Attending Culture Today). It is a post-visit survey for attendees and, because it is NI-wide, it is the first research of its kind. 

Is it mandatory for our organisation?

From April 2026, ACNI has made it mandatory for AFP-funded public-facing organisations that have regular contact with their audiences to join IMPACT. If it is mandatory for your organisation, we will email you following your Letter of Offer. If you are already working with thrive, we’ll be in touch too.

Why should we do it? What’s the point?  

IMPACT includes questions on demographics, motivations, local spend, behaviours and intentions. It is a way to standardise surveys to ensure we are comparing like with like and can create an accurate sector-wide comprehensive summary of cultural engagement in NI. Over 60 organisations have already signed up. 

The responses build a picture that enables accurate analysis in lots of ways. For example, comparative analysis e.g. who spends more – comedy or music audiences? And analysis over time e.g. has your capital spend on improving accessibility had any effect on your audience demographics? 

How does it help us? 

For individual organisations, this helps you to better understand your audiences, gives you evidence to present to stakeholders, and provides a basis for influencing strategic decisions on programming or practices. You can also compare how you’re doing to the anonymised rest of the sector and boast about what you’re better at!

How does it help the arts sector? 

For the sector, the thousands of responses provide a comprehensive picture of cultural engagement across NI. It gives us evidence about who attends the arts at a sectoral rather than individual level. It enables us (and policymakers) to analyse the bigger picture, like the effect of the cost-of-living crisis or changes in people attending specific art forms.  

How does it work?  

IMPACT has a set of core survey questions, which includes audience motivations, behaviours, demographics, and the emotional and economic impact of attendance.  

In addition, you can select from up to four optional survey modules to add on: 

• Festival Module: Offers more bespoke insight for festivals. Asks whether they’ve attended the festival before, how many events they’ve attended (or plan to attend) and across how many days they’ve attended. 

• Impact of Tourism Module: Asks where they stayed during their visit, how many nights they stayed for and how much their spend was per person per night. 

• Audience Intentions module: This asks how they intend to engage with you following their visit and provides a table of options to choose from. 

• Additional Demographics module: This asks whether English is their first language. 

After you’ve chosen your modules, we give you a link to your survey for sharing with your attendees and a second link where you’ll be able to see your results in real time. 

How do we send it out? 

You share the link we’ve given you with your audiences via your CRM or ticketing systems or on your social media or ezines. QR codes on posters at festivals or venues can be used too. We can provide guidance on setting it up if wanted – we can even write the copy for your pre-survey blurb. 

Is it free? 

Yes, it is free. 

What will you do with the data? Who gets to see it? 

Trust us, we’ve been doing this for a long time. The data collected is not personal data, so there’s no GDPR issue. The data is also stored according to best practice guidelines and anonymised before being shared with anyone (and yes, that includes the Arts Council). Rest assured that the complaints about your warm white wine will be seen by only you! Individual organisations will be able to see their own results but nobody else’s individual results. Everyone can see the anonymised whole sector for comparison with their own organisation’s responses. 

We will use the data to provide analyses of the cultural sector to policymakers as well as the sector itself. You can see some of our previous work here. 

How often do we have to survey our audiences/attendees? 

Once you’re signed up, how often you survey your attendees is negotiable with us and will depend on what type of organisation you are and the size of your audience base. We suggest that you think about how the data collected might help you with your evaluations and strategic planning. Then you can tell us when you might prefer to carry out the surveys e.g. quarterly or after a festival or after every event. We want the data to work for you as much as for us! 

When do we start?  

You can sign up as soon as you like and the sooner the better. Over 60 organisations already have, so rest assured it’s not an arduous process. 

What if we need to know more? 

Verity is the Head of Sector Development, and will bravely attempt to answer any questions you wish to ask about the whys of doing IMPACT. 

Verity@wewillthrive.co.uk 

We look forward to working with you!