Background Memo  

The most recent survey by Fairleigh Dickinson University's PublicMind was conducted by telephone from November 15 through November 20 using a randomly selected sample of 600 residents statewide aged 18 and over.  The sampling error for 600 adults is +/- 4 percentage points at the 95 percent level of confidence. Survey results are also subject to non-sampling error. This kind of error, which cannot be measured, arises from a number of factors including, but not limited to, non-response (eligible individuals refusing to be interviewed), question wording, the order in which questions are asked, and variations among interviewers. All PublicMind interviews are conducted by TMR, Inc. of Cedar Knolls, NJ.  Professionally trained interviewers use a CATI (Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing) system. Random selection is achieved through computerized random-digit dialing. This technique gives every person with a phone number (including those with unlisted numbers) an equal chance of being selected.

The questions included in this release are as follows:

Question: OK, thinking about the world and a number of recent natural disasters, at this point in the year, have you personally donated money in response to any of those natural disasters or have you not yet had the chance?

• Yes, donated money
• Not yet had the chance

Question: Some people say they …, while others say they … . Which comes closer to your situation? [ROTATE]

• have donated about all they can at this point
• can donate more and will do it soon

Question: By the way, can you recall some of the natural disasters that happened in the past year?

• Pacific Tsunami
• Pakistani Earthquake
• Niger famine or African famine
• Central American floods/mudslides
• Hurricane Katrina
• Hurricane Rita
• Other/Florida Hurricanes

Question: And overall, how would you rate the response of the US government to natural disasters in the past year in terms of how our government helped out…?

• Excellent
• Good
• Only fair
• Poor

see also:
Survey Analysis
Tabular Results