The Survey of Consumer Finances: Challenges, Best Practices and Nuanced Strategies

The Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) utilizes a dual sample frame, including a national area-probability sample and a list sample that ensure the full range of socio-economic households are represented. This paper describes how data collection approaches are tailored to these diverse sample strata on the SCF. Each socioeconomic stratum presents unique challenges, ranging from accessibility to communication preferences, requiring field interviewers (FIs) and field managers (FMs) to approach their work with precision and adaptability. This paper starts with an analysis of non-participation on the 2022 SCF to shed light on common reasons respondents give for not participating, identifying patterns by strata. We then use these insights to present a culturally responsive outreach approach on the 2025 SCF. 

Monetary payments and other incentives are used by researchers to encourage survey participation and ensure high response rates. Incentives are particularly helpful for mitigating the perceived burden associated with lengthy and/or complex surveys. In this paper we trace the expanding role of monetary incentives over the past two decades in gaining cooperation for the Survey of Consumer Finances. Important shifts have involved higher dollar amounts for post-incentives (from $50 to $300or higher) and the inclusion of pre-incentives ranging from $5 to $15. We highlight key findings from experiments involving incentives for the SCF over the past decade. We punctuate attempts to retain operational efficiency while boosting survey response, offering insights that may help inform data collection designs for other largescale surveys. We also share early results gauging the efficacy of cash pre-incentives and sequential post-incentives for the 2025 SCF. 

The Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF), a triennial national survey fielded since1983 has enlisted a professional interviewer workforce trained to conduct face-to-face interviews. In response to longer term declining response rates and more recent workforce challenges stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, protocol updates have been necessary to preserve the quality of the survey. During the 2022 SCF a series of updated fielding protocols were incorporated including adaptive survey design strategies and enhanced communications designed to engage respondents more responsively across the data collection period. This presentation will discuss how these different strategies have been more formally implemented within the 2025 SCF to guide data collection operations, including a more robust advance mailing protocol, an online contact portal for potential participants to provide contact information to the research team, more structured use of pre and post incentives, and the greater use of targeted contacting protocols designed to adapt to less predictable changes in the interviewer workforce. This presentation will discuss the effectiveness of the recent protocol changes as well as their integration into traditional face-to-face interviewing protocols and strategies designed to maximize data quality. 

The Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) employs a dual-frame sampling design, combining a national area-probability sample with a list sample to ensure representation across the full socio-economic spectrum, including the nation's wealthiest households. Due to the complexity of the survey and the difficulty in gaining respondent cooperation, field interviewer (FI) attrition is high, and experienced FIs tend to perform best. For the 2025 SCF, a new training model was introduced, tailored to interviewers' levels of experience. SCF-experienced interviewers received targeted refresher training; interviewers with prior NORC experience were trained on SCF-specific protocols, techniques for gaining cooperation, and survey administration; and interviewers new to NORC were trained primarily on strategies for gaining cooperation. As interviewers demonstrated success and gained experience, they received additional training to take on expanded responsibilities. This paper presents the tiered, modular training approach, detailing its structure, implementation, and early outcomes.