SK 2006 Community Benchmark Survey

The 2006 Social Capital Community Survey was funded thanks to the generosity of the Surdna Foundation, the Audrey and Bernard Rapoport Foundation, the Kansas Health Institute and the following community foundations: the Community Foundation for Greater Greensboro, the Duluth Area Foundation, the Gulf Coast Community Foundation of Venice, the Kalamazoo Foundation, the Maine Community Foundation, the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, the San Diego Foundation, and the Winston-Salem Foundation.


The RDD telephone survey was conducted in two waves.

Wave 1 ran from mid-January to late April, 2006 and covered the following communities:

  • Baton Rouge, LA (East Baton Rouge Parish) (400 respondents)
  • Duluth, MN and Superior, WI (500). Summary of results here.
  • Greensboro, NC (Guilford County) (450). Greensboro's topline results here or see PowerPoint.
  • Houston, TX (Harris County) (400)
  • Kalamazoo, MI (Kalamazoo County) (500).
  • Rochester, NY (Monroe, Wayne, Ontario, Livingston, Genesee, Orleans Counties, includes oversample to achieve 100 Hispanics and 100 African Americans) (total sample of 700). See press release here.
  • San Diego, CA (San Diego County) (500)
  • Winston-Salem, NC (Forsyth County) (750). Winston-Salem results described here.
  • Yakima, WA (Yakima County) (400)
  • Arkansas (Siloam Springs, Pine Bluff, Van Buren, and Little Rock) (400 in total)
  • Lewiston-Auburn, ME (cities of Lewiston, Auburn, Greene, Sabatts, Lisbon, Mechanic Falls, Poland, Turner, Wales, Minot) (500)
  • National sample (1824)

Wave 2 ran from May to August, 2006 and covered the following communities:

  • New Hampshire (statewide with oversample in Cheshire county) (900).
  • Kansas (statewide sample, and samples in Kansas City, Junction City, Wichita, Garden City, Abilene, KS) (2455)
  • Sarasota County, FL (500)
  • National sample (924)


In total, 12,100 respondents were interviewed across both waves.

Questionnaire: A copy of the 2006 Social Capital Community Survey Wave 1 questionnaire is available here, and Wave 2 is available here.

National Results: Here are the 2006 Social Capital Community Survey national results.

Community Foundation involvement and building social capital: Doug Easterling, the academic advisor to the Winston Salem and Greesboro Foundations and the Kansas Health Institute, was part of a Social Capital Learning Circle composed of the participating community foundations. He has written up the lessons learned for community foundations on building social capital in a thoughtful piece called "The Leadership Role of Community Foundations in Building Social Capital" (National Civic Review, vol. 97, Issue 4, Winter 2008, pp. 39-51).

Data: We have arranged to provide these data (without any geocodes) through the Roper Center here.