BIG Question is an innovative, crowdsourced strategy platform that empowers nonprofits to engage their entire community — volunteers, donors, alumni, staff, and more — in shaping actionable solutions for big-picture goals. Participants submit insights in real-time from any device, and the platform weaves their perspectives into clear next steps that leaders can act on. Whether ten people or one million join, every voice contributes, creating focused plans that address core challenges rather than just symptoms.

Traditional consulting often involves lengthy processes that may miss frontline realities. BIG Question keeps professional expertise but fixes common flaws, gathering lived insight from your community and producing a concise, board-ready roadmap in hours, not months. The platform offers transparent engagement, instant feedback, and fosters board confidence through inclusivity and real-time collaboration.

Think of a BIG Question Lab as a high-energy town hall combined with a game show. A live moderator sets the tone and keeps energy high while participants answer short, easy prompts from their phones, laptops, or tablets. The platform’s AI engine connects themes in real time, showing ideas flow and evolve right before your eyes. Within hours, your collective insights are shaped into a strategic brief you can share with leadership or funders that same day.

There’s practically no limit. The same system that runs a conversation among ten board members can host a national brainstorm with a million participants. Because everyone contributes at once, the bigger the group, the faster the ideas take shape. It’s collaboration at full scale – without anyone getting lost in the crowd.

Accessibility is built into every layer. The interface supports screen-readers, offers live captioning, and runs smoothly on low-bandwidth connections. Prompts are short, clear, and easily understood – so busy professionals, students, or rural volunteers can all take part. Behind the scenes, moderators maintain civility, while leaderboards highlight constructive voices to keep engagement fun and fair.

Every community faces unique challenges. That’s why our moderators come from specific sectors – education, health, environment and conservation, faith-based, and the arts, to name a few – and guide discussions with those realities in mind. Sessions are organized by industry, so participants learn from each other’s lived experience and surface insights that are directly relevant to their field.

Once your session wraps, you receive a full, board-ready summary and dataset to use however you choose. There is no obligation beyond the initial session. While most participants (about 70%) choose to stay engaged via ongoing resources and network opportunities, follow-up support is completely optional. We encourage asynchronous participation after your strategy session, and our team of advisors provides guidance to foster actionable next steps when requested.

Our mission is to strengthen the nonprofit sector as a whole. From time to time, we host public BIG Question Labs at no cost as part of our community investment program. These sessions let organizations that might not otherwise access high-level strategic planning experience it firsthand. To learn about upcoming free events, contact us directly – we’re always eager to include new voices.

Every organization comes to BIG Question with different goals, and so pricing flexes to fit your scale. Some nonprofits need a single strategy session to focus their next campaign; others want an ongoing crowd-powered engine that unites many partners under one vision.
The beauty of the model is that it’s scalable – you pay for what you truly need, without paying for extra hours or unused capacity. Here’s how it typically breaks down:

• Public Labs: Free. These are open, community-powered sessions where results are shared publicly – perfect for coalitions or multi-partner initiatives.
• One BIG Question: Around $5,000. Includes up to three hours of live moderation, a professional report and presentation deck, a full dataset, and a year of access to our analytical tools for up to 500 users. 
• Unlimited BIG Questions: Starting at $25,000. Provides an annual site license for your organization with one full admin seat and unlimited internal sessions throughout the year. 
• Community License: $50,000. Designed for larger institutions – it includes multiple administrators, space for 2,500 live participants, and integration with partner organizations.
• Municipal License: $100,000. Built for cities and networks with populations up to 10 million, supporting 100,000 live participants with full administrative access.

Custom pricing is available for organizations working across multiple departments or geographic regions. The key idea: BIG Question grows with you.

Yes. The same architecture that supports massive participation also excels at speed. In a crisis – whether a wildfire, funding gap, or reputational challenge – a new session can be launched in about three minutes. That means you can rally stakeholders and turn collective wisdom into action before rumors or uncertainty take over.

Absolutely. Because BIG Question builds emotional connection and real-time participation, it naturally dovetails with fundraising. Donors can give right inside the event – perfect for galas, telethons, or campaign launches – linking their contribution directly to the solutions they helped design.

Your community brings knowledge; our experts bring craft. Each session includes professional moderators, plus optional veteran fundraisers, policy analysts, or technologists who can join the live discussion. Their insights layer on top of the crowd’s ideas, helping you sharpen strategy without losing momentum or ownership of the process.

BIG Question builds trust by making every contribution visible, linking each idea to its author, and weaving individual voices into recommendations that everyone can see. Automated citations show exactly where each recommendation originated, turning advocates into champions and skeptics into engaged contributors. With inclusive design, accessible participation, and sectoral expertise, organizations foster genuine transparency, deeper buy-in, and community ownership of strategic plans.