Two surveys circulating electronically in the Wilmington area are asking individuals for their help in gathering data for local initiatives.

One is asking individuals to participate in a survey to help “a local Wilmington startup” add to its database, and to ask their significant other, if they have one, to participate as well.

The local startup is Likeli, which aims to recommend relationship matches using an extensive array of data points from social media and other sources, rather than relying on what relationship hopefuls say about themselves.

“Likeli is working on a research project to help add to our psychographic database that we use to train our machine-learning algorithms, and at this stage we’re recruiting couples to take a survey that will help us provide awesome matches when Likeli launches,” company chairman George Taylor said in an email. 

The Likeli team, headed by Taylor’s son George Taylor III, is sending requests out through several local companies, who are asking their employees to take the survey. Members of the public are encouraged to participate as well, the younger Taylor said Tuesday.

It takes about nine minutes to complete the survey, according to Likeli officials, and there are a few built-in rewards for lucky participants.

Meanwhile, friends and members of several area nonprofits are receiving email requests to participate in a survey designed to collect information on how community residents enjoy – and choose to – spend their leisure time.

The effort is part of the Cape Fear Museum’s strategic planning process, according to museum director Sheryl Mays.

“We were looking at a strategic plan that looked at community engagement and how we learn more about what the community’s needs and expectations are,” Mays said Tuesday.

To address that issue, museum hired Reach Advisors, a research and data gathering organization that works primarily with museums. The consultants recommended that Cape Fear Museum broaden its survey to include people not on the museum’s list of friends and supporters, so Mays asked other nonprofits in the area to engage their members in the survey process. New Hanover County, which owns and operates the museum, is encouraging county residents to participate as well.

“The county is promoting it partly because we’re looking internally at what makes [Cape Fear Museum] relevant,” Mays said. “This is the first step in an ongoing process we hope will end with the new strategic plan at the end of June.”

Each organization participating in getting the survey out will receive the complete data from the survey, as well as a subset of data from its own respondents, Mays said. If Reach Advisors has data from similar organizations in other parts of the country, participating organizations will get their data for comparison.

“For instance, The Children’s Museum of Wilmington will get information from other children’s museums across the country,” Mays said.

The survey, which officials say takes about nine minutes to complete, can be found here. There are some incentives for participation.