E. Oliveira, A. Duarte Melo & G. Conçalves: Strategic communication for non-profit organisations: Challenges and alternative approaches

Abstract

An emerging field of research within communication sciences examines public communication within organizational contexts and the broader public sphere. As its visibility and (societal) relevance have grown in recent years, an increasing number of scholars scrutinizes the subfield of non-profit communication, which is mainly (but not exclusively) performed by civil society. Nevertheless, non-profit communication has often not been theorized accurately within communication research, as most studies in the field have adopted a business-and profit-driven logic to develop theories, models and case studies, largely ignoring non-profit organizations' (NPOs) social values and goals. Strategic communication for non-profit organisations therefore aims to provide relevant insights into new, multidimensional approaches on NPOs' communication, thereby adopting a multi-perspective view of the role of strategy. Editors Evandro Oliveira, Ana Duarte Melo and Gisela Conçalves certainly succeed in achieving this main objective, as their book volume proves to be a significant, original and wide-ranging contribution to the literature and academic debate on NPO's strategic communication.The book consists of thirteen chapters divided into an introduction and four main parts which provide both a theoretical conceptualization of, and several empirical case studies on, non-profit communication, which itself is divided in six subfields: (1) Development Communication, (2) Civic Relations Communication, (3) Health Communication, (4) Environmental Communication, (5) Science and Innovation Communication, and (6) Religious Communication. Examining all these subfields, Strategic communication for non-profit organisations focuses on various dimensions of NPOs' internal and external communication strategies -situated in distinct contexts, channelled through diversified media and/or directed on different target audiences -and their different underlying motives and implications. Although 'non-profit communication' and 'strategy' are throughout the whole book considered as complex and diverse concepts of which specific research findings are difficult to generalize, the editors advance one distinctive element of non-profit communication. That is "humanity and the relations with the fields of life in the public sphere, notBrought to you by | Ghent University Library

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