Interactive Communication Features on Nonprofit Organizations' Webpages for the Practice of Excellence in Public Relations

Abstract

ABSTRACT. The main aims of this study were: (1) to examine how nonprofit organizations utilize their websites as a public relations tool, especially for media relations, donor relations, volunteer relations and their interactive communication features and (2) to ascertain whether nonprofit organizations' revenues are positively correlated with the presence and prominence of their media relations, donor relations, and volunteerrelations efforts online. To accomplish this, a content analysis of 98 websites was conducted from the list of the NPT Top 100. Statistical analysis revealed that there were no significant relationships between revenues and usage of the web by nonprofit organizations for media relations, donor relations and volunteer relations. This study found that although most of the top 100 nonprofit organizations have website content for online media relations, the majority had yet to furnish journalist-friendly web content because clearly labeled online press rooms dedicated to journalists were infrequent. We also found that donors are treated as the most important stakeholders given the frequency of interactive features and prominence of content dedicated on the websites to donors in comparison with journalists and volunteers. Finally, the conceptual and practical implications of the investigation are discussed.

Investigating the use of a Website as a Promotional Tool by Matjhabeng Non-Profit Organizations

“…Several public relations researchers have concluded that public relations and the internet are inseparably linked, offering examples of how organizations use the internet to communicate with members of its community [5].…”

“…While non-profits today are acting much like for-profit businesses, they still are lagging in their use of professional public relations practices. However, the internet offers nonprofit organizations unique opportunity to reach multiple communities, including volunteers, donors and journalists [5].…”

“…However, for smaller organizations, such as activists and non-profit organizations, websites play a critical role as a primary resource for communicating with, and responding to, stakeholder groups. The Internet provides a low-cost, direct, controllable communication channel that can extend NPO's efforts in outreach and promotion [5].…”

“…Using two-way communication between the organizations and publics is a major attribute of excellent public relations. Interactivity is defined as the degree to which a communication technology can create a mediated environment in which participants can communicate and participate in reciprocal message exchanges [5].…”

The Diffusion of Social Media in Nonprofit Organizations

“…They have to rely on the goodwill of charitable donations from individuals, corporate donors, and government agencies in order to fund their operations, to pay their employees, and to pay the overhead administrative costs (Olson, 2000;Schmid et al, 2008;Wang and Graddy, 2008;Yeon, Choi and Kiousis, 2007). Community-based nonprofits need to maintain long term relationships with their community supporters to fulfill their mission and to deliver their services.…”