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The Importance of Understanding Donor Preference and Relationship Cultivation Strategies
Abstract
Relationship cultivation has been identified as a critical component of fundraising success. Cultivation strategies derived from interpersonal communication theory were identified and evaluated by the donors and fundraising team members from three nonprofit hospitals. Using co‐orientation methodology, statistical analysis reveals that donors and fundraisers agree that the six strategies are beneficial. However, their perceptions that they hold similar views as the other side were not accurate in terms of the magnitude of the ratings. These differences are discussed and suggestions are provided to bring both sides of the nonprofit organization‐donor relationship closer to agreement.
... Therefore, fundraising has become a vital component of the day-to-day activities of charitable nonprofit organizations. The Public Relations scholarly literature underlines the crucial role played by the relationship cultivation strategies in fundraising and communication activities (Ki and Hon, 2006, 2009Waters, 2008Waters, , 2009Jo, 2006). Waters (2007) defined fundraising as the management of relationships between a non-profit organization and its donor public, entirely different from previous definitions in which fundraising is primarily understood as "the seeking of gifts from various sources as conducted by non-profit organizations". ...
... Therefore, fundraising has become a vital component of the day-to-day activities of charitable nonprofit organizations. The Public Relations scholarly literature underlines the crucial role played by the relationship cultivation strategies in fundraising and communication activities (Ki and Hon, 2006, 2009Waters, 2008Waters, , 2009Jo, 2006). Waters (2007) defined fundraising as the management of relationships between a non-profit organization and its donor public, entirely different from previous definitions in which fundraising is primarily understood as "the seeking of gifts from various sources as conducted by non-profit organizations". ...
Dialogic communication, which derives from a two-way symmetrical communication model, is considered to be an important foundation for long-lasting positive relationships with organizations and the public. The purpose of the current study was to examine the largest Polish Public Benefit Organization Web sites to determine the extent to which they use dialogic communication rules in relationship building. Also, the relation between the Web site dialogic potential and the amount of organizational revenue was scrutinized. The revenue was analyzed on two levels: total revenue acquired during the tax year and the amount of the annual 1 % of personal income tax. The results of the study indicate that Web sites of analyzed organizations fail to fully implement the dialogic communication principles. The statistical correlation between the sum of annual revenue and 1 % of personal income tax and the utilization of dialogic principles was partially supported. Non-profits appeared to show their greatest strengths in providing basic information to online users, such as a mission statement, organization logo and history, short loading time, general contact information on the homepage and major links on the homepage to subpages. Organizational division into three clusters highlighted quite significant differences in the utilization of dialogic principles. The Web sites of the largest Polish PBOs in terms of total annual revenue and 1 % of personal income tax are characterized by significantly higher dialogic communication potential. © 2018, Kauno Technologijos Universitetas. All rights reserved.
... Bortree (2010) added guidance (i.e., providing directions and guidelines), and found that guidance, assurances, and shared tasks were key relationship cultivation strategies for adolescent volunteer nonprofits. Waters (2009) found that fundraising teams correctly estimated that donors preferred openness, and that the donors preferred networking least. Men et al. (2017) found that Chinese start-ups used communicating values and vision, empowerment, authentic communication, and proactive reporting to cultivate relationships. ...
Through creating shared value (CSV) initiatives, companies have attempted to contribute to solving social problems that the public sector cannot address alone, such as migration, health, climate change, and job losses due to automation. Companies are also using CSV as business opportunities to develop their competitiveness. Only a few studies, however, have examined how organizations can develop and implement CSV programs, and the outcomes of those programs. We conducted a case study on how a multinational company, Yuhan-Kimberly, a joint venture of Kimberly-Clark and Yuhan, developed and implemented its CSV program, and created win-win, mutually beneficial impacts, in response to an increasingly aging society in Korea. South Korea is the world’s most rapidly aging society with the highest poverty and suicide rates among older adults. Yuhan-Kimberly’s CSV initiative includes fostering small-sized senior care businesses, creating jobs for older adults, changing the negative perception of older adults, and ultimately creating a market ecosystem for the older adult care industry. We used triangulation through company documents, including annual sustainability reports (N = 10), news reports (N = 623), company-conducted survey results (N = 80), and in-depth interviews (N = 14) with employees and members of other organizations and publics. The results reveal how the company developed and implemented a CSV program to cultivate mutually beneficial relationships and shared value for the company, older adults, other organizations, and society. The results indicate that CSV programs can be powerful relationship cultivation strategies to create mutual benefits both for society, by providing sustainable and feasible solutions, and for organizations, by enhancing their competitive advantages.
... These findings complement and extend the findings of Waters (2008Waters ( , 2009a regarding relationship building between fundraiser and donor. These previous studies reported how donors and fundraisers both report a positive relationship, but also recommend certain strategies to strengthen their connection (Waters, 2009). Waters (2008) also found relationship satisfaction differences from the perspective of the donor, depending on whether they were a major donor or an annual donor. ...
Agency theory and stewardship theory are both widely accepted
within the corporate governance literature but it is unclear whether these theories are compatible or competing explanations of principal-agent relationships. This study used an inductive approach to integrate agency theory and stewardship theory in the context of non-profit sport organizations. Drawing on interviews with gift officers for athletic departments and employing a Gioia methodology for analysis, this article asks: How do athletic foundations reconcile their priorities with financers’ interests when creating gift-financed projects? Findings show seven scenarios where athletic department priorities are reconciled with donor interests, ranging from scenarios where athletic department priorities prevail over donor interests to scenarios where donor interests come first. The ideal scenario, a cultivated donor base, is a special case and the only situation described by a perfect stewardship relationship. This article contributes a continuum model that blends agency theory and stewardship theory.
... These findings complement and extend the findings of Waters (2008Waters ( , 2009a regarding relationship building between fundraiser and donor. These previous studies reported how donors and fundraisers both report a positive relationship, but also recommend certain strategies to strengthen their connection (Waters, 2009). Waters (2008) also found relationship satisfaction differences from the perspective of the donor, depending on whether they were a major donor or an annual donor. ...
Agency theory and stewardship theory are both widely accepted within the corporate governance literature but it is unclear whether these theories are compatible or competing explanations of principal-agent relationships. This study used an inductive approach to integrate agency theory and stewardship theory in the context of non-profit sport organizations. Drawing on interviews with gift officers for athletic departments and employing a Gioia methodology for analysis, this article asks: How do athletic foundations reconcile their priorities with financers’ interests when creating gift-financed projects? Findings show seven scenarios where athletic department priorities are reconciled with donor interests, ranging from scenarios where athletic department priorities prevail over donor interests to scenarios where donor interests come first. The ideal scenario, a cultivated donor base, is a special case and the only situation described by a perfect stewardship relationship. This article contributes a continuum model that blends agency theory and stewardship theory.
... On the other side of the financial "coin" is accessing funds. Leaders (in con- at least) have responsibilities for cultivating relationships with funders which includes strategies established by research (Waters, 2009), namely: openness (most important for donors), task sharing (next most important, covering funders' assistance with service provision, training etc.), assurance (commitments to maintain the relationship), access (being visible to funders), positivity, and networking. A key finding from Waters' (2009) research is that leaders should regularly dialogue with donors to understand the emphasis to place across these six strategies. ...
... Ultimately, this may translate into sufficient funds to achieve statutory goals. This dependence on stakeholders is clearly emphasised in the literature of the subject (especially for nonprofit organisations), emphasising the fact that the organisation's stakeholder is a potential financial donor, a volunteer or just a person supporting ideas associated with a specific organisation (Waters 2008(Waters , 2009; Hon, 2007, 2008). In this context, building and shaping positive relationships is a key condition for the success of the nonprofit organisation and its special form -the PBO. ...
Scientific research into the use of social media in the activities of nonprofit organisations has focused mainly on the scale of their application and on the analysis of the static elements of the social media profile. The research presented in this article concerns the specific form of nonprofit organisation, namely public benefit organisations (PBOs). The aim of the article is, therefore, to identify the leading function of the content published on Twitter and to determine how this function translates into public engagement. During the research process, the content analysis method was used (a sample of 981 tweets was selected for this purpose). The results indicate that Twitter usage by Polish PBOs is of minor importance. Generally, with the exception of the largest organisations, the Twitter profile was primarily focused on delivering information only and, hence, was used in one-way communication.
Relationship marketing has been key to developing stronger relationships and promoting donor continuity in nonprofit organizations. However, it is not clear whether these efforts are effective for all individuals who choose to financially support an organization. Taking a relationship orientation approach, this study investigates the effect of consenting to direct marketing on occasional donors’ decisions to become members (i.e., contributing through membership programs), and analyzes the moderating role of past donation behavior (i.e., frequency and amount). The results reveal that occasional donors who consent to direct marketing are more likely to develop a long-term relationship as members. This effect is reinforced when donors have contributed greater amounts in the past. The findings also demonstrate that, through their membership, donors consenting to direct marketing provide greater financial support on an ongoing basis. This study offers novel insights into the relationship marketing literature and provides contributions to fundraising managers.
Stakeholder governance is a growing issue in the literature and for organizations. The complex and uncertain environment of non-profit organizations forces them to prioritize stakeholder requirements. The traditional criterion of influence and power is nevertheless proving insufficient for these organizations, especially those in political or interest representation sectors. This article proposes to use the relationship quality with stakeholders and its components (trust, satisfaction, influence, engagement) as criteria for prioritization. The study is carried out within the “Young Farmers” union, a French 50,000-member union defending the interests of agriculture and of farmers under 35 years of age. It questions external stakeholders on the relationship with the organization and its impact enables to verify the relevance of these criteria. The results suggest integrating stakeholder emotions into the same-named theory and studying relationship quality as a process in which satisfaction builds trust that enables engagement, which itself has a positive role on influence. The findings also revisit strategic models of stakeholder prioritization by proposing the four components of relationship quality mentioned above as prioritization attributes. Finally, NPOs’ partners are invited to take into account the subjectivity of the evaluation process and thus to favor reasonable methods to avoid handicapping NPOs.
Objectif : La présente recherche explore la relation entretenue entre la gouvernance des organisations à but non lucratif et leur performance globale, qui inclut également leur impact sur leurs parties prenantes. Elle affiche donc des objectifs analytiques autour des liens avec les parties prenantes : avec qui œuvrer et à qui rendre des comptes ? comment rendre des comptes et raffermir les liens avec elles ? quels comptes rendre et quels sont les critères d’évaluation ? Les effets de la gouvernance, les formes prises par la reddition des comptes et la construction sociale de la performance et de l’impact organisationnels sont donc particulièrement étudiés.Approche et méthode : L’ancrage principal est la vision contingente des organisations, à laquelle appartiennent les théories des parties prenantes et de la dépendance aux ressources. A partir d’une démarche hypothético-déductive insérée dans le paradigme épistémique réaliste critique (PERC), les hypothèses issues de la littérature sont testées à partir de méthodes d’analyses de données textuelles, de régressions multiples logistiques et linéaires ainsi que de modèles d’équations structurelles. Les analyses ont porté sur les données des plus grandes associations françaises, sur un questionnaire auprès des dirigeants associatifs pendant la crise de la Covid-19, sur une enquête auprès de parties prenantes individuelles ainsi que sur le cas des Jeunes Agriculteurs.Résultats : Les études menées ont permis de montrer que les mécanismes de gouvernance s’expliquent notamment grâce au secteur et aux actions de l’association. En revanche, les liens entre gouvernance et performance globale sont à étudier au cas par cas. Il en va de même pour les effets de la reddition des comptes sur la performance. La performance à court-terme des associations, à savoir leur viabilité, est renforcée par le maintien des dispositifs de gouvernance tandis que l’adoption d’une orientation sociétale a des effets contrastés sur la viabilité. Enfin, globalement, la gouvernance améliore l’impact et la qualité de relation avec les parties prenantes qui elle-même a un effet positif sur l’impact organisationnel. Cependant, ces résultats doivent être étudiés dans le détail des mécanismes de gouvernance, des parties prenantes et des dimensions de la performance.Implications théoriques : Les résultats obtenus permettent de répondre aux objectifs fixés. Ainsi, la vision contingente de la gouvernance des organisations à but non lucratif conduit à une forte adaptabilité (dans chaque organisation et à ses parties prenantes). Le reporting est un mécanisme crucial de reddition des comptes mais la relation avec les parties prenantes est aussi particulièrement pertinente. Enfin, l'ensemble des concepts abordés sont contingents, permettant d'expliquer une vision émotionnelle et subjective de l’impact ainsi que la multidimensionnalité de la performance. Les théories mobilisées sont donc particulièrement adaptées pour les associations et leur opérationnalisation a été revisitée.Implications praticiennes et sociétales : Les résultats invitent à une mesure raisonnable et flexible de l’impact des organisations à but non lucratif et soulignent le caractère crucial de la gouvernance pour améliorer la performance et l’impact, en dépit des méfiances. La priorisation des parties prenantes est en outre cruciale, pour éviter les problèmes associés à la reddition des comptes holistique. Les composantes de la qualité de relation peuvent alors devenir des critères de hiérarchisation et de priorisation des parties prenantes, car elles varient selon les parties prenantes et ont un effet sur la performance et l’impact.
In service management, research on customer upgrading strategies that intend to expand the relationship and foster co-creation of value have a long tradition. Service membership models that contain upgrade strategies could for example be found in fitness clubs, airline clubs, or membership programs of public services such as zoos. Upgrade strategies in nonprofit organizations, however, are not very common in practice, and also under researched. Against this background two research gaps are identified and addressed. First, who should be asked for an upgrade? Some members are perhaps interested in an upgrade, others are not. Knowledge on specific member characteristics that show that an individual is interested in an upgrade are missing. Second, most of the previous studies focused on marketing actions that are able to influence members intentions to upgrade and did not study real member behavior. Hence, how can nonprofit membership associations identify members with a high probability for upgrading behavior?
The purpose of this article is to provide a new, more comprehensive stakeholder theory of the relationships between nonprofit, for-profit, and government sectors. This theory combines aspects of neoclassical economics and principal-agency theory to complement the traditional notions that these organizations either compete or exist in a vacuum relative to one another. The article discusses nonprofit organizations that are employee groups (unions and professional associations), shareholders (institutional investors including pension funds and endowments), community and other interest groups, government contractors, competitors, consumers, and suppliers. By viewing these organizations as agents relative to a principal for-profit (or government) organization, it is possible to hypothesize about relationships and behaviors between organizations of different sectors of the economy. This new perspective allows a better understanding of the many relation- ships observed in the nonprofit sector and of a much greater range of nonprofit stakeholders than is currently possible given existing theory.
Collaboration between nonprofits and businesses is increasing and becoming more strategically important. Based on 15 case studies, this article presents a cross-sector collaboration framework consisting of four components. First, the collaboration continuum provides a conceptual framework for categorizing different types of partnerships and studying their possible evolution through three principal stages: philanthropic, transactional, and integrative. Second, the collaboration value construct facilitates the analysis of the definition, creation, balance, and renewal of the value generated in different types of alliances. Third, a set of alliance drivers is identified that determines the nature and functioning of the partnerships. Fourth, alliance enablers that contribute to the effective management of the relationship are set forth. The article discusses the dynamics of the alliance marketplace. The research builds on and extends existing interorganizational research theories by providing a distinctive conceptual framework and new empirical understanding of cross-sector alliances. Future research needs are identified.
Explains how social scientists can evaluate the reliability and validity of empirical measurements, discussing the three basic types of validity: criterion related, content, and construct. In addition, the paper shows how reliability is assessed by the retest method, alternative-forms procedure, split-halves approach, and internal consistency method.
This research tested a model that posits the linkages among perceptions of the organization–public relationships, attitudes, and behavioral intentions toward an organization among members of a key public. Among the 6 relationship indexes proposed by Hon and J. E. Grunig (1999), perceptions of satisfaction and control mutuality were the best predictors of a positive attitude toward the organization. In this study we also found that positive attitude was a precursor to supportive behavioral intentions toward the organization.
Notes that changes in the charity environment mean that fundraisers need to increase income from donations. Argues that to move forward donor behavior research needs to look not only at “why” people make donations but also at the process of “how” donations are made. Proposes that valuable lessons may be learnt through consideration of advances made in the field of consumer behavior where researchers have long focussed on decision-making processes as a concept which is central to the understanding of how consumers behave. Suggests that taking account of the circumstances in which the consumer acts will give insight into donor behavior, which avoids losing sight of the reality of donation occasions.
Based upon a mail survey completed by 275 donors of a non-profit organization, this study measured the association between perceptions of public relationships and donor support. A modified version of Hon and Grunig's (Hon, L. & Grunig, J. E. (1999). Guidelines for measuring relationships in public relations. Gainsville, FL: Institute for Public Relations) relationship scale was used. Results of one-way analyses of variance indicate that strong public relationships are not related to amount donated, but they are associated with years of support, happiness to continue donating, and happiness to recommend others to donate.