This study analyzed 197 Arizona nonprofit organizations to compare how human services and animal-related nonprofits use and perceive communications efforts. Key findings include: - Human services nonprofits were more likely to have staff dedicated to communications and send press releases, while animal nonprofits relied more on volunteers. - There was no significant difference in social media presence except that animal nonprofits had higher engagement on Facebook. - Perceptions of communications efforts were similar except animal nonprofits were more likely to plan increased social media presence. - The study had limitations such as only analyzing two nonprofit types and one month of social media data. Future research could examine revenue, conduct interviews, and analyze additional platforms and subsectors.

1. A comparative study
on the use and
perception of public
relations among
nonprofit
organizations
Alexandria Coleman

2. Overview
 197 Arizona nonprofit organizations
 Traditional communication usage, social media
adoption and usage, perception of
communications efforts
 Includes an analysis of:
 15-question survey
 Form 990 data
 Social media analytics

3. A Look at Previous Studies

4. Communications and Donor
Relationships
 275 donors from
Tarrant Area Food
Bank (TAFB)
 15-question survey
 Relationship quality
measured with 3
indicators
 Commitment
 Satisfaction
 Trust
(O’Neil, 2009)

5. Social Media Adoption Among
Nonprofits
Curtis et al., 2009
 Measured level of
participation,
behaviors, concerning
new media, tendencies
to adopt, perceived
credibility
 Insightful results, but
outdated tools
Campbell et al., 2014
 Sample of human
services funders,
providers and county
departments
 Included social media
data, semi-structured
interviews, and Facebook
content analysis

6. Environmental Factors and Social
Media Adoption
 Sample included organizations from Nonprofit
Times 100 (73 on Twitter, 65 on Facebook)
 3 main factors of social media utilization: adoption,
frequency of use, and dialogue
 Analyzed in terms of: nonprofit strategy, capacity,
governance, environment
 Results: Commercial nonprofits more likely to
have social media presence, no correlation
between organization size and social media
adoption
(Nah & Saxton, 2012)

7. Twitter
 To what extent are nonprofit organizations
following the models of public relations on
Twitter?
 27 organizations from Philanthropy 200
 Tweets were coded using four models of public
relations: press agentry, public information,
two-way asymmetry and two-way symmetry.
 Public information: most common model
(Waters & Jamal, 2011)

8. Twitter
 4,655 tweets coded
based on usage of
hyperlinks, @
mentions, retweets and
hashtags
 Following practices
were also considered
 Furthers notion that
Twitter is being used
for one-way
communication
 Same dataset as
previous study
 Tweets were coded
using 12- category
scheme
 3 types of users:
 Info sources
 Community builders
 Promoters/mobilizers
(Lovejoy & Saxton, 2012)(Lovejoy et al., 2012)

9. Research Questions
 How do nonprofit organizations
use and perceive communications
efforts?
 Does the type of nonprofit
organization have an effect on the
usage of communications tactics?
 Does the type of nonprofit
organization have an effect on the
perception of communications
efforts within that organization?

10. Hypotheses
 There is a significant difference between human
services and animal-related nonprofit
organizations with respect to:
 (1) The use of traditional communication tactics
 (2) General social media usage
 (3) Twitter usage and engagement
 (4) Facebook usage and engagement
 (5) The perception of communication tactics

11. Operation Definitions
 Traditional communication- Employment
status of person responsible for
communications, newsletter and press
release usage, and newsletter distribution
frequency
 Social media usage-Number of social media
accounts, number of followers on each account,
CEO’s social media usage
 Perception of communication- Six Likert-scale
statements

12. Social Media Metrics
Twitter usage and
engagement
14 variables, including:
 Performance index,
average weekly growth,
tweets per day,
engagement,
conversations, interaction
Facebook usage and
engagement
21 variables, including:
 Page performance index,
average weekly growth,
total likes, shares and
comments, total posts by
fans, total photo, video and
link posts

13. Research Design
 15-question survey
 Social media
analysis
 Follower count on 7
most common
platforms
 Fanpage karma
KPIs
 Form 990 data

14. Sampling Method
 Animal-related and human services
organizations based on Giving USA report
 National Taxonomy of Exempt Entities (NTEE)
classification
 Difficulty finding organizations with websites
and contact information
 Searched for alternatives such as ASU
Lodestar Center

15. Sample
 Searched 585 animal-related and 1083
human services organizations individually
 Only organizations with a website and email
contact were included
 375 animal-related and 549 human services
fit the criteria
 Survey emailed to 921 total organizations in
Arizona

16. Aug, 2015
Social Media Followers
Data Collected
Sept. 2015 Oct. 2015 Nov. 2015 Dec. 2015
Fanpage
Karma Data
Collected
Survey Sent
Aug. 6
Form 990 Data
Collected
Timeline

17. Participant Demographics
 921 emails sent  864
delivered  203
completed the survey
(23.5% response rate)
 197 usable responses
 73 animal-related
 122 human services
 2 both animal and
human services
62%
37%
1%
Nonprofit Type
Human Services
Animal-related
Human services and animal-related

18. Form 990 Data
 30% did not have a recent Form 990 available
online, 23% had Form 990-EZ and 44.2% had
full Form 990
 Average number of board members: 9.4
 Average number of employees: 40
 Average number of volunteers: 276

19. Revenue Data

20. Communications Position
 Who is in charge of
communications/publ
ic relations efforts
within your
organization?
+
 What is the position
title for the staff
member most
involved in these
efforts?
0 50 100 150
Volunteer
FT staff member(s)
PT staff member
Outside agency
Number of Respondents
Employment Status

21. CEO, executive
director, founder or
president
Communications,
marketing, public
relations or public
awareness
Fundraising,
development, donor,
philanthropy or
financial
Community or outreach

22. Traditional Communication
Newsletters
 55.3% have a
regular newsletter
 Most organizations
with newsletters
distribute it monthly
Press Releases
 58.9% of
respondents send
press releases or
media alerts to news
organizations

23. Social Media Usage
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
200
Facebook Twitter YouTube LinkedIn Instagram Google+ Pinterest
NumberofOrganizationswithAccounts
Social Media Platform
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
LinkedIn
Instagram
Google+
Pinterest
Average number of accounts: 2.83

24. CEO on Social
48.2% of respondents said
their CEO did not use social
media for professional
purposes

25. Twitter Metrics
 Performance index: 26%
 Total tweets: 28
 Total likes and RTs: 18
 Conversations: 1.7%
 Engagement: 0.1%
Accounts with more than 100 followers were analyzed
over a 1-month period

26. Facebook Metrics
 Page performance index: 29%
 Ad value: $1,448
 Engagement: 1.1%
 Total posts: 25
 Photo posts: 15.7
 Video posts: 1.3
 Link posts: 6.12
 Total likes, comments and shares: 1900

27. Perception of Communications
Efforts
 91.3% of respondents either agreed or
strongly agreed with this statement:
 I believe strong communications efforts are
necessary for the growth of my organization.
 88.7% either agreed or strongly agreed:
 I feel there is room for improvement in my
organizations’ communications efforts.

28. Perception of Allocation of
Resources
 50% either agreed or strongly agreed:
 I feel that my organization dedicates too few
resources to communications efforts.
 63% either agreed or strongly agreed:
 I would like to increase my communications efforts,
but I feel I do not have the resources.
 The difference? Allocation of resources vs. overall
lack of resources

29. Perception of Social Media
Statement
Strongly
disagree
Disagree
Neither
agree nor
disagree
Agree
Strongly
agree
I feel that my organization has
an adequate social media
presence.
9 62 42 73 9
I plan to increase my
organization’s social media
presence within the next six
months.
5 19 49 76 47
 Main purpose of social media:
 47.7% to encourage followers to attend events, donate,
volunteer, etc.
 33.5% to disseminate information about the organization
 16.2% to create dialogue with the community

30. Results by Nonprofit Typology

31. Traditional Communications
 Human services organizations are more
likely to have a FT or PT staff member
responsible for communications
 Animal-related organizations are more likely
to assign this task to a volunteer
 No significant difference in newsletter
distribution or frequency
 Human services organizations are more
likely to send out press releases or media
alerts

32. General Social Media Usage
 No significant difference in number of social media
accounts or the number of followers on those
accounts except Facebook

33. Human services
and animal-related
organizations are
equally likely to
have CEOs that
are active on social
media

34. Twitter Usage and Engagement
 No significant differences in 13 out of 14
Twitter metrics
 “Retweeted” was the only metric with a
significant difference
 Human services organizations retweet other
Twitter users more often than animal-related
organizations

35. Facebook Usage and Engagement
 Significant differences in 13 of 21 Facebook
metrics
 Animal-related organizations had higher page
performance indexes, ad value, total posts, total
posts by fans, photo posts, total likes, comments,
and shares, and engagement
 No difference in follower growth

36. Perception of Communications
Efforts
 No significant differences in 5 of 6 Likert-scale
statements
 Animal-related organizations were more likely
to strongly disagree, disagree, and strongly
agree with the statement:
 I plan to increase my organization’s social
media presence within the next six months.
 No significant difference in the main purpose
of social media

37. Evaluation of Hypotheses
1) Traditional Communication Tactics
 Position responsible for communications
 Newsletter distribution and frequency
 Press release distribution
Hypothesis: Partially correct
2) General Social Media Usage
 Number of social media accounts
 Number of followers on 6 of 7 platforms
 CEO on social media
Hypothesis: Rejected

38. Evaluation of Hypotheses
3) Twitter Usage and Engagement
 No difference on 13 of 14 metrics
 Number of times organization RTs other users
Hypothesis: Rejected
4) Facebook Usage and Engagement
 Analytics on 13 of 21 metrics
 No difference on 8 of 21 metrics
Hypothesis: Accepted

39. Evaluation of Hypotheses
5) Perception of Communication Tactics
 No difference on 5 of 6 Likert-scale statements
 Organization’s plan to increase social media in the next
6 months
 No difference in main purpose of social media
Hypothesis: Rejected

40. Study Limitations
and Future
Considerations

41. Study Limitations
 Large sample size, but
limited to organizations
with contact email
 Only two types of
nonprofit organizations
 One-month of social
media data
 Social media metrics
did not include content
analysis
Future Considerations
 Revenue as a
comparative factor
 Qualitative research
such as interviews or
focus groups
 Social platforms
beyond Facebook and
Twitter
 Different subsectors
other than animal-
related and human
services