An exploratory study of nonprofit organisations use of the internet for communications and fundraising

Transcription

1 32 Int. J. Technology, Policy and Management, Vol. 16, No. 1, 2016 An exploratory study of nonprofit organisations use of the internet for communications and fundraising Namchul Shin* Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems, Pace University, One Pace Plaza, New York, NY Fax: *Corresponding author Qian Chen Lubin School of Business, Pace University, One Pace Plaza, New York, NY Fax: Abstract: This research examines how nonprofits use the internet to build public relations and increase charitable giving by analysing the content of the websites of various nonprofit organisations listed in the top 100 NPOs published by The Nonprofit Times. While there is no difference for most variables in the fundraising and communication practices between top tier and bottom tier NPOs divided by total revenue, the differences are found in such variables as campaign summary, messages from the CEO, volunteer opportunities, information sharing, social media use, and annual reports. These findings suggest that certain communication practices (information dissemination, interactive communication, and accountability) are positively associated with the level of fundraising. Compared to the findings of previous research, however, our findings show that the presence of characteristics related to communications and fundraising has increased on NPOs websites. This indicates that by recognising the importance of the internet, NPOs are increasingly using it as a medium for communications and charitable giving. Keywords: communications; fundraising; internet; nonprofits; online practices. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Shin, N. and Chen, Q. (2016) An exploratory study of nonprofit organisations use of the internet for communications and fundraising, Int. J. Technology, Policy and Management, Vol. 16, No. 1, pp Biographical notes: Namchul Shin is a Professor of Information Systems in the Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems, Pace University. He received his PhD in Management (specialisation in MIS) from the University of California at Irvine. His current research interests focus on the areas of globalisation of innovation and production networks, IT business value, organisational and strategic impacts of IT, electronic commerce, and open data. His work has been published in journals such as Industry and Innovation, Decision Support Systems, European Journal of Information Copyright 2016 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

2 An exploratory study of nonprofit organisations use of the internet 33 Systems, International Journal of Information Management, Electronic Commerce Research and Applications, and Journal of Information Technology Theory and Application, and Journal of Electronic Commerce Research, among other journals. He is an Associate Editor of Journal of Electronic Commerce Research and a member of the editorial board of Business Process Management Journal. Chelsey (Qian) Chen is a graduate student at the Lubin School of Business at Pace University in New York City. She received a Bachelor s Degree in Business Management from Capital University of Economics and Business in China. Her primary research interests include nonprofit fundraising, marketing, geographical information system, and US taxation. Before her graduate study, Chelsey had 5 years experiences in professional accounting and marketing. 1 Introduction The nonprofit sector continues to grow at a rapid pace. In 2010, about 2.3 million nonprofit organisations (NPOs) were operating in the USA and nearly 1.6 million were registered with the Internal Revenue Services (a 24% increase from 2000). Nonprofits employed 13.7 million workers (approximately 10% of the country s workforce). From 2000 to 2010, nonprofit employment grew about 18% faster than the overall US economy (Blackwood, Roeger and Pettijohn, 2012). According to the 2012 Charitable Giving Report (MacLaughlin, 2012), overall charitable giving in the USA was up 1.7% in 2012, compared to While online giving grew 10.7% in 2012, it still represents less than 10% of total fundraising revenue of the nonprofit sector. Although overall charitable giving is still dominated by traditional channels, such as direct mail, online giving has steadily grown (Flannery and Harris, 2011), and the growth observed in 2012 is inspiring for the nonprofit sector (MacLaughlin, 2012). The internet is one of the most important forces driving the economy today. The internet permeates every part of public life (Al-Kandari, Caldwell and Alduwaila, 2013; Calabrese et al., 2014), and it is increasingly used by nonprofits to communicate with donors and increase charitable giving. This research examines how nonprofits use the internet to build public relations and increase fundraising by analysing the websites of various NPOs. The key questions we raise for this research are: What communication and fundraising practices (or characteristics) have NPOs incorporated into their websites? Are there differences in the characteristics of websites among NPOs with different levels of fundraising? Which specific characteristics most affect differences in levels of fundraising? In order to tackle these questions, this research conducts a content analysis of the websites of NPOs listed in the top 100 NPOs (NPT top 100) published by The Nonprofit Times (2013). While the importance of the nonprofit sector for the US economy is growing, its operating environment has become more and more challenging. The sheer number of NPOs and their growth for the past decade has resulted in increasing competitive pressures. In addition to increased competition, NPOs have recently struggled with cutbacks in government funding and increased demand for services. In a market with increased competition, greater demand for services, and fewer resources, NPOs need

3 34 N. Shin and Q. Chen diverse ways of achieving their social goals. Online fundraising is a new option and has been used by NPOs with varying degrees of success. However, few studies have examined nonprofits online practices or strategies that can boost public relations and increase fundraising. This research contributes to the literature on the nonprofit sector by identifying website practices (or characteristics) that help NPOs improve public relations and increase charitable giving. 2 Literature review Unlike for-profit organisations whose strategic goal is to improve financial outcomes, the ultimate goal of NPOs is the fulfilment of a social mission (Hackler and Saxton, 2007). In general, NPOs have three mission-related goals: 1 strategic communications and relationship-building 2 the acquisition of funding and financial sustainability 3 partnerships and donor assistance (Hackler and Saxton, 2007). Online giving has grown steadily and contributes to an increase in the total fundraising revenue of nonprofits. According to the benchmarking report of Flannery and Harris (2011), while the vast majority of gifts are made through direct mail, the overall number of gifts given online and the number of donors acquired online have both grown gradually. Figure 1 shows the growth of the number of donors giving online over the four years of Figure 1 Growth of online giving (see online version for colours) Source: Flannery and Harris (2011) Despite the growth of the nonprofit sector in the US economy and the growth of online giving, there has been limited research on nonprofits use of the internet, particularly for public relations and fundraising. A notable exception is Waters (2007) study, which examined communication and fundraising strategies on the internet. By conducting a content analysis of the websites of a stratified sample of the Chronicle of Philanthropy

4 An exploratory study of nonprofit organisations use of the internet , he identified various communication and fundraising strategies that nonprofits incorporated into their websites. They are: Information disclosure and dissemination, e.g., communication about missions and programs. Interactive communication, e.g., discussion forums and live chats. Online giving, e.g., a permanent donation link. Accountability, e.g., provision of copies of IRS 990 forms and annual reports. Security, e.g., use of secure webserver and encryption. His study discovered that nonprofits were mainly using the internet as a means of providing information to the public (or donors) and that the full potential of websites was not being fulfilled. Two-way communications were limited, and the provision of complete financial information was lacking on the websites of most nonprofits. An earlier study by Kang and Norton (2004) also found that NPOs have not incorporated interactive two-way communication functions into their online presence. He examined a sample of the top 100 NPOs published by The Nonprofit Times. More recently, Waters et al. (2009) analysed the content of Facebook profiles of a random selection of NPOs. The findings indicated that solely having a profile did not necessarily enhance information dissemination and sharing strategies. They argued that nonprofits should have incorporated more Facebook applications and taken advantage of the interactive nature of social networking to entice the public to become more involved. Following Waters (2007) study, we employ the following six websites practices (or characteristics) and identify 23 variables, for which the content of NPOs websites is analysed: Online fundraising: permanent donation links, graphics to highlight fundraising, online stores, and other donation options. Information disclosure: program description, mission statement, listing of board of directors, a message from the chief executive director. Information dissemination: current news and press releases, audio and video files, campaign summary, calendar of events, volunteer opportunities. Interactive communication: collection of stakeholders addresses, feedback forms, information request forms, social media use, information sharing. Accountability: annual report, a copy of the completed IRS 990 form. Security: secure webserver and encryption, graphics to indicate that the transaction is encrypted and safe, security statement. This research extends Water s (2007) study by analysing various website variables of NPOs in relation to levels of fundraising; it employs more recent data and various analysis techniques using financial variables, such as revenue and fundraising expense. These analyses allow us to relate NPOs website practices to levels of specific organisational values, in addition to their tier, e.g., top-tier or bottom-tier.

5 36 N. Shin and Q. Chen 3 Methodology and data The content analysis of the websites of the top 100 NPOs (The Nonprofit Times, 2013) 1 was conducted by one of the authors and a student assistant during a two-week period in early February It was done for the top and bottom tier NPOs only (25 NPOs for each tier). Each website of those 50 NPOs was coded for the presence of the 23 variables incorporating the six website practices. Agreement (or inter-rater reliability) among the two coders is assessed by Cohen s kappa. The kappa statistic is.338, which is statistically significant at a level of This indicates that the two coders ratings are largely similar and highly reliable. The differences between the two ratings were reconciled by a coder who had subject matter expertise for nonprofits web presence. Other data are collected for the 50 NPOs from The Nonprofit Times (2013), including revenue, total expenses, fundraising expenses, total assets, years in operation, and nonprofit sector classification based on the National Taxonomy of Exempt Entities (NTEE). Following the NTEE classification, we classify nonprofit sectors into six sectors: 1 arts and humanities 2 education 3 health 4 human services 5 public service/societal benefit 6 religion. We employ crosstab analysis to examine the differences in the presence of the website characteristics between the top 25 and bottom 25 NPOs and identify website characteristics whose presence is significantly different for the two groups of NPOs. 2 Chi-square statistics were used to assess the statistical significance of our findings. In order to supplement crosstab analysis, we also conduct one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and non-parametric χ 2 (Kruskal and Wallis) tests. As mentioned earlier, these analysis techniques are employed to relate NPOs website practices to specific organisational values, rather than just their tier. Table 1 shows a summary of our sample statistics. Table 1 Sample statistics Top 25 NPOs Bottom 25 NPOs Full sample Mean St Dev. N Mean St Dev. N Mean St Dev. N Revenue ($000,000) 1, , , , Total expense ($000,000) 1, , , , Fundraising expense ($000,000) Total assets ($000,000) 2, , , , Years of operation

6 An exploratory study of nonprofit organisations use of the internet 37 As shown in Table 1, the top 25 NPOs have greater revenue, total expenses, fundraising expenses, and total assets than the bottom 25 NPOs. Top 25 NPOs also have longer years of operation than bottom 25 NPOs. These five variables are highly correlated each other (p <.01 for all five variables). The ANOVA tests show that the differences in the means are significant at a level of.001 for all five variables. These results might indicate that fundraising efforts contribute to revenue increases. It is also notable that NPOs with longer years of operation earn higher revenue than NPOs with shorter years of operation. This suggests that NPOs might have built up their brand name through years of operation, which is an important factor for revenue increases. 4 Results for nonprofits website characteristics Our findings show that there is no difference for most variables of fundraising and communication practices between the two groups of NPOs. Differences are found in some variables, such as campaign summary and volunteer opportunities provided to the public (information dissemination) and information sharing among the public (interactive communication). The results are shown in Table 2. Table 2 Cross-tabulation results for statistically significant website variables Top tier NPOs Bottom tier NPOs Information dissemination Campaign summary χ² = 4.50, p < (2) a 17 (8) Volunteer opportunities χ² = 3.19, p < (0) 22 (3) Interactive communication Information sharing χ² = 3.03, p < (1) 20 (5) a Presence (No Presence). As shown in Table 2, 23 NPOs in the top tier had a campaign summary on their websites, while only 17 NPOs in the bottom tier had one on their websites. Overall, 80% of NPOs (40 out of 50) had a campaign summary on their websites. All the NPOs (25) in the top tier provided information on volunteer opportunities. Information sharing with the public was done for almost all the NPOs (24) in the top tier. These findings suggest that these communication characteristics of websites are positively associated with the level of fundraising. It is interesting to note that there was no difference between the two groups of NPOs with regard to the presence of four fundraising practices, i.e., permanent donation link, graphics to highlight fundraising, online store, other donation options. These results are consistent with previous research findings (Waters, 2007). However, the percentages of these characteristics all increased, compared to Waters study. For example, the presence of a permanent donation link is 96%, compared to 71% in Waters study. Although the presence of a permanent donation link has increased in recent years, it has not resulted in increasing levels of fundraising. As mentioned earlier, while online giving has grown steadily in recent years, it still represents a small portion of total fundraising revenue of the nonprofit sector. Thus, the presence of a permanent donation

7 38 N. Shin and Q. Chen link might be a necessary website characteristic for NPOs fundraising, but not sufficient to make a difference in the level of fundraising. Our sample includes NPOs in six different sectors: arts and humanities, education, health, human services, public service/societal benefit, and religion. NPOs in the education and health sectors earn a significant amount of revenue from sources other than general fundraising. We therefore conduct the crosstab analysis without these two sectors. 3 This reduces the total number of the sample down to 32 (18 top NPOs and 14 bottom NPOs). As shown in Table 3, the differences are found in such variables as CEO s message and campaign summary (information dissemination), the use of social media (interactive communication), and an annual report (accountability). Table 3 Cross-tabulation results for statistically significant website variables: without education and health sectors Top tier NPOs Bottom tier NPOs Information dissemination CEO s message χ² = 4.27, p < (5) a 5 (9) Campaign summary χ² = 2.79, p < (2) 9 (5) Interactive communication Social media use χ² = 2.74, p < (0) 12 (2) Accountability Annual report χ² = 2.74, p < (0) 12 (2) a Presence (No Presence). We continue the analysis by controlling each variable to see if the presence of these four variables differs for top and bottom tier NPOs. We found that the difference between top and bottom tier NPOs is significant with respect to the CEO s message (or campaign summary) when these components are not present on the website. The results indicate that the CEO s message makes up for the lack of a campaign summary and vice versa. Similarly, we found that the difference between top and bottom tier NPOs is significant for social media use (or CEO s message) when the CEO s message (or social media use) is present on the website. Likewise, the difference between top and bottom tier NPOs is significant for the presence of an annual report (or social media use). These results suggest that the use of social media complements the CEO s message and annual report. In other words, the presence of both variables, such as the use of social media and CEO s message or the use of social media and an annual report, is more prevalent in top tier NPOs, compared to bottom tier NPOs. The results are shown in Table 4. While crosstab analysis shows differences between the top 25 and bottom 25 NPOs in the presence of certain website characteristics, it does not show how NPOs website characteristics are related to levels of specific financial variables, such as revenue, fundraising expenditures, and total assets. In order to examine the relationships between website characteristics and these financial variables, we conduct ANOVA and the non-parametric χ 2 (Kruskal and Wallis) tests.

8 An exploratory study of nonprofit organisations use of the internet 39 Table 4 Cross-tabulation results for statistically significant website variables with a control variable: without education and health sectors CEO s message Campaign summary Top tier NPOs Bottom tier NPOs χ² No presence 2 (0) a 1 (4) χ² = 3.73, p <.05 Presence 11 (5) 4 (5) χ² = 1.42, not significant CEO s message Campaign summary No presence 5 (0) 5 (4) χ² = 3.11, p <.10 Presence 11(2) 4 (1) χ² =.06, not significant CEO s message Social media use No presence 5 (0) 8 (1) χ² =.60, not significant Presence 13(0) 4(1) χ² = 2.75, p <.10 Social media use CEO s message No presence 1 (1) 1 (1) NA Presence 13 (5) 4 (8) χ² = 4.43, p <.05 Social media use Annual report No presence 0 (0) 2 (0) NA Presence 18 (0) 10 (2) χ² = 3.21, p <.10 Annual report Social media use No presence 0 (0) 2 (0) NA Presence 18 (0) 10 (2) χ² = 3.21, p <.10 a Presence (No Presence). ANOVA assumes that the variances of the groups are equal. With unequal variances, ANOVA is still robust when the groups are of equal or near equal size. However, when the sample sizes differ, we may need to perform a nonparametric test (Norusis, 2004). By using rank orders, not mean values, non-parametric procedures are designed to test for the significance of the difference between multiple groups when the assumptions of ANOVA are invalid or suspect. As shown in Table 5, our results show that NPOs revenues are positively associated with the website presence of CEO message and campaign summary. Although the F test results are not significant, χ 2 test results show that NPOs with CEO s message and campaign summary present on their websites have greater revenues (or higher mean rank orders in terms of revenues). The χ 2 test statistics are statistically significant at a level of.05. Our results also show that fundraising expenditures are also strongly associated with the website presence of volunteer opportunities and information request forms (one of the interactive communication variables) (p <.05). The website presence of volunteer opportunities is also strongly associated with total expenditures (p <.05). These results are consistent with the crosstab results shown in Table 2. Given that fundraising efforts (reflected in the magnitude of fundraising expenditures) contribute to revenue increases, these results suggest that the presence of various communication channels between NPOs and the public is critical for revenue generation through fundraising. As discussed earlier, rather than simply including a permanent donation link on their websites, NPOs may

9 40 N. Shin and Q. Chen have to improve communications with the public, whether this is achieved through CEO s message, campaign summary, volunteer opportunities, or information request forms. Table 5 ANOVA and non-parametric χ 2 (Kruskal-Wallis) test results for statistically significant website variables Revenue Revenue Total expense Fundraising expense Fundraising expense N Mean F χ 2 CEO message present 29 1, (p <.05) CEO message not present Campaign summary present 40 1, (p <.05) Campaign summary not present 10 1,069.8 Volunteer opportunities present (p <.05) Volunteer opportunities not present Volunteer opportunities present (p <.05) Volunteer opportunities not present Information request present (p <.05) Information request not present As in the crosstab analysis, we also conduct both ANOVA and the non-parametric χ 2 tests without the education and health sectors. As shown in Table 6, χ 2 test results show that NPOs revenues are positively associated with the website presence of CEO message and annual report (accountability). Total expenses are also strongly associated with the website presence of CEO message and information request forms (interactive communication) (p <.05). These results are consistent with the crosstab results shown in Table 3. Table 6 Revenue Revenue Total expense Total expense ANOVA and non-parametric χ 2 (Kruskal-Wallis) test results for statistically significant website variables: without education and health sectors N Mean F χ 2 CEO message present 18 1, (p <.10) CEO message not present 14 1,080.0 Annual report present 30 1, (p <.05) Annual report not present CEO message present 18 1, (p <.10) CEO message not present 14 1,040.0 Information request present 25 1, (p <.05) Information request not present 7 506

10 An exploratory study of nonprofit organisations use of the internet 41 In order to examine the differences of nonprofits online practices across sectors, we also conduct crosstab analysis of website practices for all six sectors. Our findings show that there was little difference across sectors for the presence of most website variables. As shown in Table 7, differences among six nonprofit sectors were found for only seven website variables. Notable results are the lack of presence of such characteristics as graphics to highlight (online giving), information sharing (interactive communication), and calendar of events (information dissemination) on the websites of NPOs in the arts and humanities, education, and human services sectors. Table 7 Cross-tabulation results for six sectors for statistically significant website variables Arts and humanities Education Online giving: graphics to highlight χ² = 18.50, p <.01 Information disclosure: mission statement χ² = 11.81, p <.05 Listing of board of directors χ² = 10.32, p <.10 Information dissemination: video or audio files χ² = 11.81, p <.05 Calendar of events χ² = 9.80, p <.10 Interactivity: information sharing χ² = 12.05, p <.05 Accountability: completed IRS 990 form χ² = 11.19, p <.05 Accountability: completed IRS 990 form χ² = 11.19, p <.05 a Presence (No Presence). Health Human services Public service/societal benefit Religion 1 (4) a 4 (1) 11 (2) 7 (0) 16 (1) 3 (0) 5 (0) 4 (1) 13 (0) 7 (0) 17 (0) 2 (1) 5 (0) 5 (0) 13 (0) 6 (1) 17 (0) 2 (1) 4 (1) 5 (0) 13 (0) 7 (0) 17 (0) 2 (1) 5 (0) 5 (0) 12 (1) 4 (3) 16 (1) 2 (1) 3 (2) 3 (2) 13 (0) 7 (0) 16 (1) 2 (1) 2 (3) 4 (1) 11 (2) 6 (1) 17 (0) 2 (1) 2 (3) 4 (1) 11 (2) 6 (1) 17 (0) 2 (1) Compared to previous research, our findings show that the presence of most website characteristic variables related to fundraising and communications has increased (Table 8). This indicates that by recognising the importance of the internet for fundraising, NPOs are increasingly using their websites as a medium for communication and charitable giving, building better relationships with the public s (or donors).

11 42 N. Shin and Q. Chen Table 8 Comparison of the present study and Waters (2007): presence of website variables (%) Website characteristic variables Present study Waters (2007) Permanent donation link 98% 71% Graphics to highlight fundraising 84% NA Online stores 50% 34% Other donation options 96% 75% Program description 100% 97% Mission statement 96% 88% Listing of board of directors 96% 48% CEO s message 58% 25% Current News & Press 100% 92% Video or audio files 96% NA Campaign summary 80% NA Calendar of events 88% NA Volunteer opportunities 94% NA Collection of stakeholders 100% 89% addresses Feedback forms 46% 88% Information request forms 72% 26% Social media use 94% 3% Information sharing 88% NA Annual report 94% 64% Completed IRS 990 form 84% 29% Secure servers and encryption 100% 95% Graphics to indicate secure servers and 58% NA encryption Security statement 60% 84% 5 Discussion and conclusions As Waters (2007) predicted, NPOs have adapted their communication and fundraising strategies to the online environment in more recent years. The comparison of the present study and the previous study done by Waters clearly shows the phenomenon. While there is little difference in the presence of most website characteristics for top tier and bottom tier NPOs, however, certain fundraising and communication practices, such as campaign summary, CEO s message, volunteer opportunities, information sharing (or request), annual report, and social media use, are positively associated with the level of fundraising.

12 An exploratory study of nonprofit organisations use of the internet 43 Among others, the CEO s message is found more frequently in top tier NPOs than in bottom tier NPOs. This result might imply that the CEOs role is critical for fundraising. We also found that the CEO s message is complementary to a campaign summary and social media use. This suggests that an NPO might be more successful in fundraising when a CEO disseminates his or her message to the public, emphasising the organisation s campaigns or operations. During President Obama s reelection campaign in 2012, it was discovered that adding a personal message from the president, Stand with me, work with me to the homepage led to a 14% increase in visitors who made an online donation to the campaign (Regalado, 2014). As online giving increases, the online practices and strategies of NPOs have become more important than ever. This research extends the previous study done by Waters (2007) by employing a more recent data set and by analysing NPOs financial variables, such as revenue, fundraising expenses, and total assets, not just their tiers, in relation to their website characteristics. By doing so, this research adds new knowledge to the literature on the nonprofit sector by analysing online practices that help NPOs improve public relations and increase charitable giving. This research is not free from limitations: The NPT top 100 ranks NPOs by total revenue, not by fundraising revenue. However, the list excludes NPOs that rely on program services or other revenue in many cases. Given that NPOs revenues are more likely generated by fundraising efforts, total revenue could be used as a proxy for fundraising. Recognising this shortfall, we performed a supplementary analysis excluding the education and health sectors, which might earn a significant amount of revenue from other sources than fundraising. Future research can use fundraising revenue if the data become available. This study employs a subsample of the NPT top 100: top 25 and bottom 25 NPOs. However, it would be interesting for future studies to compare NPOs listed in the NPT top 100 and a sample of NPOs not included in the list with regard to their online practices. References Al-Kandari, A.A., Caldwell, L.G. and Alduwaila, N. (2013) The use and impact of media during the 2008 global financial crisis: a media-user perspective, International Journal of Business Continuity and Risk Management, Vol. 4, No. 3, pp Blackwood, A.S., Roeger, K.L. and Pettijohn, S.L. (2012) The nonprofit sector in brief: public charities, giving, and volunteering, Urban Institute, pp.1 8. Calabrese, A., Di Pillo, F., Levialdi, N., Gastaldi, M. and Iacovelli, I. (2014) Net neutrality versus discrimination in internet access: winners, losers and investment incentives, International Journal of Technology, Policy and Management, Vol. 14, No. 3, pp Flannery, H. and Harris, R. (2011) 2011 donercentrics Internet and Multichannel Giving Benchmarking Report, Blackbaud. Hackler, D. and Saxton, G.D. (2007) The strategic use of information technology by nonprofit organizations: increasing capacity and untapped potential, Public Administration Review, Vol. 67, No. 3, pp Kang, S. and Norton, H. (2004) Nonprofit organizations use of the World Wide Web: are they sufficiently fulfilling organizational goals?, Public Relations Review, Vol. 30, pp MacLaughlin, S. (2012) Charitable Giving Report: How Nonprofit Fundraising Performed in 2012, Blackbaud. Norusis, M. (2004) SPSS 13.0 Guide to Data Analysis, Prentice Hall, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ.

13 44 N. Shin and Q. Chen Regalado, A. (January 22, 2014) Seeking Edge, Websites Turn to Experiments, MIT Technology Review. The Nonprofit Times (November 1, 2013) The NPT 2013 Top 100: An In-depth Study of America s Largest Nonprofits. Waters, R.D. (2007) Nonprofit organizations use of the internet: a content analysis of communication trends on the internet sites of the organizations on the philanthropy 400, Nonprofit Management & Leadership, Vol. 18, No. 1, pp Waters, R.D., Burnett, E., Lamm, A. and Lucas, J. (2009) Engaging stakeholders through social networking: how nonprofit organizations are using Facebook, Public Relations Review, Vol. 35, pp Notes 1 The list of the top 100 NPOs (NPT top 100) has been published annually by the Nonprofit Times. According to The Nonprofit Times (2013), the NPT 100 ranks organizations by total revenue, but at least 10% must be in the form of public support, which in many cases excludes hospitals or other large national organizations that rely on program service or other revenue, such as Lutheran Services in America (LSA). 2 A sample of the top and bottom 25 NPOs was used in order to create a greater distance between the two groups. We expect there would be a bigger gap between the top and bottom 25 NPOs, compared to a sample of the top half and bottom half NPOs. 3 We also did the analysis without the education sector only. The results were similar. The differences are found in such variables as CEO s message (p <.10) and campaign summary (p <.05).