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Fall 2012 Paper on Transparency or Accountability: The Purpose of Online Technologies for Nonprofits.
I just got back from the annual ARNOVA conference in Indianapolis where I presented a paper based on my interviews with some nonprofits in Duval County. Here is the paper and the presentation.
Abstract:
Transparency and accountability are two issues that are ubiquitous for nonprofits. Today, the application of these issues has moved from solely traditional mediums to include online technologies. Through content analyses of nonprofit Web sites and in-depth interviews, this paper seeks to determine if nonprofit leaders see a conceptual connection between transparency and accountability and their online communication mediums. It was found that most still visualize online communication tools as a medium to push information out to stakeholders. In addition, a pattern was found between an executive director’s conceptualization of the purpose of online tools and the organization’s use of its Web site in regard to the amount of information it provided and the tools it adopted.
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3/6/2012 I just got back from the American Society of Public Administration’s annual conference in LasVegas, NV. This is the abstract and my presentation from the conference.
ABSTRACT
Today’s economic environment has placed a greater onus on nonprofits to demonstrate how effective their programs and services are in relation to the invested resources. While some perceive the relationship between investment and outcome as a function of financial measures, a holistic understanding of return gained through nonprofit services and programs is understood through the use of a social return on investment (SROI) analysis. The SROI goes beyond measuring the economic value of a program or service to include the socio-economic and social values gained. These three values are underpinned by “transformative value”, the measure of the added social value created by the nonprofit. To better understand how nonprofits perceive SROI, nonprofits in Duval County, Florida were identified through snowball sampling and then semi-structured interviews with the executive directors of nonprofits that have a robust presence on social media platforms were done. This paper identifies the different ways that nonprofit leaders conceptualize SROI’s connection to social media technologies and how hey are used for outcome measures. The findings provide an insight to how nonprofits measure the values created by the use of social networking for the organization, its stakeholders, and the community.
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2/1/2012 I presented the highlights from the report completed in the fall: Understanding the Relationship Between Nonprofits in Duval County Florida and Social Media at the Florida Political Science Association’s annual meeting in Tampa Florida on March 14, 2012.
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12/1/2011 Here are the slides from the papers I presented at ARNOVA’s annual conference this year in Toronto, Nov 16-19, 2011. Both papers are based on a preliminary analysis of the data, so findings may change as the analyses become broader and more in-depth.
ABSTRACT:
The use of Twitter and Facebook has grown exponentially in the last five years. Nonprofits are increasingly using social media to communicate with stakeholders, but little is known about this interaction. Through the use of a survey and content analysis, this paper analyzes the tweets and posts on the Twitter feeds and Facebook pages of nonprofits in Jacksonville, FL. Semi-structured interviews with the executive directors of the nonprofits are then used to identify why the organizations use Facebook, as well as what they do with the information posted by followers. This paper seeks to gain a better understanding of social media engagement by nonprofits.
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9/24/2011 Nonprofits and Social Media Dumont SECoPA 2011 paper presented at SECoPA’s (Southeast Conference for Public Administration) Annual Conference in New Orleans, LA.
ABSTRACT: Nonprofits have slowly been venturing into the social media world, but to varying degrees. What is less known is what they are used for, or the benefits derived from this use. This paper analyzes the utilization of the social media tools Twitter and Facebook by nonprofit organizations in Duval County, FL. Snowball sampling is used to identify the nonprofits that have adopted social media tools. The identified nonprofits are sent an e-survey and their social media sites are analyzed. These data are then used to measure the extent to which the organizations 1) use the technology; 2) what they use it for; and 3) the benefits received from each type. Early results find there is a difference in the benefits derived from Facebook and Twitter, and some these differences are significant between organizations of different sizes and in differing fields. However, there is a significant difference in the benefits received by using Twitter between organizations in different fields. This research aims to gain a better understanding of the relationship between nonprofits and social media technology.
Georgette's musings 