Appealing to Head and Heart: Redefining Stewardship for Nonprofit Organizations and Their Donors
Open Access
- Author:
- Harrison, Virginia Susan
- Graduate Program:
- Mass Communications
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- March 02, 2020
- Committee Members:
- Denise Sevick Bortree, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Denise Sevick Bortree, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Francis Erin Dardis, Committee Member
Fuyuan Shen, Committee Member
James Dillard, Outside Member
Matthew Paul Mcallister, Program Head/Chair - Keywords:
- stewardship
nonprofits
organization-public relationships
donor relations
relationship management
stewardship
nonprofits
organization-public relatoinships
donor relations
relationship management
organizational communication - Abstract:
- The purpose of this study is to more robustly define and measure the concept of stewardship in public relations. Stewardship is the final step in the public relations process whereby organizations and publics seek to continue the relationship with ongoing, mutual dialogue (Kelly, 1991). Stewardship is often used in the context of donor relations such that a nonprofit organization engages in stewardship to motivate donors to continue giving to an organization (Kelly, 1998a, 1998b). Stewardship has been conceptualized as comprising four strategies: demonstrating responsibility for use of donor funds; reporting use of donor funds; showing reciprocity for gifts; and engaging in relationship nurturing to keep communication ongoing (Kelly, 1998a). However, measurement scales developed to connect these strategies to donor outcomes have been inconsistent and sometimes unreliable (e.g., Harrison, 2018; Patel & McKeever, 2014; Pressgrove, 2017; Waters, 2009b, 2011a). Thus, the present study seeks to refine and improve upon these measures with the ultimate goal of improving stewardship’s understanding and connection to donor outcomes. First, the study sought to explicate the concept of stewardship to incorporate elements of this concept from communications theory, nonprofit donor relations theory, and other disciplines (e.g. business, ethics, morality) into its definition in public relations. Clues from this literature review pointed to the need to find fit between donors and organizations, an insight described in Kelly’s (1991, 1998a) original donor relations theory. Using this theory as a framework, 26 donor interviews were conducted and analyzed for understanding what elements of stewardship lead to positive relationships or hinder the development of these relationships. The key themes of the analysis were then used as a basis for the creation of a quantitative scale to measure stewardship. A 400-person, nationwide survey was conducted for donors giving at least $500 to one nonprofit in the past 12 months. Results indicated that stewardship does indeed incorporate elements of fit between donors and organizations. Thus, the original four strategies of stewardship were revised to incorporate new elements of stewardship: Reporting on Responsibility, Strategic Recognition, Organizational Values, Financial Management, and Engagement. These five elements extend the simple communicative practices envisioned in the original four components of stewardship to include organizational principles and management practices that signal stewardship to donor publics. Contributions to theory and the field of nonprofit communication are threefold. First, the results indicate an interdisciplinary, exhaustive definition of stewardship that should better reflect the realities of organization-donor relationships. Second, it creates a measurement scale that—with future testing—should help to capture the concept of stewardship for quantitative analysis and future prediction of donor outcomes. Third, the study suggests that practitioners in nonprofit communication must support their messages to donors with organizational action and values to back them up. And lastly, the study helps to advance the organization-public relationship (OPR) paradigm in public relations research by strengthening the theory of donor relations and opening a door for new areas of investigation in nonprofit-donor relationship management.