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Walden University
College of Management and Technology
This is to certify that the doctoral study by
Peterson Mirville
has been found to be complete and satisfactory in all respects,
and that any and all revisions required by
the review committee have been made.
Review Committee
Dr. Denise Land, Committee Chairperson, Doctor of Business Administration Faculty
Dr. Brandon Simmons, Committee Member, Doctor of Business Administration Faculty
Dr. Peter Anthony, University Reviewer, Doctor of Business Administration Faculty
Chief Academic Officer and Provost
Sue Subocz, Ph.D.
Walden University
2021
Abstract
Communication Strategies for Increasing Nonprofit Organizations’ Fundraising
Revenues
by
Peterson Mirville
MBA, American Public University, 2016
BS, Augusta University, 2014
Consulting Capstone Study Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of
Doctor of Business Administration
Walden University
March 2021
Abstract
Some nonprofit organization (NPO) leaders lack communication strategies to improve
fundraising revenues and ensure financial sustainability. Failure to obtain the funds
necessary to support operations affects the NPO’s ability to achieve the organization
mission and positive social change for organization recipients. Grounded in stakeholder
theory, the purpose of this qualitative single case study was to explore strategies senior
leaders of NPOs use to improve fundraising revenues. The three study participants
included the founder and two senior leaders of one NPO located in San Antonio, Texas.
The data collected included the NPO’s website and organizational documents, public
data, governmental data, and semistructured interviews. Data were analyzed using the
Baldrige Performance Excellence Program criteria and Yin’s 5-step thematic analysis
process. Key themes that emerged were (a) using their positive workforce environment to
improve fundraising, (b) the need for improved strategic communication, and (c) greater
fundraising and marketing strategies. A key recommendation for NPO leaders is to
incorporate effective data-driven analysis to improve their marketing fundraising
processes. Improving marketing fundraising processes could result in positive social
change by providing increased academic resources to underfunded schools and providing
students opportunities to attain or achieve higher levels of education.
Communication Strategies for Increasing Nonprofit Organizations’ Fundraising
Revenues
by
Peterson Mirville
MBA, American Public University, 2016
BS, Augusta University, 2014
Consulting Capstone Study Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of
Doctor of Business Administration
Walden University
March 2021
Dedication
I dedicate this doctoral study first to my father, Joseph Asmin Mirville, my
mother, Marie Myrtha Mirville, and a father figure, Gerald Desmarattes, all of whom
taught me the value of education. Second, I dedicate my work to my wife Joelle Mirville
who has been by my side encouraging and supporting me through every stage of my
graduate studies journey. Her understanding, patience, and encouragement throughout
this journey has been paramount to my success. Lastly, I dedicate this work to my adult
children Rebekah, Taylor, Angelo, Anthony, and Anyssia. I have striven to always live
my life so that I am an example they can emulate as they discover their own paths to
success. My hope is that the completion of this journey will demonstrate to them that
there is nothing in life they cannot accomplish with perseverance, dedication, and
support.
Acknowledgments
A special thanks to Dr. Denise Land, my chair, for her guidance and her
encouragement during this doctoral journey. Her instruction, support, and unwavering
critiques helped to propel me toward success. Thank you to Dr. Brandon Simmons, for
being my second chair and assisting me in the beginning phase of the doctoral journey.
Thank you to my URR, Dr. Peter Anthony, for making recommendations during the
improvement process and to my editor Libby Sciole, for her commitment in assisting me
to improve my writing. I also would like to thank my fellow students who encouraged me
and supported me throughout my doctoral journey: Dr. Adrienne Adkins-Provost, Karen
Linyard, Dr. Susan McKeon, Dr. Marsha Delahaye, and Lashonda King.
I would also like to take this opportunity to take the time to acknowledge three
extraordinary people in my life. First my brother Joseph A. Mirville Jr. for his support
and advice throughout the years. To Dimy Jeannot, who is both a friend and a mentor and
who help me see beyond what I originally thought possible. To my one-time Pastor Drs.
Michael and Bernita Mitchell, I have not seen you in over 10 years, but can still hear your
words, messages, and inspiration. They have always been instrumental in all that I do.
Lastly, I want to thank God, my family, coworkers, and my ATA (American Taekwondo
Association) family, for helping me to dream big and giving me what I needed to
persevere through this doctoral journey.
i
Table of Contents
List of Tables .......................................................................................................................v
List of Figures .................................................................................................................... vi
Section 1: Foundation of the Study ......................................................................................1
Background of the Problem ...........................................................................................1
Problem Statement .........................................................................................................2
Purpose Statement ..........................................................................................................3
Nature of the Study ........................................................................................................3
Research Question .........................................................................................................5
Interview Questions .......................................................................................................5
Conceptual Framework ..................................................................................................5
Operational Definitions ..................................................................................................6
Assumptions, Limitations, and Delimitations ................................................................7
Assumptions ............................................................................................................ 7
Limitations .............................................................................................................. 7
Delimitations ........................................................................................................... 8
Significance of the Study ...............................................................................................8
Contribution to Business Practice ........................................................................... 8
Implications for Social Change ............................................................................... 9
A Review of the Professional and Academic Literature ................................................9
Conceptual Framework Considerations ................................................................ 11
Stakeholder Theory ............................................................................................... 17
ii
Nonprofit Organizations ....................................................................................... 24
Communication Strategies .................................................................................... 31
Donor Behavior ..................................................................................................... 40
Transition .....................................................................................................................47
Section 2: The Project ........................................................................................................49
Purpose Statement ........................................................................................................49
Role of the Researcher .................................................................................................49
Participants ...................................................................................................................53
Research Method and Design ......................................................................................54
Research Method .................................................................................................. 54
Research Design.................................................................................................... 56
Population and Sampling .............................................................................................58
Sampling Method .................................................................................................. 58
Sampling ............................................................................................................... 59
Saturation .............................................................................................................. 59
Interview Setting ................................................................................................... 60
Ethical Research...........................................................................................................60
Data Collection Instruments ........................................................................................62
Data Collection Techniques .........................................................................................65
Data Organization Techniques .....................................................................................68
Data Analysis ...............................................................................................................70
Reliability and Validity ................................................................................................71
iii
Reliability .............................................................................................................. 72
Validity ................................................................................................................. 73
Transition and Summary ..............................................................................................76
Section 3: Organizational Profile .......................................................................................78
Key Factors Worksheet ................................................................................................79
Organizational Description ................................................................................... 79
Organizational Situation ....................................................................................... 88
Leadership Triad: Leadership, Strategy, and Customers .............................................92
Leadership ............................................................................................................. 93
Strategy ............................................................................................................... 102
Customers ........................................................................................................... 106
Results Triad: Workforce, Operations, and Results...................................................112
Workforce ........................................................................................................... 113
Operations ........................................................................................................... 123
Measurement, Analysis, and Improvement of Organizational Performance ...... 131
Collection, Analysis, and Preparation of Results.......................................................137
Thematic Findings .............................................................................................. 138
Product and Process Results ............................................................................... 144
Customer Results ................................................................................................ 149
Workforce Results .............................................................................................. 151
Leadership and Governance Results ................................................................... 152
Financial, Market, and Strategy Results ............................................................. 153
iv
Key Themes ........................................................................................................ 153
Project Summary ........................................................................................................159
Contributions and Recommendations ........................................................................162
Application to Professional Practice ..........................................................................165
Implication for Social Change ...................................................................................167
Recommendations for Action ....................................................................................169
Recommendations for Further Research ....................................................................170
Reflections .................................................................................................................171
Conclusion .................................................................................................................172
References ........................................................................................................................174
Appendix A: Interview Protocol ......................................................................................201
Appendix B: Interview Questions ....................................................................................203
v
List of Tables
Table 1. Job Description ................................................................................................... 83
Table 2. Scheduled Meetings ............................................................................................ 95
Table 3. Comparison of Board Members and Advisor Council ..................................... 116
Table 4. Board of Directors and Advisory council Responsibilities .............................. 117
Table 5. Advisory Council Skillset ................................................................................. 117
Table 6. Student and Teacher Ambassador Benefits ...................................................... 120
Table 7. Student and Teacher Ambassador Application Questions ................................ 121
Table 8. Relationship Benefits ........................................................................................ 126
Table 9. Tracking Funding Sources ................................................................................ 129
Table 10. Tracking Funding Uses ................................................................................... 129
Table 11. COVID-19 Adjustments ................................................................................. 130
Table 12. Customer-Focused and Donor Satisfaction Survey ........................................ 151
vi
List of Figures
Figure 1. Mission, Vision, and Core Values ..................................................................... 81
Figure 2. Leadership Organization Chart.......................................................................... 86
Figure 3. Senior Leadership Reporting Structure ............................................................. 94
Figure 4. Organization ABC Core Leadership ................................................................. 94
Figure 5. CEO’s SWOT Analysis of Organization ABC ............................................... 105
Figure 6. Student Volunteer Recruitment Process .......................................................... 119
Figure 7. National Book Project Process ........................................................................ 124
Figure 8. Standard Fundraising Model ........................................................................... 125
Figure 9. The Effects of Book Distribution .................................................................... 130
Figure 10. The Three R Approach .................................................................................. 134
Figure 11. Backpack Results Between Years 2016-2020 ............................................... 146
Figure 12. Book Share Results Between Years 2016-2020 ............................................ 147
Figure 13. Student Ambassador Results Between Years 2016-2020 ............................. 148
1
Section 1: Foundation of the Study
Background of the Problem
Nonprofit organizations (NPOs) have an essential role in society, providing
services to local and national communities. In 2015, the nonprofit industry in the United
States included more than 1.5 million NPOs with an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) tax-
exempt status (McKeever, 2018). Although data indicates the number of NPOs has since
dropped to 1.3 million, NPOs continue to function as essential sources of strength and
support in many communities within the United States (Carter et al., 2019). Therefore,
significant financial resources are necessary to ensure the leaders of NPOs can provide
services and maintain the sustainability of their organizations. Given the volume of
organizations in the nonprofit sector, NPO financial leaders may find it necessary to be
increasingly attentive to acquiring necessary financial resources.
An analysis of available statistical data on NPOs suggested that many NPOs
struggle to acquire necessary financial resources. The 2019 Nonprofit Impact Matters
report (Carter et al., 2019) published by the National Council of Nonprofits reported that
around 50% of NPOs had less than 1 month of necessary cash on hand. Seventy-nine
percent of NPOs have reported that the demand for service is continually increasing, and
65% of NPOs that serve the low-income community have reported that they cannot meet
the demands (Carter et al., 2019). These percentages reveal that NPO financial managers
struggle to meet the financial needs of NPOs.
The lack of finances to maintain operations can lead to the insolvency of NPOs.
2
One crucial definitive factor in the success of a nonprofit is financial sustainability
(Schatteman & Waymire, 2017). For NPOs funded by the government, the lack of
financial sustainability is directly related to a lack of funding available (Clear et al.,
2018). NPOs rely on funding from contributors and donors to sustain their operations
(Ilyas et al., 2020). Therefore, nonprofit leaders should consider communication
strategies that could convey value to their stakeholders. Increasing communication
strategies may assist NPO leaders to become more effective fundraisers. Effective
communication with stakeholders could make the organization more attractive and
increase the likelihood of receiving donations (van Wissen & Wonneberger, 2017).
Access to a broader array of funds could lead to financial stability, which allows NPOs to
provide the necessary services in meeting the demands of the communities they serve.
Problem Statement
NPO leaders experience challenges in gaining charitable donations in competitive
markets with limited resources (Paxton et al., 2020). According to the IRS
(2020), the
number of NPOs registered with the IRS has increased 10.4% from 1.41 million in 2005
to 1.56 million in 2015. However, the average increase in charitable giving from 2006 to
2016 was only 1.1% (Pettijohn & Boris, 2018). The general business problem is that the
lack of donations jeopardizes the financial sustainability of NPOs. The specific business
problem is that some NPO leaders lack communication strategies to increase fundraising
revenues.
3
Purpose Statement
The purpose of this qualitative single case study was to explore communication
strategies NPO leaders use to increase fundraising revenues. The target population
consisted of three leaders from one NPO in Texas who have successfully implemented
strategies for increasing fundraising revenues. The implications for positive social change
include the possibility of improving the engagement of potential donors and creating a
value proposition, through increased fundraising revenues, to enhance NPOs’ capacity to
deliver meaningful services that benefit communities.
Nature of the Study
Researchers may choose from qualitative, quantitative, or mixed method
methodologies when conducting a study (Denzin, 2017). Researchers use the qualitative
method to explore a phenomenon under natural conditions (Levitt et al., 2018) and for the
flexibility to gather distinct information (Denzin & Lincoln, 2018; Yin, 2018).
Researchers use the quantitative approach to examine and quantify the relationships
between two or more variables and through testing statistical hypotheses and analysis
techniques (Denzin, 2017). In addition, researchers use the quantitative method to test
and analyze theories (Brooks et al., 2019). Therefore, a quantitative method was not
appropriate for this study, as there was not a hypothesis to test and analyze. Researchers
who incorporate both qualitative and quantitative research techniques use the mixed
method approach to obtain a multifaceted understanding of a phenomenon (Alavi et al.,
2018). The mixed method was not appropriate because I did not examine the
4
relationships among variables through hypothesis testing. Therefore, the qualitative
method was most suitable for this study to explore communications strategies NPO
leaders use to improve fundraising revenues.
The qualitative methodology includes case study, ethnographic, and
phenomenological designs (Yin, 2018). Researchers use case studies to analyze and
explore a phenomenon within a specific context (Alpi & Evans, 2019). I chose a case
study design to understand the communication strategies that leaders in an NPO use to
improve fundraising revenues. With a case study, I explored and analyzed responses from
NPO leaders using interview questions and a review of documents (Yin, 2018). A
researcher may use a multiple case study to explore several organizations or use a single
case design to explore the phenomenon in one organization (Yin, 2018). A single case
study was appropriate for this study, as I expected to gain the most insight by exploring
how two members within one organization use communication strategies to increase
fundraising revenues. In contrast, the ethnographic design is the study of groups’ cultures
or patterns (Bass & Milosevic, 2018), which was not appropriate because I did not
observe participants in a real-life setting but rather interacted with them through virtual
communication platforms. Researchers use the phenomenological approach to explore
participants’ personal feelings and experiences (Kim et al., 2018), but the personal views
and feelings of participants were not pertinent to the study. A case study design was
appropriate to explore the communication strategies that two leaders within one NPO use
to improve fundraising revenues.
5
Research Question
The central research question for this study was as follows: What communication
strategies do NPO leaders use to improve fundraising revenues?
Interview Questions
1. What communication strategies do you use internally to improve fundraising
revenues?
2. What strategies do you use externally to improve fundraising revenues?
3. How do you measure the effectiveness of the strategies implemented to
improve fundraising revenues?
4. What were the key challenges you encountered when you implemented those
strategies?
5. What approaches have you used to overcome the key challenges you
encountered when you implemented those strategies?
6. What additional information would you like to add about your organization’s
strategies for improving fundraising revenues?
Conceptual Framework
Stakeholder theory was the conceptual framework of this study. Freeman (2004)
introduced the stakeholder theory in 1984 to convey that leaders should focus on
understanding the role key stakeholders play in an organization. The primary focus was
to demonstrate to senior leadership the impact that stakeholder relationships could have
on an organization’s strategy (Freeman, 2004). Freeman described stakeholders as any
6
persons or groups who have the potential to influence or become influenced by an
organization’s mission and vision. Therefore, identifying and meeting key stakeholders’
needs are of key interest in the success of an organization because financial sustainability
may be possible when leaders can demonstrate value to their customers (Miles, 2017).
Business leaders can use stakeholder theory to become more efficient in
understanding the role and needs of key stakeholders for improving financial
performance (Freeman, 1984). Stakeholders include any persons or groups involved in
achieving value for the organization (Harrison et al., 2015) and are essential to an
organization’s success and consist of either internal and external individuals or groups
(Lange & Bundy, 2018). Organization ABC provides services to stakeholders in Texas,
Connecticut, New York, and the Commonwealth of Dominica. However, for this study,
participants were exclusively from the state of Texas. I used stakeholder theory because
stakeholders have the potential to attain an organization’s mission by contributing
financial sustainability by helping organizational leaders define ways to improve
fundraising revenues. Stakeholder theory helped me to understand the strategies
Organization ABC uses to identify and address stakeholders’ needs for improving
fundraising revenues.
Operational Definitions
Financial sustainability: Financial sustainability is the ability of an organization
to maintain and preserve their finances long-term using multiple resources (Gajdová &
Majdúchová, 2018; Moore et al., 2017).
7
Nonprofit organization (NPO): An NPO is an organization that provides a
plethora of social and community services, most often in communities with the most
vulnerable individuals (Zhai et al., 2017). The U.S. government defines nonprofits as
organizations that do not function for profit or distribute profits to shareholders. Because
their operations are for the benefit of the public, nonprofits are tax-exempt organizations
(IRS, 2019).
Assumptions, Limitations, and Delimitations
Assumptions
Assumptions are aspects of a study assumed by the researcher to be true but not
proven (Mohajan, 2018). In this case study, I identified three assumptions that could
influence the outcomes. The first assumption was that the participants in this single case
study would answer interview questions truthfully and transparently. The second
assumption was that the results of this study could be beneficial to other leaders of NPOs
seeking to increase their fundraising revenues to build financial sustainability. The last
assumption was that the leaders of the organization would eagerly divulge unbiased,
intimate details about the operation of their organization.
Limitations
Limitations in a study are aspects beyond the control of the researcher (Denzin &
Lincoln, 2018). The method of collecting data is one of the limitations associated with
case study research (Yin, 2018). One limitation of this study was that data collection
occurred via phone interviews and conversations, supported by an exchange of email
8
content and organization documents. In addition, interviewing leaders of a single NPO
may have limited the perspective and scope of information obtained during the research
process. Furthermore, the leaders interviewed might not have accurately recalled all the
experiences that led to their success. Finally, the perspectives conveyed by the different
leaders within the organization may not have demonstrated a common understanding of
the communication strategies used to increase fundraising revenues.
Delimitations
Delimitations define the scope of a study (Denzin, 2017). Organization ABC
provides services in Texas, Connecticut, New York, and the Commonwealth of
Dominica, but I used participants from the state of Texas only. The participants from
Texas were organization leaders who provided insight on communication strategies they
had used to increase fundraising revenues in Texas. Gathering data from a single state
served as a delimitation for this study. Last, the participants consisted of NPO leaders
who are organization board members rather than the line staff who executed the services.
Significance of the Study
Contribution to Business Practice
The results of this study may contribute to business practice by providing leaders
of NPOs serving their community strategies to build relationships with vital stakeholders.
The study’s findings may be valuable to business leaders who can achieve value
propositions for stakeholders to positively influence the business leaders’ ability to
improve fundraising revenues. The contributions to business practice may become
9
relevant to not only NPOs but also to any organization seeking to build revenues through
fundraising.
Implications for Social Change
The implications for positive social change from this study include the potential
effects that the increase in revenue could provide to NPOs offering necessary services
that benefit local communities. Providing academic resources that may otherwise be
difficult to obtain for youth with challenging socioeconomic backgrounds can lead to
quality education, enabling individuals to become active, contributing members of
society. Further implications for effecting social change include the potential to provide
strategies for other NPOs to increase their ability to meet similar missions of serving
other communities’ citizens.
A Review of the Professional and Academic Literature
The purpose of this qualitative single case study was to explore the
communication strategies that leaders of an NPO in Texas used to improve fundraising
revenues. NPO leaders rely on fundraising to sustain their operations. Given the
economic and financial climate, some nonprofit leaders are strategic in the adjustment of
their funding portfolios as they stay abreast of changes in the economy (Ilyas et al.,
2020). Additionally, the lack of funding has made it significantly challenging to fulfill the
organization’s mission and build financial sustainability (Nageswarakurukkal et al.,
2020). To understand how NPOs can improve fundraising revenues, a review of
applicable literature occurred.
10
Researchers use a literature review to examine previous studies to report on the
current knowledge and to provide a summary of established research regarding a topic or
phenomenon (Brooks et al., 2019). Furthermore, conducting a review of the current
literature on a topic allows the researcher and reader to formulate ideas that may lead to
further research (Levitt et al., 2018). In addition, the use of research conducted and
analyzed provides the reader with an in-depth understanding of the topic, which was to
identify successful communication strategies that senior leaders of NPOs used to improve
fundraising revenues.
For this study, I critically analyzed and synthesized the literature on the
communication strategies that nonprofit leaders have used to improve their fundraising
revenues. Using the Walden University Library and Google Scholar to obtain articles for
my literature review, I explored ABI/Inform, Business Source Complete, ProQuest
Central, SAGE Journals, Science Direct, Google Scholar, Emerald Insight, and Pearson
Education, as sources to complete my literature review. Business Source Complete and
Google Scholar were the primary search engines used to find peer-reviewed articles. I
confirmed the peer-review of the articles through Ulrich’s Web Global Serials Directory
and by reviewing publisher information. Peer-reviewed article confirmation also occurred
by visiting the original websites of many of the articles not identified in Ulrich’s Web
Global Serials Directory. Though most sources retrieved for the literature review
underwent peer-review and publication between 2017 and 2020, I used some non-peer-
reviewed seminal sources published before 2017 to demonstrate the history related to the
11
research topic. Other non-peer-reviewed sources included government sources and
statistical data related to NPOs.
The search terms explored included nonprofit challenges, nonprofit branding,
social media technology and branding, five force model, communication strategies,
government funding, brand names, nonprofit organization, not for profit organization,
stakeholder theory, stakeholder engagement, community awareness, resource-based
view, and expectancy theory. The final study includes 177 sources. The source
breakdown includes 151 peer-reviewed sources and 26 nonpeer-reviewed sources. The
nonpeer-reviewed sources included seminal works and government sources used to help
add context to the study. Ninety-one percent of the articles for the literature review
occurred between 2017 and 2021.
Using stakeholder theory as the lens to view the business problem, the problem
statement, and the research question, as well as to develop the interview questions, I
completed an exhaustive review of the academic literature to gain an understanding of
how NPOs use various communication strategies to improve fundraising revenues. My
approach to the literature review included a review of other conceptual frameworks
considered, stakeholder theory as an appropriate lens to view communication strategies
for fundraising, NPOs, nonprofit funding strategies, and concluded with an overview of
communication strategies that leaders of NPOs used to improve fundraising.
Conceptual Framework Considerations
In a qualitative study, researchers use a conceptual framework to provide
12
evidence of critical concerns and how to incorporate certain principles into practice (Yin,
2018). In qualitative research, researchers develop themes within their exploration and
use the conceptual framework as a lens (Onwuegbuzie & Weinbaum, 2017). Before using
the stakeholder theory as the lens to view data related to nonprofit communication
strategies to help improve funding, I reviewed several theories to determine if the tenets
of the theory related well to the research question that guided this study. In framing a
research question, a review of previous studies allows the researcher to acquire a
thorough understanding of the topic (Abma et al., 2019). I considered the resource-based
view (RBV), expectancy theory, marketing theory, social marketing theory, path-goal
theory (PGT), and shareholder theory before deciding on stakeholder theory as the most
appropriate conceptual framework for this study.
Resource-Based View
The RBV is a management theory that leaders use to examine potential resources
that would lead to competitive advantage and, ultimately, sustainability (Wernerfelt,
1984). Rather than a focus on products or services, organizations adhering to the RBV
manage their resources strategically. Wernerfelt (1984) developed the RBV to explain the
importance of an organization’s resources as a reflection of its potential competitive
advantage. In RBV theory, the organization has a value-creating strategy that
differentiates them from the competitors (Jensen et al., 2016). Applying the tenets of
RBV, an organization can gain a competitive advantage if it mobilizes superior resources.
However, leaders should not consider resources only at an external level but also as an
13
internal level (Brown & Baltes, 2017). Organizations drive superior performance by
leveraging their unique characteristics and capabilities (Brown & Baltes, 2017).
Organizations that leverage their unique characteristics and capabilities set their
organization apart from other organizations, which may serve to increase their
competitive advantage.
Understanding the resources held by an organization is only one component
necessary for increasing the organization’s competitive advantage. Barney (1991) further
expanded the RBV theory by explaining that organizations can gain a competitive
advantage by offering rare items that other organizations cannot easily duplicate or
substitute. By focusing strategically on internal resources, organizational leaders establish
a competitive advantage (Galbreath, 2019). Barney explained that there is a direct
association between an organization’s resources, the management of those resources, and
a competitive advantage. However, RBV was not an appropriate framework for this study
because my client organization was not seeking to create a competitive advantage by
offering rare or inimitable services; the leaders were attempting to develop
communication strategies to improve fundraising efforts to sustain their organization and
continue to provide services for the community stakeholders.
Five Competitive Forces
Porter’s five competitive forces focus on the competitive strategies that an
organization utilizes concerning the market in which its business exists (Porter, 2008).
Organization leaders can determine the potential profitability of their organization by
14
examining the five forces collectively (Mahat, 2019). The five competitive forces that
affect the attractiveness of the organization include: (a) entry of competitors, (b) threat of
substitutes, (c) bargaining power of buyers, (d) bargaining power of suppliers, and (e)
rivalry among the existing players (Porter, 2008). Use of Porter’s framework assists
organization leaders to determine their strengths and weaknesses as they develop a
strategy to remain competitive (Mahat, 2019). However, there is no accountability for
stakeholders and value proposition to stakeholders (Porter, 2008). The limited
accountability and value of stakeholders under the five forces model may result in an
organization failing to use available resources.
The premise for the five forces model is to assess the market through the five
forces to determine its attractiveness towards profitability (Porter, 2008). In so doing, the
leaders can focus the company’s resources on strategies that create competitive
advantages within their market (Mahat, 2019). In the evaluation of the company’s
position within the market through the five forces, the leaders gain a better understanding
on how to leverage their position and gain the advantage (Mahat, 2019). Though
understanding the market and its attractiveness is vital to an organization’s profitability,
financial stability, and competitive advantage, the focus of the leaders of my client
organization were on developing effective communication strategies to attract donors to
increase fundraising revenues. The focus of the leaders was not on market strategies,
threat of substitutes, bargaining with suppliers or creating rivalry amongst existing
market leaders; therefore, Porter’s five forces model was not appropriate for this study.
15
Vroom’s Expectancy Theory
Employee behavior is a result of deliberate choices that reflect a need for pleasure
and the minimization of pain. According to Vroom’s (1964) expectancy theory (VET),
motivation occurs when individuals believe: (a) their efforts produce satisfactory
performance (expectancy), (b) they achieved positive rewards (instrumentality), and (c)
their performance produces a positive outcome (valence). The individual’s goal is to
complete tasks that will ultimately deliver results that the individual thinks are favorable
(Vroom, 1964). According to VET, the individual’s combined beliefs about expectancy,
instrumentality, and valence motivate the individual to act in a manner that leads to
pleasure but minimizes pain (Vroom, 1964). This theory of motivation reflects how
managers can identify ways to motivate employees, thereby creating an environment with
increased productivity. Essential to the understanding of VET are intrinsic and extrinsic
factors related to motivating employees within the organization (Vroom, 1964). The
focus of VET is on employees within the organization and their individual motivation to
achieve their goals and improve productivity, which is not congruent with the focus of
this study, geared toward determining the communication strategies that will improve
fundraising revenues. For this reason, VET was not an appropriate theory for this study.
Path-Goal Theory
The PGT has its foundation in VET, where the leader’s behavior influences
subordinates’ motivation (House, 1971). According to PGT, leaders drive subordinates
through motivation, improved performance, and satisfaction (House, 1971). The leader
16
drives the satisfaction of the individual to increase the subordinate goal and clarifies the
pathway to meet the goals. In the PGT, the leader uses a specific leadership behavior that
reflects the characteristics of the followers: (a) directive leadership, (b) supportive
leadership, (c) participative leadership, and (d) achievement-oriented leadership (House,
1971). The leader uses different behaviors based on employee attributes and
environmental demands, ultimately altering personal satisfaction and the employees’
perception of their abilities (Farhan, 2018; MacTaggart & Lynham, 2018). The tenets of
PGT could have supported this study if the specific business problem closely aligned
with improving internal stakeholder motivation and communication of the organization’s
values to the public. But because the goal of this study was to identify communication
strategies to influence donor behaviors and not improving employee motivation or
satisfaction, I did not choose PGT as the conceptual framework for this study.
Shareholder Theory
First used by Milton Friedman (1970), the premise of shareholder theory is that an
organization’s responsibility and allegiance are to its shareholders. Therefore, an
organization’s primary objective is to maximize profits and increase the wealth of those
shareholders (Friedman, 1970). Within this theory, shareholders have the advantage of
benefitting from monetary gain without assuming the risks of enterprise ownership (How
et al., 2019). Organizational leaders who focus on achieving financial gains and
maximizing profits for shareholders may understand that appeasing shareholders may
provide incentives for continued growth and support of the organization. Many
17
organizations and academic institutes focus on the premise that financialization and
maximizing profits for an organization’s shareholders is the only feasible goal of an
organization (Cardão-Pito, 2017). However, organization leaders who only focus on
shareholders fail to address the needs of stakeholders. Leaders should focus on building
wealth for shareholders while creating value for stakeholders (How et al., 2019). External
stakeholder support in the form of donations is essential to the sustainability of the NPO’s
mission, and without external stakeholder support, NPOs could cease to exist (Abebe &
Cha, 2018). However, the goal of my client organization’s leaders was not on influencing
shareholders and maximizing shareholder wealth. The leaders’ focus was on
implementing effective communication strategies to influence external stakeholders to
participate in fundraising activities to continue to sustain operations and serve the
community; therefore, shareholder theory was not appropriate for this study.
Stakeholder Theory
Stakeholder theory is a business theory developed by R. E Freeman in 1984 that
states that organizational leaders must develop relationships with its stakeholders. The
foundational premise for stakeholder theory occurred when AT&T’s (formerly the Bell
System) executive leadership asked Freeman to develop an educational program to help
increase their ability to manage company stakeholders effectively (Freeman, 2004).
Freeman defined stakeholders as a group of individuals influenced by the achievement of
a firm’s purpose. The stakeholder group for consideration in this study are the potential
donors and how the leaders of Organization ABC develop communication strategies to
18
influence increased donations to improve funding revenue. Organization ABC operates in
the state of Texas to provide academic resources to its community. Therefore, stakeholder
theory is an appropriate conceptual framework for this study.
Internal and external stakeholders are resources organization leaders can use as
they strive to achieve organizational success. Freeman (2004) asserted that senior leaders
should develop effective strategies to influence internal and external stakeholders to
achieve organizational outcomes, encouraging the development of stakeholder
relationships. Through developing stakeholder relationships, leaders can increase positive
attitudes and behaviors stakeholders have toward the organization (Harrison et al., 2015).
Increasing the positive attitudes and behaviors of all stakeholders is likely to increase the
flow of information, customer satisfaction, and the assurance of financial gains (Harrison
et al., 2015). Considering all stakeholders, rather than only focusing on shareholders,
increases the likelihood that an organization will achieve organizational outcomes
thereby increasing sustainability.
The tenets of stakeholder theory reinforce the perspective that leaders must
consider stakeholder needs as an essential element of their business strategies (Freeman
et al., 2016). Therefore, identifying and addressing the needs of key stakeholders
improves the chances of organizational success (Freeman et al., 2007). Senior leaders in
Organization ABC can use the fundamental idea of stakeholder relationships to improve
on communication strategies for fundraising revenues and must adopt effective ways to
promote the value of the organization to attract potential donors to attend these events.
19
Organization ABC leaders may risk the organization’s viability and value if they do not
implement communication strategies designed to focus on external stakeholders and draw
in donations. The lack of focus on the interests of the external stakeholders could
ultimately create financial hardship for the organization.
Organizational leaders should also make strategic decisions to create value for
stakeholders (Freeman, 2004; Freeman et al., 2016). To sustain business operations,
organizations must provide value to the stakeholders (Freeman, 1984). Because the tenets
of stakeholder theory have a broad range of applications to enhance value creation,
leaders in many industries such as healthcare, human resource management, information
technology, corporate social responsibility, business ethics and marketing use this theory
to guide their business decisions (Harrison et al., 2015). Researchers who study the use of
stakeholder theory have found that the value creation can be narrow such as focusing on
customers, or the focus can be wide such as focusing on larger stakeholder groups
inclusive of customers, the community, and shareholders (Harrison et al., 2015). As
stakeholder theory became more widely used, researchers divided stakeholder theory into
three categories: instrumental, normative, and descriptive (Donaldson & Preston, 1995).
Although the three categories have different underlying tenets each category remains
focused on addressing stakeholder needs to achieve organizational success.
Leaders using the principles of instrumental stakeholder theory believe they must
focus on building relationships with key stakeholders to maximize shareholder value
(Jones et al., 2018). A fundamental principle underlying instrumental stakeholder theory
20
is that organizations build stakeholder relationships on trust, fairness, loyalty, and respect
(Jones et al., 2018). Expanding on the application of instrumental stakeholder theory,
some researchers believe that leaders acting as agents or instruments may improve
financial performance through the creation of mutually beneficial stakeholder
relationships (Jones et al., 2018; Weitzner & Deutsch, 2019). Such management results in
stakeholder relationships lead to profitability and maximum shareholder benefit (Harrison
et al., 2015; Jones et al., 2018). Also, stakeholders are an instrument used to achieve
shareholder wealth (Francis et al., 2019). Whereas, leaders using instrumental stakeholder
theory to guide decisions focus on creating shareholder wealth, leaders using normative
stakeholder theory focus morality and ethics of stakeholder relationships to foster
organizational profitability.
Principles of normative stakeholder theory remind organizational leaders to
consider morality and ethics when creating relationships with stakeholders (Rose et al.,
2018). Leaders using the tenets of normative stakeholder theory do business ethically
while displaying a high regard for morals irrespective of economic gain (Rose et al.,
2018). The normative approach to business management takes leaders as well as
stakeholders into consideration, ensuring that organizational leader make decisions that
adhere to certain ethical principles (Cesar, 2019). NPO leaders seeking to improve upon
social welfare may find using the normative approach to stakeholder management to
support their overarching mission and vision. Another category of stakeholder
management for leaders to consider when managing their organizations stems from the
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principles of descriptive stakeholder theory.
As mentioned previously, descriptive stakeholder theory is an additional theory
for organizational leaders to consider when creating value for their organizations through
stakeholder relationships. Taking a descriptive approach involves describing the
functionality of and an organization and its contributions on a larger scale (Miles, 2017).
Descriptive stakeholder approaches in management help leaders determine how to
account for stakeholder’s interests in business decisions. Although Burga and Rezania
(2016) did not set out to study descriptive stakeholder theory in their case study on social
entrepreneurship, the information presented illuminated the importance of building
stakeholder relationships and the salient effects on firm performance as well as
demonstrated the importance of stakeholder identification.
Stakeholder identification is paramount to organizational leaders who develop
strategies based on stakeholder interests. Researchers and theorists argue from diverse
perspectives on how to determine and define an organization’s stakeholders (Wood et al.,
2021). Stakeholders are individuals or groups affected by an organization’s achievement
(Freeman, 1984). Benlemlih and Bitar (2018) included employees, community,
environment, and products in their stakeholders. NPO leaders including the leaders of
Organization ABC must take the necessary steps to define their organization’s key
stakeholders. Organization ABC leaders in the context of this study focus their efforts on
potential donors as the stakeholders for whom to gear communication strategies toward.
If the leaders can design appropriate communication strategies geared toward donors the
22
hope is that the donors will attend fundraising events and make a financial contribution to
the organizations mission which is to provide academic resources to the community.
Although defining stakeholders is an important leadership responsibility, equally
important to leaders using stakeholder theory to guide decision-making is to consider the
relative importance of the stakeholder considering that stakeholder interest may
sometimes conflict.
Stakeholder Importance
Stakeholders are influential in an NPO’s viability. Though the focus of this study
is on effective communications strategies that NPO leaders can use to influence external
stakeholders’ donations, it is essential to note that internal stakeholders play a critical role
in improving relations with external stakeholders. Beer and Micheli (2017) explained that
both internal and external stakeholders are essential to an organization in that the internal
stakeholder’s performance has a direct effect on achieving organizational goals. The
relationships between internal stakeholders have the potential to influence the ability of
organization members to effectively execute their job functions, which could influence
the behaviors of external stakeholders (Cardwell et al., 2017). The importance of internal
and external stakeholders relates to Organization ABC in that the internal stakeholders
drive the organization’s mission and vision and, as a result, must represent the
organization well or they may unintentionally misrepresent the organization and lose the
allegiance of prospective external stakeholders that may otherwise donate.
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Stakeholder Engagement
How stakeholders view an organization can have a direct impact on their level of
financial commitment. Stakeholders become engaged when they feel a sense of trust,
satisfaction, and value (Lange & Bundy, 2018). In this capacity engaging stakeholders
through trust, satisfaction, and value elicits cooperation, which can influence stakeholder
engagement (Nartey et al., 2018). Stakeholder engagement increases when what the
organization offers directly affects their needs (Clear et al., 2018). Therefore, leaders of
NPOs might use strategies that incorporate the values and interests of stakeholders within
their community.
Stakeholder engagement strategies not only apply to donors but also to recipients
of services rendered. Organizations that focus solely on their services can potentially
destroy the organization’s reputation (Kucukusta et al., 2019). In this capacity it is
conflict rather than that influences stakeholder engagement (Nartey et al., 2018).
Therefore, organizations should encourage feedback to evaluate their services (Kucukusta
et al., 2019). Social media is a method that leaders could use to manage the stakeholder
relationship through engagement and communication.
The stakeholder theory was appropriate as the lens for this study because the
stakeholders are donors, and understanding what donors want can assist senior leaders in
creating a value proposition that can promote and increase fundraising participation
among donor-stakeholders. The tenets of stakeholder theory include the importance of an
organization accounting for the interests of all stakeholders, rather than just shareholders
24
(Freeman, 1984). According to the tenets of stakeholder theory, the actions of
management relate to the interest of stakeholders (Freeman, 2004). Therefore,
management must first determine the purpose of the organization and then determine the
responsibility of management to stakeholders (Freeman et al., 2004). Stakeholders
include both internal (management and employees) and external (competitors and
suppliers), groups influential to the success of the organization (Freeman, 2004). The
study conducted here was an exploration of communication strategies relevant to external
stakeholders or donors.
Nonprofit Organizations
There are two types of NPOs, based on whom the organization serves. According
to Carter et al. (2019), NPOs either serve their members or serve the public. Organization
ABC is an NPO that serves the public. Therefore, the researcher will not consider
nonprofits that serve their members in this study. NPOs operate in a vast array of
communities and sectors that include schools and hospitals (Burde et al., 2017). Clear et
al. (2018) conducted a study using a stakeholder’s approach to determine why nonprofits
exist and concluded that there was a direct relationship between population size and the
availability of public charities within the community. According to Clear et al. nonprofits
are an integral part of local communities.
NPOs function in a capacity designed to further social interest, rather than
monetary profit. Therefore, nonprofits function under the U.S. IRS tax code 501(c)(3). As
such, NPO leaders maintain their solvency through charities and donations, but function
25
and operate their organization similarly to a for-profit business. The 501(c)(3) tax code
provides tax exemptions to the organization and has provisions for donations to be tax
deductible (Ritvo et al., 2017). The use of a 501(c)(3) tax code limits the monetary means
necessary to run the organization, thereby providing opportunity for the NPO to further
their mission.
The purpose of this qualitative single case study was to explore effective
communication strategies that leaders of an NPO use to improve fundraising revenue.
Therefore, I chose to study Organization ABC, an NPO that provides academic resources
to Texas residents from low-income backgrounds. Organization ABC’s senior leadership
must operate the organization effectively to achieve the NPO’s mission and provide
services of value to its clients. All organizations, whether for-profit or nonprofit, must
produce some value; otherwise, they cease to exist (Hommerová & Severová, 2019).
Although NPOs may not provide monetary profit, they do provide value for the
fulfillment of a social purpose (Ilyas et al., 2020). Therefore, the senior leadership of an
NPO must strive to accrue monetary support in the quest to fulfill their mission.
Senior leaders of NPOs operate similarly to the leadership of for-profit
organizations, although the aims of their operation vary. In contrast to for-profit
organizational leaders, leaders of NPOs need to focus on operational efficiency to
achieve social value (Vacekova et al., 2017). The essence of NPO leadership is
understanding and executing a mission in pursuit of a social purpose, thereby producing
value for the stakeholders (Ilyas et al., 2020). Nonprofit operations, therefore, must be
26
efficient in their mission achievement, which is related to fiscal responsibility, because
most funding comes from donations (Clear et al., 2018). As in for-profit organizations,
senior leaders of NPOs have monetary goals for the organization. Therefore, transparency
and efficient financial stewardship are paramount to the success of the organization, and
NPO leaders must be innovative in cultivating stakeholder relationships to garner success
(Miles, 2017). Without the cultivation of stakeholder relationships, senior leaders of
NPOs will have difficulty attaining the monetary support necessary to fulfill their social
mission. Stakeholder theory is relevant to leaders of NPOs as the very viability of an
NPO is on satisfying the needs of all stakeholders, as there are no shareholders in an
NPO, and all monetary gains function to further the NPO’s mission.
Nonprofits by the Numbers
The nonprofit sector continues to grow rapidly, and leaders of NPOs must
consider the strategies they use to ensure that they obtain enough contributions to
continue operating and fulfilling their social mission. In the United States, the nonprofit
sector provides a vast array of services in local communities (Hu & Kapucu, 2017). In
2015, approximately 1.56 million NPOs were operating in the U.S. (Bae & Sohn, 2018).
Giving USA Foundation (2018) also reported that charitable giving in the U.S. rose by
3% in 2018 in comparison to 2016. In Texas, as of January 8, 2020, there were a total of
92,734 nonprofits, of which 65,048 were public charities (Independent Sector, 2020).
Though the nonprofit sector in the U.S. continues to grow, new challenges exist as the
increasing number of NPOs results in more competition for limited funds (Shin, 2019).
27
As NPOs become more competitive with one another, it is crucial to understand what
funding strategies are most effective. This study specifically explores the efficacy of
communication strategies for attracting donors. Understanding the type of
communication that donors respond to most positively may help NPOs gain a competitive
edge within the fast-expanding NPO market.
Funding Qualifications
To receive funding, NPOs must meet regulatory requirements and attract donors.
To obtain designation as a nonprofit, organization senior leaders must meet the guidelines
set forth by local, state, and federal regulations. Also, paramount to receiving funding is
the ability of NPO leaders to demonstrate to potential donors that the organization’s
values align with the needs of the community (Vacekova et al., 2017). Given the
importance of donations for funding NPOs, the tenets of stakeholder theory are relevant
for NPO leaders striving to ensure donors feel appreciated and valued. Furthermore,
developing relationships with stakeholders increases trust between parties, which
increases donor support and involvement (Alborough, 2017). The different sources of
funding necessary for NPO success suggest that different NPOs need to engage in
different kinds of communication depending on the type of stakeholder to which the NPO
is appealing. Fundraising constitutes one method through which NPOs communicate their
mission to attract various kinds of stakeholders.
Government Funding
Stakeholders who respond favorably to NPOs are not only individuals but also
28
government or public organizations with the financial ability to support the mission and
goals of nonprofits. Leaders of nonprofits depend on funding through grants and donors
to acquire the capital necessary to achieve their organizational mission (Carter et al.,
2019). Many stakeholder resources originate from government resources that provide
grants, reimbursements, and contracts. Therefore, the government is an essential funding
source for NPOs, particularly in human services (Kerlin & Pollak, 2018). Carter et al.
(2019) explained that NPOs obtain a significant amount of their revenue from
government organizations, with almost 32% of the total income of NPOs in the U.S.
originating from government grants and contracts. The need for human services has
prompted more NPOs to participate in alternative services that the government does not
provide (Kerlin & Pollak, 2018). As such, NPOs fulfill social needs that government-
funded organizations may not have allocations to address. Lee and Woronkowicz (2019)
conducted a study that examined how NPOs manage their finances and found that
managers misuse cash holdings for their own interests. The results of their study
indicated that government oversight would aid in ensuring transparency and integrity in
nonprofits that use government funding (Lee & Woronkowicz, 2019). Such oversight
may increase the ability of NPOs to establish trust with donors, which may help their
efforts to increase success in fundraising efforts.
Organization ABC provides academic resources to students and teachers in low-
income areas in Texas. Given the state’s fiscal challenges, the attainment of government
grants and funding from government agencies outside of the department of education
29
could be a beneficial stakeholder for Organization ABC. The government’s increasing
financial challenges further promotes the idea of the government’s assisting NPOs in
their attempts to help those whom the government cannot help (Lee & Woronkowicz,
2019). For example, the government’s contracting out services to NPOs has led to
funding for NPOs, particularly in human services (Litrico & Besharov, 2019).
Contracting services to NPOs specializing in addressing human service needs can provide
necessary financial resources and alleviate government costs.
Government contracting of services and public funding of NPOs does not exist
without some challenges. When NPOs and government sectors are interdependent,
leaders of NPOs can become too reliant on public funding, creating potential liabilities
for NPOs involved in human services (Lu & Zhao, 2019). Ultimately, NPOs can be at a
disadvantage because of competition from other nonprofits, increased regulation, or
reductions in funding (Clear et al., 2018). Furthermore, NPOs often have limited
resources and may not have the capacity to respond to the needs of the stakeholders they
serve (Zietlow et al., 2018). Therefore, leaders of NPOs seeking government funding
should understand the dynamics of the relationship and leverage the government’s
reliance on them to provide needed services while promoting their own need for funding.
Though this study is not about government funding and its various advantages and
disadvantages, it is important to mention it here that governments qualify as stakeholders,
given that NPOs could seek government funding to support their mission. Furthermore,
this study is about successful communication strategies that leaders of NPOs use to
30
improve fundraising revenues. Therefore, given that government resources are a
significant source of revenue for nonprofits, it is essential to mention the government’s
function as a stakeholder.
Nonprofit Fundraising
The aim of senior leaders should not be just the collection of funds, but instead
building sustainable relationships with stakeholders through effective communication that
will ultimately lead to improved fundraising revenues (Nageswarakurukkal et al., 2020).
Fundraising in the nonprofit sector is a methodical activity that members of an
organization use to raise financial resources for the activities of the organization
(Hommerová & Severová, 2019). Fundraising is a method to help guide organization
leaders in the development of relationships with donors with whom they have common
interests (Clear et al., 2018). The purpose of fundraising is to cover operational costs, not
to support sustainable practices (Ilyas et al., 2020). Sustainable practices occur when the
senior leadership of an organization centers on activities around increasing value to
stakeholders in the community (Hommerová & Severová, 2019). Donors are more
responsive to organizations that promote their interests (Litrico & Besharov, 2019).
However, a study conducted by Alborough (2017) concluded that the relationship
between the giver and the beneficiary is nonexistent and that the relationship between the
fundraiser and the giver is what ultimately results in giving. Therefore, for fundraising to
elicit giving, fundraisers should develop communication strategies that will build on the
relationship to increase the potential for donating.
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Crowdfunding
NPOs use multiple platforms to achieve their financial goals. Crowdfunding is a
peer-to-peer donation strategy that allows for the novice entrepreneur to collect donations
online (Geva et al., 2019). Crowdfunding has become increasingly popular, having
collected over $34 billion globally in 2015, becoming a popular medium to collect capital
(Massolution, 2015). Online crowdfunding provides access to a more extensive range of
potential donors than traditional methods (Burtch et al., 2018). Crowdfunding allows the
organization to bypass various financial facilitators and seek funding directly from
individuals (Geva et al., 2019). In this manner, many individuals giving a small amount
can be attractive to potential donors (Li & Wang, 2019). Organization ABC’s primary
mission is to supply academic resources to students and teachers in the local community
where supplies are otherwise unavailable. Online platforms such as Facebook, Instagram,
and LinkedIn, could serve as the medium to establish crowdfunding that an enormous
number of individuals frequently view. These platforms offer a wide variety of
backgrounds, individuals with various financial status, and influence increasing the
likelihood of gaining donor participation. However, there should be an effective
communication strategy that will entice individuals to donate.
Communication Strategies
Nonprofit leaders must incorporate strategies to communicate effectively with
their stakeholders to improve their financial viability. Communication occurs when two
or more people share information using words, signs, or sometimes body language to
32
influence one another (Vacekova et al., 2017). In business, communication can stimulate
and influence decision making (Bormane & Šķiltere, 2018). Precise and purposeful
communication can be a powerful tool for business leaders intending to improve
performance and grow (Bhayani, 2017). Specifically, in relation to stakeholder theory.
Bhayani (2017) asserted that communication helps to generate the attention and interest
necessary to start a business or generate income. Businesses rely on communication to
promote brand image, create awareness of products and services, receive feedback on
customer preferences, and influence action (Bormane & Šķiltere, 2018). NPOs desiring to
increase fundraising revenue can use such communication strategies to promote the
organization, its mission, and its goals to increase fundraising and serve the community.
Two-way communication is necessary in the business world to transmit messages
between key stakeholders. Bhayani (2017) stated that two-way communication is
essential for long-lasting, positive relationships with other organizations and with the
public. Duralia (2018) studied asymmetric communication within a firm and found that
when a firm lacks a consistent interface, it diminishes the quality of external information
communicated by that organization. In relation to stakeholder theory this could result in
stakeholders feeling undervalued, which may decrease their likelihood of supporting the
organization. Businesses rely on customer and stakeholder communication to understand
how the organization and products are performing and compare them competitors’
products and services, as well as the desires and expectations set by the customers to
remain viable. The way an organization communicates with customers and stakeholders
33
may determine the organization’s long-term viability (Duralia, 2018). A discussion
regarding the importance of communication strategies is important to this study as the use
of such strategies aligns with stakeholder theory and may help the leaders of NPOs
increase fundraising revenues, resulting in increased long-term viability.
Communication Strategies for NPOs
Communication is of paramount importance to ensuring the sustainability of
NPOs. Nonprofit businesses suffer from insufficient resources and rely on external
communications with a variety of audiences to inform and influence potential donors
(Flanagan & Getto, 2017); thus, making effective external communication strategies vital
to mission success. There is an increased demand among NPOs for services, along with a
simultaneous expectation that NPOs obtain the necessary government funding and donor
support to ensure competition within the market (Fernando et al., 2017). To overcome
these challenges, leaders must consider strategically effective communication strategies
that demonstrate value to their stakeholders.
Strategic Communication. Strategic communication is the systemic process of
sustained and meaningful activities conducted across many levels to facilitate the
understanding of an audience and identify favorable channels for eliciting a behavior
(Jaomiasa, 2019). Communication with internal and external stakeholders is a necessary
skill affecting business practices, thereby sparking interest in the competencies of
professionals regarding the strategic management of communication (Brunton et al.,
2019). Nonprofit leaders should insert effective external communication strategies into
34
their overall strategic planning efforts that incorporate two-way communication to
understand the needs of customers and to determine the improvements needed (Baack et
al., 2017). Such increases in two-way communication may increase donor engagement
and results in increases in fundraising revenue.
The design and strategic control of messaging can influence customers’ buying
behavior, build relationships, and promote interactive and effective communication
between stakeholders and the organization (Genchev & Todorova, 2017). Furthermore, as
the market landscape becomes global, NPO leaders should familiarize themselves with
the cultural values of their stakeholders and how these values drive communication
management practices (Brunton et al., 2019). Nonprofits’ leaders must understand
customers and the available avenues to effectively reach out and involve customers in
promotions or activities to enhance the effectiveness of external communications.
Stakeholder theory, the conceptual framework for this study, holds that individuals and
groups who affected by the activities of an organization should be relevant to the
organization (Freeman, 2004). Strategic communication may enhance engagement with
stakeholders and is therefore essential for an analysis of NPO communication strategies
from the perspective of stakeholder theory.
Message Framing. Senior leaders of NPOs cannot ignore the importance of
message framing when communicating with stakeholders. Given identical situations,
circumstances, or facts, people will make different decisions based on the presentation of
the information (Zhang & Yang, 2019). Message framing is a strategy used in
35
communication to shape the recipient’s perception of a particular outcome (Oh & Ki,
2019). A favorable correlation exists between message framing and a positive attitude
toward a company (Oh & Ki, 2019). For example, senior leaders can frame messages
using gain-framed appeal, in which they enhance the potential benefits rather than the
drawbacks (Oh & Ki, 2019). Using framing strategies, such as gain-framed appeal, may
increase the likelihood that stakeholders will contribute to fundraising ventures.
In contrast to gain-framed appeal, a focus on loss-framed appeal includes
emphasizing the negative consequences of not acting (Oh & Ki, 2019). The results of a
study conducted by Amatulli et al. (2019) about the effects of negative message framing
on green consumption demonstrated that negative message framing is more effective than
positive message framing. The study results suggested that stakeholders are more apt to
donate through guilt caused by negative message framing (Amatulli et al., 2019). With
stakeholder theory, crafting messages to influence stakeholders to donate to the NPO
requires the ability of the organization’s senior leaders to spend significant time
developing their understanding regarding what values are of importance to stakeholders
(Retolaza et al., 2019). In so doing, nonprofit leaders can garner sustained financial
support from their stakeholders.
Virtual Communication. In the modern world, virtual communication methods
are key for increasing communication in a cost-effective way. Virtual communication
refers to technology that people use to communicate without meeting in person (Lauro et
al., 2019). The use of virtual communication allows participants to communicate from
36
wherever they are, thereby providing convenience and improving productivity (Cho et al.,
2017). Travel and remote work scenarios exist in many organizations, the use of virtual
communication therefore enables all parties to connect regardless of location. Some of
the advantages of virtual communication include low operating costs and low overhead
costs (Lauro et al., 2019). According to Lauro et al. (2019), because NPOs’ businesses
are dependent on donor participation, NPOs make a significant effort to reach potential
donors through fundraising. As such, the use of Internet-based social media provides
NPO senior leaders with a cost-effective method for fundraising, allowing them a greater
ability to reach donors and offering donors a more efficient and direct way to contribute
(Oh & Ki, 2019). Furthermore, the use of virtual communication provides an effective
method for communicating with numerous stakeholders at one time.
Social media provides an effective medium for organizations to stay connected to
the public, unlike past methods that involved updating a company website (Cho et al.,
2017). Social media allows nonprofit leaders to enhance and sustain communication and
improve the relationship between the organization and the stakeholder (Cho et al., 2017).
Social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter serve as important means of
communication to strengthen stakeholder relationships that may increase donor
participation. Individuals use social media to facilitate electronic word of mouth (e-
WoM), using the evaluation of others within their network to influence other
stakeholders’ decisions regarding donation (Sozer, 2019). Positive use of social media by
stakeholders may serve to entice the engagement of new stakeholders, which may help to
37
increase donations, thereby increasing an NPOs fundraising revenue.
Brand Name Communication. The name of an organization conveys a message
to the stakeholder, communicating what the stakeholder should expect. The message that
brand names convey should reflect the reputation, performance, quality, and reliability of
an organization (Swani et al., 2019). Also, brand names can elicit brand identity,
influencing the behaviors of donors (Swani et al., 2019). Consumers may view a brand as
a reflection of commitment and quality (Wu et al., 2019). Also, brands are an extension
of self and provide meaning to customers (Swani et al., 2019). Therefore, leaders of an
NPO should ensure that their brand name reflects the values that will convey the correct
message to stakeholders. In understanding effective communication strategies that leaders
of NPOs can use, the brand name should communicate a strong message that will entice
donors to give.
A brand name can create longevity with customers or stakeholders. Brand names
are an essential part of brand equity and advertising strategy for an organization and
developing a valid brand name takes a substantial amount of time (Pathak et al., 2019).
Some organizations hire firms or consultants to create the perfect brand (Sutton, 2019).
For example, researchers use sound symbolism to help create a meaningful and attractive
name with vowels rather than consonants (Knoeferle et al., 2017). The sound symbolism
theory reflects the sounds or clusters of sounds made in a name that helps communicate
meaning to the listener (Preziosi & Coane, 2017). According to Preziosi and Coane
(2017), the main idea of a brand is to create a memorable name that communicates
38
information about the organization. For example, the word Febreze, which is a
combination of fresh and breeze, indicates what type of product it is (Preziosi & Coane,
2017). This concept demonstrates that when the brand name cues the stakeholder about
the product or service the organization provides, the result can contribute to the value
proposition and increase the likelihood of donors’ giving.
An inappropriate brand name can create barriers to recruiting stakeholders to
donate. Rith-Najarian et al. (2019) conducted a study on the difference a brand name
makes to the recruitment of students for an online program. For their study, Rith-Najarian
et al. used two different names for recruitment. The results of this study revealed gender
differences related to the program name. The significance of this study confirms the
importance of selecting an appropriate brand name that can minimize barriers and attract
donors to give, potentially increasing fundraising revenues. Chao and Lin (2017)
supported the significance of a brand name in their assertion that the name a brand
chooses is one of their most valuable assets. Although Chao and Lin’s study examined
phonetic, semantic, and suggestive translation approaches, their conclusions supported
the importance of social factors when choosing a brand name. Furthermore, Rith-
Najarian et al. (2019) explained that services advertised in a way that mitigates barriers
would better attract stakeholders. Therefore, an organization’s brand name should reflect
the services or products they offer to communicate the right message. The underlying
message is that it is not only essential to advertise the services that Organization ABC
provides, but how the brand name conveys to the stakeholder the expected value of the
39
organization.
A brand name requires a clear and precise description that can cue consumers and
entice their interest. Researchers conducted a survey study including participants located
in the United States about the difference a brand name makes in the purchase of water
(Ellis et al., 2019). Researchers conducted an analysis of twenty-one potential branding
names for reclaimed water using survey responses to determine whether consumers were
more apt to purchase a water based on the brand name. The results of the study showed
that names such as Pure Eco-Friendly scored better than Recycled, Reclaimed, or
Nontraditional Water (Ellis et al., 2019). The findings of the study aligned with research
regarding the role sociolinguistics have in consumer choices. Sociolinguistics refers to
the images and associations that arise in the minds of consumers that may influence
consumer perceptions of specific products (Chao & Lin, 2017). As such, a brand name
must convey what the organization offers.
Different languages or cultures are among the possible barriers to creating an
effective brand name. Wu et al. (2019) explained that logographic language brand names,
such as those that originate in Asian languages, are more difficult to retain when
compared with phonographic languages such as English. Organization ABC operates in
two cities in the U.S. and one outside the U.S., demonstrating the importance of creating
a brand name that will resonate among other cultures and convey a message that reflects
the organization.
40
Donor Behavior
This purpose of this single case study is to identify effective communication
strategies that nonprofit leaders use to improve fundraising revenues. Understanding how
donors behave can be beneficial in developing effective communication strategies that
will appeal to the generosity of stakeholders. Discerning donor behavior is essential to the
management of donor relationships (Nageswarakurukkal et al., 2020). Also, due to the
increase in competition among NPOs, leaders of NPOs are seeking strategies that will
give them a competitive advantage in sustaining donor loyalty (Rosenbaum et al., 2017).
It is important to note that donor behavior is dependent on the type of donation required.
For instance, according to a study conducted by Shon et al. (2019) men are more likely to
donate blood, while women are more likely to give money. Furthermore, those that
donate money tend to be homeowners, have a high income, and have college degrees
(Shon et al., 2019). Therefore, NPOs must ascertain the type of donations they seek and
the corresponding population likely to provide such donations.
A donor’s desire to give may rely on whether the donation might help another
rather than themselves. Hsieh and Yucel-Aybat (2018) conducted a study to investigate
whether a donor’s belief in changeability might influence the behavior of donors on
controllable versus uncontrollable health conditions. The results of the study
demonstrated that donors were more likely to give more for health conditions that were
less controllable than they would for those health conditions perceived as avoidable
(Hsieh & Yucel-Aybat, 2018). Organization ABC provides academic resources,
41
leadership training, and mentoring in the inner city. Organization ABC serves a
population of individuals that are in an uncontrollable setting and do not have access to
the same resources as many other communities. Given the research on the propensity of
donors to give to a cause that is largely uncontrollable by the beneficiaries, effective
communication strategies that convey the story of the recipients can increase the desire to
give.
Millennial Behavior Toward Giving
Senior leaders of NPOs desiring to increase fundraising revenue may increase
donations by identifying and capitalizing the needs of a group to increase giving
behaviors. For example, although millennials are often considered less likely to give in
comparison to other generations (Koczanski & Rosen, 2019) this group of individuals,
born after 1980 and before 2004, are projected to become a driving force in the economy
(Statista Research Department, 2018). Millennials have a need for connection to the
community and dedication to impacting social change (Gorczyca & Hartman, 2017).
Therefore, an NPO should establish relationships with millennials by understanding their
values and their behaviors toward giving (Gorczyca & Hartman, 2017). Organizations
could create communication strategies strategically targeted toward millennials that align
with their values, thus potentially increasing their donations.
Narratives as a Communication Strategy
Communicating with stakeholders is one of the most crucial responsibilities of
NPO leaders. Cadet and Carroll (2019) explained that NPO leaders can communicate to
42
their stakeholders using narratives to convey stories that will elicit an emotional response,
thereby attracting stakeholders to the organization’s cause. The increase in inexpensive
web-based technologies makes the implementation of narratives as a communication
strategy both cost-effective and efficient (Flanagan & Getto, 2017). The use of narratives
can also serve to demonstrate an organization’s commitment to communicating with their
stakeholders.
Traditional communication methods may not provide the best avenue for
communicating effectively for NPOs. Innovation is a key factor in an organization’s
financial success (Weber & Grauer, 2019). The use of narratives as a method of
communication is an innovative way to maintain communication while garnering
support. Weber and Grauer (2019) described effective strategic communication as
involving specific content and communication that reflects the organization’s views and
values to the stakeholder. Persuasive narratives are competencies necessary in any sales
process that allows leaders to communicate and build trust (Spiller, 2018). Organization
ABC is seeking increased revenues from fundraising. Therefore, using narratives as an
innovative strategy to convey the organization’s beliefs, values, and services to their
stakeholders, while demonstrating the importance of why they should donate, can
increase engagement, build rapport, and trust, and ultimately increase donor activity.
However, improper narratives could harm fundraising. Using improper narratives to elicit
responses from stakeholders may lead to negative outcomes. When the information
conveyed is either false or inaccurate, narratives can have negative consequences
43
(Moyer-Gusé & Dale, 2017). Leaders of NPOs may use narratives as a communication to
increase fundraising revenue but must ensure they are implementing narrative
communication in a way that elicits positive rather than negative outcomes.
Community Awareness as a Strategy
Some stakeholders may not participate in fundraising events due to the lack of
information regarding the services offered by some nonprofits. Koirala et al. (2018)
conducted a quantitative study and identified genuine concern for the environment,
community trust, community resistance, and education about environmental concerns as
factors that influenced community participation in an organization’s activities. Buckley et
al. (2017) conducted a study regarding stakeholders’ knowledge of access to health
services and determined that a lack of community awareness inhibited communities from
taking advantage of healthcare services. However, the ability of organizations to
communicate with stakeholders within the community through various forms of
marketing can be a challenging feat. When it comes to community awareness strategies,
leaders must communicate in a way that community members can understand to form
their own opinion (Williams et al., 2020). Regarding Organization ABC, if the
community is unaware of the products and services provided by the organization, there
could be no incentive to participate in giving. Therefore, leaders of NPOs should develop
strategies to ensure the community has information regarding the purpose of the
organization.
44
Community Marketing as a Strategy
Marketing is essential for establishing awareness about an organization.
Community marketing is a strategy used by organizations to establish an engaging brand
and to communicate with existing customers (Pue, 2019). Community marketing eases
the pressure on an organization related to time, money, and effort in marketing to new
stakeholders by first focusing on existing customers. Focusing on existing customers can
not only create brand loyalty but also attract new customers. Organization ABC provides
services throughout Texas and has garnered loyal stakeholders who consistently donate.
Those stakeholders who donate consistently could become part of a strategy for
communicating with other potential donors in the community. Pue (2019) asserted that
through the process of community marketing, brand awareness attracted other customers
in the community. Leaders that foster a strong relationship will create loyal customers
(Khalifa & Saad, 2017). Therefore, engaging with current and potential donors is
paramount.
Social Marketing as a Strategy
Commercial marketing is essential to achieving financial sustainability by
focusing on current stakeholders to attract new stakeholders, whereas the focus of social
marketing is on achieving social good to improve awareness and engagement. The design
of social marketing is to change the behavior of the targeted stakeholder and involves the
strategic planning and execution of processes that influence the behavior of stakeholders
(Hiqmah, 2019). Organization leaders can use social marketing to influence individuals
45
to stop a behavior, such as smoking, or develop new behaviors, such as giving (Rundle-
Thiele et al., 2019). The intent behind social marketing is to influence behavior for the
benefit of society or a community (Drew, 2019). According to Drew (2019), the National
Social Marketing Centre developed benchmark criteria that address effective social
marketing, which includes (a) understanding the customer using ethnographic techniques,
(b) using existing theory to understand behavior, (c) thoroughly researching the target
audience, (d) mitigating the benefits to cost on behavioral change, and (e) identifying
competitive factors that are barriers to the influence of behavior. The incorporation and
deliberate focus on conveying messages in a community that might influence and inspire
individuals to give are essential to Organization ABC’s mission to successfully increase
donor giving and improve financial sustainability.
Social Media Marketing as a Strategy
Social media marketing is a strategy that organization leaders can use to increase
awareness about an organization’s mission and vision (Chiang et al., 2017). Globally,
billions of people use social media platforms such as Facebook to communicate (Appel et
al., 2020). Business leaders can learn significant consumer habits through social media
platforms (Carlson et al., 2018). Additionally, the use of social media marketing provides
organization leaders with multiple ways to identify and engage with a variety of
stakeholders (Appel et al., 2020). Facebook has more than 3 billion active users monthly,
with predictions that the number of users will continue to grow (Facebook, 2021). The
use of social media presents an essential marketing opportunity for organizations because
46
consumers share information on timelines that are visible to viewers, causing others to
share, like, and comment, thereby attracting new users (Haikel-Elsabeh et al., 2019). Wu
(2020) conducted a study that surveyed 115 participants in 17 countries and regions with
organizations that incorporate social media. The results indicated that Facebook,
YouTube, LinkedIn, and Twitter were the most used platforms (Wu, 2020). Also, 45% of
these organizations were reaching new customers, 57% were communicating with current
customers, and 44% represented forms of marketing campaigns (Wu, 2020). These
findings represent a significant opportunity for organizations that have not yet
acknowledged the benefits of social media marketing. Such organizations could seize on
social media marketing as an opportunity to create awareness about services provided,
thereby using word of mouth to spread the information about their organization.
The research question at the center of this literature review was to understand
what communication strategies NPO leaders use to improve fundraising revenues. The
use of stakeholder theory provided a lens for examining the literature regarding NPOs
and identifying strategies Organization ABC should consider for increasing fundraising
revenues. Given the influence a stakeholder’s view of an organization has on level of
financial commitment and the plethora of NPOs seeking donations, senior leaders of
Organization ABC must address the importance of building relationships with
stakeholders. Using communication strategies NPO leaders can both develop
relationships with stakeholders and appeal to the stakeholders’ generosity thereby
eliciting enough funds to maintain the financial stability of the NPO and the continuation
47
of the NPO’s mission.
Transition
Section 1 included the problem statement, which provided a summary of the
challenges that leaders of NPOs face related to charitable giving concerning a lack of
communication strategies to increase fundraising revenues. The purpose of this
qualitative single case study was to explore communication strategies NPO leaders use to
increase fundraising revenues. The target population included two leaders from one NPO
in Texas who have successfully implemented strategies for increasing fundraising
revenues. The review of the professional and academic literature contains an exploration
of the research phenomenon as it relates to charitable giving and its relationship with the
stakeholder theory. In the literature review, I discussed the 2000s climate within the
nonprofit sector. Freeman’s (1984) stakeholder theory was the lens for this study,
supporting the importance of stakeholders’ relationships to an organization’s financial
performance, and included a discussion on two-way communication in building positive
relationships with key stakeholders. Demonstrating value proposition to stakeholders
could potentially lead to increased donations and improve the financial stability of the
organization. The results of this study may provide business leaders with strategies to
build relationships with key stakeholders to improve fundraising revenues, which could
provide beneficial resources to local communities.
In Section 2, I include an exhaustive description of the project, including a
reiteration of the purpose of the study and a comprehensive description of the research
48
method and design, population and sampling, the role of the researcher, data collection
instruments, and data collection techniques used in this study. Section 2 also includes a
discussion regarding the ethical considerations surrounding the study, the participant
selection process, and the measures taken to ensure the protection of participants’ rights.
Section 3 includes detailed information on the research conducted for study
completion. To perform detailed analysis for and about Organization ABC, I applied the
2019 Baldrige Excellence Framework and its Criteria for Performance Excellence. Using
the Baldrige Excellence Framework, I explored Organization ABC’s leadership,
strategies, workforce, operations, and results to develop and present the findings and how
Organization ABC can apply the results to their professional practice. Finally, I discussed
fundraising strategies and several successful communication strategies, such as message
framing and virtual technology, which NPOs can use to improve stakeholder
relationships. As a scholar consultant in the DBA consulting capstone, my goal was to
assist Organization ABC’s leaders in exploring effective communications strategies that
leaders of NPOs can use to increase fundraising revenues. Finally, Section 3 concludes
with a project summary, contributions, and recommendations for future study.
49
Section 2: The Project
Purpose Statement
The purpose of this qualitative single case study was to explore communication
strategies NPO leaders use to increase fundraising revenues. The target population
consisted of three leaders from one NPO in Texas who have successfully implemented
strategies for increasing fundraising revenues. The implications for positive social change
include the possibility of improving the engagement of potential donors and creating a
value proposition, through increased fundraising revenues, to enhance NPOs’ capacity to
deliver meaningful services that benefit communities.
Role of the Researcher
In many qualitative case studies, the researcher is the primary instrument for
gathering, exploring, synthesizing, and interpreting the data (Denzin & Lincoln, 2018;
Levitt et al., 2018). The researcher is responsible for collecting data by asking pointed
questions, listening effectively, and being flexible and adaptive as the interviews progress
(Yin, 2018). In addition, the researcher should have a working knowledge of the issues
explored and perform the research in an ethically acceptable manner (Yin, 2018). As the
research instrument for this single case study, I asked questions respectfully and without
bias and reported the findings accurately. I have almost 30 years of leadership experience
but no experience working for an NPO. I had no connection to the participants in this
study. My role as the unbiased researcher in this study was to gather and analyze data
from participants from Organization ABC to learn what communication strategies they
50
use to increase fundraising revenues.
Further, according to Walden University’s (2019) Consulting Capstone Manual,
scholar-consultants interview NPO leaders and collect data using the Baldrige Excellence
Framework (Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, 2019) to determine business
problems and answer research questions. I used the Baldrige Excellence Framework as a
guide to explore and collect data to help my client organization improve performance, as
consultants provide expert knowledge and recommendations to assist organizations in
improving their processes and achieving sustainable results (Sahir & Brutus, 2018).
Although there is a limit to my knowledge of NPOs, I have almost 30 years’ experience
in healthcare, and I have used the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program (2019) to
improve processes at the nursing home where I was employed. Using the framework, I
was able to lead my team and improve clinical processes and employee engagement. We
also decreased unnecessary expenditures, established a presence in the local community,
and improved productivity. Considering my experience working with the Baldrige
Excellence Framework, I was able to discern some of the business challenges my client
organization faces in its relationship with stakeholders.
In my initial interactions with the client, I sought to establish a rapport built on
mutual respect, trust, and authenticity, with the hope that the client would share the
details needed to conduct this study. Functioning as a scholar-consultant, I conducted five
virtual conversations with the founder to discern the business problem. Once I identified
the problem, I explored the existing literature to achieve a deeper understanding of this
51
issue. To better understand my client’s business model and services offered, I also
reviewed the organization’s website, which provided insight into the organization’s
mission, vision, and core values. Understanding these core values also allowed me to
build a better rapport with the participants.
Additionally, in conducting a research study, researchers must maintain ethical
standards (National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and
Behavioral Research [NCPHSBBR], 1979). Researchers have access to confidential
information and must conduct themselves in an ethical manner concerning information
shared (Nowell et al., 2017). The guidelines for ethical research, as outlined in the
Belmont Report, emphasize (a) protection and privacy for the participants, (b) protection
of the rights of the participants, and (c) informed consent (NCPHSBBR, 1979). The fair
treatment of participants without prejudice is necessary, and participants have the right to
terminate their participation in the study at any time (Denzin & Lincoln, 2018). In my
research, I followed the principles established in the Belmont Report, obtaining consent
from the participants that they were willing to participate in the study as stated in the
interview protocol (see Appendix A). In addition, I maintained participants’ privacy.
Prior to gathering data, the participants consented to participating in the study.
Doing no harm is another principle outlined in the Belmont Report (NCPHSBBR,
1979). While collecting data during interviews, I was sensitive to participants’ moods and
the potential stress from challenging questions. I considered that the questions concerned
intimate details regarding the organization and might expose weaknesses that could make
52
the participants uncomfortable. Researchers must be sensitive to the stress associated
with the interview and be ready to terminate the interview at any point in time (Mohajan,
2018). I advised participants of their rights to end their participation at any time. Because
the participants’ privacy was paramount to ensuring they speak freely, I used
pseudonyms—P1, P2, and P3
—
to keep identifying information confidential.
Researchers should also follow protocols that mitigate potential biases that could
affect data collection and analysis (Fusch et al., 2018). In addition, threats to reliability
and validity could occur at any phase in the research process (Yin, 2018). I conducted
interviews in a manner that would mitigate any bias affecting the reliability and validity
of the study. Participation error, participant bias, researcher error, and researcher bias are
concerns that threaten the reliability of research (Stewart et al., 2017). I was careful not to
introduce personal bias on the research topic, and I conducted the interviews at a time and
location in which the participants felt relaxed and comfortable. To further reduce bias and
substantiate validity, I used triangulation to ensure credibility and authenticity of the data
collection and analysis (Stewart et al., 2017). In addition, I reviewed the gathered
information with the participants to validate its accuracy.
In accordance with the guidelines established by seminal researchers, the Belmont
Report, and the Walden University Institutional Review Board (IRB), I also used an
interview protocol (see Appendix A) that provided ethical standards to reduce bias in
conducting this research study. Researchers use an interview protocol to standardize the
interview process, access necessary information, and simplify data collection (Hancock &
53
Algozzine, 2017). An interview protocol reduces the potential for researcher bias (Yin,
2018).
Participants
Researchers must ensure that the quality and quantity of interviews are sufficient
to achieve accuracy and depth in a study and that participant selection and alignment to
the research question are important in reaching accurate conclusions (Hancock &
Algozzine, 2017). Selecting participants and defining eligibility requirements that align
with the research question are also essential. The participants in my study included a
Texas NPO’s CEO and two of its board members, leaders who had implemented
successful communication strategies to increase their fundraising revenues. Participant
inclusion in this study required that the participant was (a) actively involved in the
organization, (b) a leader in the organization, and (c) had successfully implemented
strategies that increased fundraising revenues.
Walden University faculty paired me with a client organization, and after
receiving IRB approval, I contacted that organization’s CEO via email and telephone to
begin establishing rapport and determine what communications strategies would be most
beneficial. The client–consultant relationship exposes the client’s true concerns and
makes clear how best to establish the working relationship (Block, 2011). I engaged in
professional and personal dialogue to build trust and allow the client to divulge authentic
and details about the organization. Additionally, qualitative researchers must embody
ethical sensitivity in the development of relationships with participants through the
54
respect and understanding of their viewpoints (Karagiozis, 2018). After multiple attempts
to communicate by phone, the client agreed that we should communicate through email
and Google Docs because they would yield the most productivity, given our busy
schedules. A biweekly conversation by phone to discuss information shared via email,
however, provided a greater understanding of the information exchanged. Though we
communicated predominantly by email and sometimes by phone, we also met face-to-
face at a neutral location that was both comfortable and private enough to facilitate the
exchange. Our combination of emails, online sharing, phone calls, and face-to-face
meetings allowed me to collect pertinent data that reflected the performance of the
organization.
To adhere to the IRB requirements, I asked each participant to sign a consent
form before their interview. To maintain client confidentiality, I used pseudonyms—P1,
P2, and P3—for the participants. In collaboration with the client organization’s
leadership, I established a timeline to collect and interpret the data and offer
recommendations that would improve the performance outcomes of the organization.
Research Method and Design
Research Method
To explore the communication strategies that leaders of NPOs use to improve
fundraising revenues I used a qualitative research method. Researchers use qualitative
methods to explore and gain insights into experiences surrounding a phenomenon
(Denzin, 2017). More specifically, researchers use interviewing to gain an understanding
55
of a phenomenon (Hancock & Algozzine, 2017). I explored the experiences of the leaders
of the client-organization predominantly through telephone interviews and email
correspondence to understand the communication strategies they use to improve
fundraising revenues.
In contrast to an exploration of participant experiences as in qualitative research,
quantitative researchers establish connections through statistical analysis among
independent and dependent variables (Yin, 2018). Quantitative research reveals patterns
and disparities in relationships with numerical data, which qualitative researchers can
further explore (Brooks et al., 2019). The quantitative method was not appropriate for this
study because understanding how company leaders perceive communication strategies
used to increase funding revenues did not necessitate examining numerical data and their
relationships between variables.
Researchers use a mixed method approach to incorporate both the qualitative and
quantitative data collection and analysis techniques (Levitt et al., 2018) and to gain a
multifaceted understanding of a phenomenon (Alavi et al., 2018). Mixed methods
research can require a significant amount of time and resources (Brooks et al., 2019). The
purpose of this qualitative single case study was to explore the communication strategies
that leaders of an NPO in Texas use to improve fundraising revenues. The examination of
variables was not necessary for answering this question, making the mixed method was
not appropriate for this research.
56
Research Design
A research design is a detailed plan for addressing specific questions that will lead
to a set of conclusions, ensuring that the data collection and analysis process leads to
answering the research question (Yin, 2018). A single case study was appropriate for this
study because it enabled a thorough exploration of the fundraising strategies used by the
leadership of one organization. In the single case study design, researchers can explore a
phenomenon within a real-life context (Yin, 2018). A single case study design was
appropriate to explore the implementation of communication strategies to improve
fundraising revenues.
Qualitative designs also include ethnographic, phenomenological, and narrative
designs (Denzin, 2017; Denzin & Lincoln, 2018). The ethnographic design is the study of
cultures and patterns of certain groups and how they interact with each other (Bass &
Milosevic, 2018). The ethnographic design was not appropriate because I did not explore
cultures or social groups and how they interact. The results of this study reflect the
experience of leaders in the client organization, not groups or cultures.
In the phenomenological design, researchers explore and describe how
participants experience a single phenomenon (Denzin, 2017; Smith, 2018). Researchers
using the phenomenological approach to explore participants’ personal feelings and
experiences surrounding a phenomenon (Kim et al., 2018). The phenomenological design
was not appropriate because the personal feelings of the leaders of the client organization
were not pertinent to the communication strategies used to improve fundraising revenues.
57
Finally, researchers use the narrative design to capture the personal lives of
individuals by narrating their experiences (Smith, 2018). Researchers obtain the
experiences of their participants and then organize this information most often in a
chronological manner (Brooks et al., 2019). The data acquired through narrative design
reflects only the lived experiences of the participants without regard for context (Smith,
2018). The narrative design did not align with the purpose of this study because the
personal life histories of the leaders were not significantly related to their use of
communication strategies at work.
In addition to choosing the most appropriate design, reaching data saturation helps
ensure the validity of the research study (Denzin & Lincoln, 2018; Lowe et al., 2018).
Researchers achieve data saturation when additional data collected no longer contributes
to new information or new themes (Stewart et al., 2017). To reach study data saturation, I
interviewed participants, allowing them to speak freely about their experiences in a
semistructured interview process until the information was redundant and they revealed
no new information. Asking follow-up questions gave further clarity and value to the
participants’ responses. Using an open-ended question format reduced researcher bias
and encouraged dialogue with the participants.
To increase the credibility and validity of the study results, researchers use
member checking. Researchers use member checking to reduce researcher bias and
provide participants with the opportunity to review analyzed data to ensure accuracy
(Denzin & Lincoln, 2018). Member checking is essential to researchers in that it is a
58
reflection that the information collected was correct and valid (Stewart et al., 2017). To
ensure the accuracy of the information and prevent bias, I provided participants with a
copy of the synthesized information gathered from the interview questions, which they
reviewed and noted as accurate. The participants also participated in member checking by
reaffirming that what they shared was what they intended to share throughout the
interview process until they did not provide any new or changed information.
Population and Sampling
Sampling Method
For this qualitative single case study, the population consisted of NPO leaders
who have successfully implemented strategies for increasing fundraising revenues.
Researchers should use specific inclusion criteria to define the sample population that
would be best for answering the research question (van Rijnsoever, 2017). Purposeful
sampling enables researchers to study a specific population, which results in data targeted
toward answering the research question (van Rijnsoever, 2017). Walden University
administrators selected the client-organization and organization leaders and assigned the
client-organization to scholar consultants in the DBA Consulting Capstone.
Walden administrators provided the contact information of the client-
organization’s CEO. After establishing rapport, the CEO provided contact information
for two senior leaders with the knowledge and experience necessary to participate in this
single case study. The two additional senior leaders successfully implemented strategies
for increasing fundraising revenues. Both had an in-depth knowledge of the organization
59
and over 20 years of experience working in similar organizations. Furthermore, the
participant leaders from Organization ABC each had experience with managing
fundraising strategies. It was not necessary to sample all the leaders in Organization ABC
because not all leaders had experience with fundraising.
Sampling
The sample population for this single case study included the CEO and two senior
leaders of Organization ABC located in Texas who used communication strategies to
improve fundraising revenues. Choosing knowledgeable participants to provide relevant
information on a research question is essential in purposeful sampling (Levitt et al.,
2017). The sample size must be sufficient to obtain data saturation (Denzin, 2017).
Selecting a sufficient sample size promotes a reliable and credible analysis (Varpio et al.,
2017). A large, representative sample size was not necessary as the goal was to explore
successfully implemented strategies for increasing fundraising revenues. I gathered data
from only the CEO and two senior leaders because they had direct knowledge and
experience relating to the research question. The CEO and two senior leaders constituted
a sample large enough to reach data saturation.
Saturation
Qualitative researchers obtain data saturation when there is no new information
gleaned from study participants. A researcher can conclude that they have reached data
saturation when (a) replication of the study may occur, (b) no new information emerges,
and (c) when additional coding fails to elicit new themes (Oswald, 2017). To achieve data
60
saturation for this study, I determined saturation when no new themes arose from the
data. Within qualitative research, data saturation occurs when the researcher obtains all
relevant information necessary to answer the research questions (Lowe et al., 2018). One
method to ensure data saturation is thematically coding the participant responses based on
similar words and sentences (Belotto, 2018). Once the interview process was complete, I
reviewed and thematically coded each participant’s response. Saturation occurred when
no new themes emerged from the coding process.
Interview Setting
Semistructured interviews and data gathering occurred by phone and with face-to-
face video conferencing. Allowing the participants to choose a method for conducting the
interview that was most convenient promoted participant comfort. Phone interviews
allow participants to speak openly and honestly (Farooq & de Villiers, 2017). Video
conferencing and phone interviews also provide a convenient way of communicating
between different geographical locations (Farooq & de Villiers, 2017). Video
conferencing allows participants the liberty to choose the interview time at their
convenience and makes it easier for participants to end the interview (Weller, 2017). I
conducted interviews in a private setting to maintain participant confidentiality and
allowed participants to speak candidly and openly.
Ethical Research
It is essential when conducting research that researchers consider ethical practices
to guarantee the protection of participants (Phillippi & Lauderdale, 2018), and ensure that
61
the study is conducted confidentially with respect and kindness (Denzin & Lincoln,
2018). Doctoral students in Walden University’s doctoral program must comply with
ethical standards of research and obtain IRB approval before conducting research
(Walden University, 2019). As a scholar-consultant in Walden’s DBA consulting
capstone, before engaging with the participants from Organization ABC, I obtained
approval from Walden University’s IRB, the approval number for this study was 11-15-
18-0763331.
An essential component of addressing ethical concerns within research is the
provision of pertinent study information to participants to ensure they have the
information necessary to allow informed consent (NCPHSBBR, 1979). As such, I also
provided the leaders of Organization ABC and all participants with the informed consent
form via email. The form included the interview procedures, the voluntary nature of the
study, the potential risks and benefits of participation in the study, information regarding
privacy, and all pertinent contact information. As an added safeguard to ensure ethical
practices, I also reviewed the form with participants before the interviews to ensure they
understood they could withdraw from the study at any time. A key ethical component a
researcher must consider is whether to provide incentives to participants in the study
(Hancock & Algozzine, 2017). Preventing bias and unfairness in research involves
making participants aware that the researcher will not offer incentives (Annas, 2017).
There were no incentives offered to participants, other than the potential for Organization
ABC to gain communication strategies to increase fundraising revenues for their NPO.
62
Moreover, the study did not involve significant risks to the participants.
Ethical research involves protecting the privacy of research participants.
Throughout the study, I referred to the client’s organization as Organization ABC to
protect the identities and privacy of the participants and the organization. Privacy
measures also included storing information collected during the study using a file-naming
system on the computer. During the study, as well as after, I stored the files in an
encrypted folder named client organization, and the participants were identified by their
assigned code names (i.e., Participant 1, Participant 2). In adherence to Walden
University’s research protocols, I plan to keep the collected information securely stored
for 5 years following the completion of the doctoral study, at which time I will
permanently destroy the information.
Data Collection Instruments
In this qualitative case study, I was the primary research instrument. The
researcher serves as the primary data collection instrument in qualitative research
(Denzin & Lincoln, 2018). I collected data using semistructured telephone interviews and
reviewed the organization’s documents. The objective of conducting the semistructured
interviews was to identify successfully implemented communication strategies for
increasing fundraising revenues by two leaders at one organization. Prior preparation is
paramount in the success of conducting interviews (Hancock & Algozzine, 2017).
Therefore, a significant part of the research process included becoming knowledgeable
about the organization and acquiring an understanding of the business problem as it
63
relates to NPOs.
In conducting the semistructured interviews, I followed an interview protocol
(Appendix A) and used open-ended questions (Appendix B) that allowed the participants
to respond freely. Researchers who use semistructured interviews, and review historical
information about a phenomenon, can achieve data saturation by exploring all the data
available (Hancock & Algozzine, 2017). Using the Baldrige Excellence Framework (see
Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, 2019) as a guide, I gathered and analyzed the
information obtained. I requested information from the clients from the following
categories: (a) leadership, (b) strategy, (c) customers, (d) measurements and knowledge
management, (e) workforce, (f) operations, and (g) results. The participants also
answered six open-ended interview questions about communication strategies nonprofit
leaders use to improve fundraising revenues (Appendix B). Interviews are extremely
valuable in the collection of pertinent information about a phenomenon (Denzin &
Lincoln, 2018). The depth of information I obtained via the semistructured interviews
assisted in achieving data saturation.
The different techniques for collecting data included the use of documentation
concerning the organization. Per permission from the organization, I explored financial
and strategic planning documents. Exploration of the documents made available by
company leadership to assess their status and the tools they use is an integral part of
understanding the organization in its entirety (Bastani et al., 2018). After receiving
permission to research the organization and its participants, I used the Baldrige
64
Excellence Framework (see Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, 2019) to interpret
and share the collected data.
As the primary data collection instrument, it is essential to mitigate any biases that
may decrease the validity and credibility of the study, and I endeavored to conduct the
study as objectively as possible. For the results of a study to be useful and accurate, the
researcher needs to take steps to ensure reliability and validity throughout the data
collection process (Castleberry & Nolen, 2018). To ensure reliability and validity within
the data collection process, I had the participants review a summary of the information
collected for accuracy in the process of member checking. Researchers use member
checking to ensure the validity of a study (Denzin, 2017; Hancock & Algozzine, 2017).
To ensure reliability and validity within the data collection process, and after conducting
the interviews and transcribing the data, I had the participants review a one-paragraph
summary of each of their responses to each interview question to ensure the authenticity
and integrity of the information collected during the member checking process. The
participants verified the accuracy of the transcription analysis summary in a conversation
conducted over the phone; however, I sent the one-paragraph summaries to them via
email prior to the phone conversation. Participant assessment of the accuracy of the data
allows the opportunity to provide additional information or to identify any errors and
misinterpretations that occurred through the interview process. According to FitzPatrick
(2019), the member checking process is essential for validation.
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Data Collection Techniques
After receiving IRB approval, I used semistructured interviews and reviewed the
organization’s documents to collect the data. Researchers use semistructured interviews
and open-ended questions to allow the participants to describe their experiences around a
phenomenon (Yin, 2018). Asking open-ended questions in a semistructured format
promotes structure and focus during the interview (Bradshaw et al., 2017). One
advantage of using semistructured interviews includes the flexibility needed for
participants to express themselves freely (Yin, 2018). Therefore, the semistructured
format was appropriate for this qualitative single case study.
For this qualitative single case study, I used several data collection techniques,
which included face-to-face audio-recorded semistructured interviews, phone calls, a
review of the organization’s documents, a review of the literature, and emails. Face-to-
face interviews are associated with the disadvantage that geographical limitations
between the participant and the researcher may be present (Levitt et al., 2018). However,
telephone interviews offer more geographical reach and convenience. In addition, Stewart
et al. (2017) clarified that Internet methods are increasingly becoming pervasive as
methods of communication and for research. Given the restraints of time and distance, I
conducted the interviews face-to-face and via the phone. In the interviews, the
participants responded to six open-ended questions (Appendix B), following the
guidelines of the interview protocol (Appendix A). Researchers use of follow-up
questions to illuminate and further define participant responses (Denzin & Lincoln,
66
2018). Therefore, as the interview progressed, participants responded to clarifying
questions to provide more in-depth answers.
There are advantages and disadvantages to using document data collection from
an organization as a data source. Exploring an organization’s documents and data only
offers a one-sided view of the organization’s status (Yin, 2018). Because I explored
financial and strategic-planning documents made available by company leadership to
assess their position and the tools they use, I did not have an opportunity to explore the
participants’ thoughts or opinions on the document information. In addition, there are
issues of security concerning the oversight, or lack of oversight, in obtaining documents,
which may influence the type of data made available and the potential for ethical
violations (Buckley & Doyle, 2017). Furthermore, analyzing multiple data sources can be
time-consuming (Yin, 2018). For the advantages associated with document data
collection from an organization as a data source, using this type of data can provide
deeper insight into a phenomenon, providing physical evidence (Clark & Vealé, 2018).
The greater the amount of available data to understand a topic, the richer the analysis can
be. In either case, I aim to collect as much data as possible to enable methodological
triangulation, which confirms credibility.
The use of interviews for data collection, although beneficial, is not without
challenges. Researchers that conduct face-to-face interviews build rapport during the
interview through active listening skills and personal engagement with the participant
(Kaliber, 2019). However, time constraints and geographic location can be a
67
disadvantage (Hancock & Algozzine, 2017). I mitigated these constraints by offering to
schedule the interviews at mutually agreeable time and location. Furthermore, I used
video calls such as Skype, as an alternative. Weller (2017) explained that video
conferences provide a suitable advantage where the participant can overcome geographic
and time constraints. However, many people lack the technological skills and acumen
needed to use video conferences (Weller, 2017). Furthermore, researchers are unable to
determine the space the participant uses for the interview and therefore cannot assist in
removing potential distractions (Gray et al., 2020). Although not optimal for observing
participant body language, the use of video calls via Skype provided the opportunity for
engaging with the participants despite challenges to time constraints and geographic
location.
It was not necessary to conduct a pilot study before gathering the data.
Researchers use pilot studies to identify strategies, rationales, challenges in the research
process, and to establish the feasibility of the study (Brooks et al., 2019). In the context of
qualitative research, pilot studies are useful when using structured interviews and
questionnaires as they can provide clarification between the participant and researcher
(Denzin & Lincoln, 2018). The data for this study came from semistructured interviews
and organization documents; therefore, a pilot study was unnecessary. Conducting
semistructured interviews allowed for the exploration of experiences by the participants
relevant to communication strategies used to improve fundraising revenues.
One strategy used to establish reliability and validity is member checking.
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Member checking is the process by which researchers allow participants to review a data
analysis summary to ensure the proper conveyance of their thoughts and experiences
(Yin, 2018). Member checking promotes rapport and trust with participants to accurately
confirm or refute collected and obtain more data (Candela, 2019). Allowing the
participants to review the data collected ensures credibility and validity (Nowell et al.,
2017; Stewart et al., 2017), and mitigates researcher bias (Abdalla et al., 2018; Denzin &
Lincoln, 2018). An essential component of conducting research is accurately recording
the participant’s responses (Belotto, 2018). After audio recording each interview and
completing the transcription process, the participants reviewed the interview transcript in
a phone conversation. Additionally, I used member checking to ensure the accuracy of
the interview data. After compiling the data collected and sending the participants a one-
paragraph summary of each of their responses to each interview question, I asked the
participants to review the initial analysis summary to ensure its authenticity through
member checking. During the conversation, I confirmed that I understood the
participants’ intended meanings, asked if anything needed to be added or validated, and
continued this process until no new data was disclosed; the latter process being a
recommendation for member checking by Hancock and Algozzine (2017).
Data Organization Techniques
To keep track of all data collected, I used a file-naming system on my computer
and stored files in an encrypted folder named client organization. Each participant
received an identifier beginning with participant followed by a corresponding number
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(i.e., Participant 1, Participant 2, and on). Each file contains the transcribed interview,
and the interview notes I took as the participants shared. Researchers should create an
organized, easy, and efficient method of retrieving data (Denzin & Lincoln, 2018).
Though the folder is easily accessible, the encrypted status requires a password to access
the material. All the data collected will remain stored for 5 years following the
completion of the doctoral study, upon which time I will destroy the data.
The iPhone 8 plus was the primary device used to record both phone and face-to-
face semistructured interviews. Also, to accommodating unforeseen challenges, I used
the Evistr 16GB digital voice recorder as a secondary recording device during the face-
to-face interviews. In addition to the Evistr voice recorder and the iPhone 8 plus, I used
an app called “Tape a Call Pro” to record calls made by phone. NVivo is a type of data
organizational software researchers use to organize and code data for analysis
(Castleberry & Nolen, 2018). I collected the information and transcribed the data using
the NVivo software, as well as to organize, code, and create themes from the transcribed
data. In interpreting and identifying themes, it is paramount to analyze data objectively
and to seek patterns within the transcribed data (Oswald, 2017). In addition to using the
NVivo software, I used the Zotero software to organize articles and information related to
the research study.
Finally, I endeavored to remain objective by using notes I jotted down in a
reflective journal throughout the interview process. Korstjens and Moser (2018) proposed
that researchers could lessen researcher bias by using a reflective journal. Stewart et al.
70
(2017) also proposed that using a reflective journal to record observations in the form of
taking notes is useful for later data analysis of the material. Therefore, I took notes by
reflective journaling during the interview process to capture the participant’s facial
expressions and body language as an additional data collection source. After completing
the interviews, I transcribed the handwritten journal notes and kept them on my personal
computer in an encrypted folder. The data interpreted with the help of these three
instruments allowed me the ability to conduct an effective analysis.
Data Analysis
Yin (2018) explained that there are four types of triangulation: (1) data
triangulation, (2) investigator triangulation, (3) theory investigation, and (4)
methodological triangulation. Methodological triangulation was the method used in this
single case study. Morgan et al. (2017) explained that methodological triangulation
involves analyzing data from multiple sources, such as semistructured interviews,
organizational documents, and previous research. Using multiple sources ensures the
validation of the data (Yin, 2018). To achieve methodological triangulation, I conducted
a comparison of semistructured and informal interviews, a review of the organizational
documents, and reflective journaling.
Organizing data is a challenging yet key component in the research process,
which technology has made easier. Computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software
has become more prevalent and relatively simple to use in assisting researchers in
organizing and analyzing data (Oswald, 2017). Qualitative researchers use NVivo
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software in the analysis and coding of data, and the identification of themes (Robins &
Eisen, 2017). In this single case study, I used NVivo software to organize the data from
semistructured interviews and to discover and differentiate themes within the data.
Yin’s (2018) five-step process of thematic analysis includes (1) compile the data,
(2) disassemble the data, (3) reassemble the data, (4) interpret the data, and (5) draw
conclusions from the information. To identify themes related to the research question, I
assembled all the data sources collected. Then, I disassembled the data into different
categories, reassembled the data, and coded the data into specific themes. I analyzed the
themes considering the research question and through the lens of the conceptual
framework. Also, the emerging themes identified were correlated with a review of the
academic literature to identify effective communication strategies that leaders of NPOs
used to improve fundraising revenues.
Reliability and Validity
In determining whether a study is trustworthy, researchers evaluate the reliability
and validity of the data (Korstjens & Moser, 2018). To establish the reliability of the
study’s findings, researchers must assess the integrity of the research regarding the
application and the suitability of the method and the accuracy of the conclusion (Stewart
et al., 2017). Reliability of the study includes consistency in the research method and
process to obtain stable and consistent results (Merriam & Grenier, 2019). Validity
indicates that the research design and method represent an accurate reflection of the data
(Nowell et al., 2017). The terms used in research to evaluate trustworthiness in qualitative
72
research include dependability, credibility, transferability, and confirmability (Abdalla et
al., 2018).
Reliability
Achieving reliability in this study involved a rigorous member checking process.
Researchers must be mindful of the necessary rigor needed in the research process to
ensure reliability (Cypress, 2017). In other words, the results attained in a study by a
researcher must be flawless, and a true representation and reflection of the data (Spiers et
al., 2018). Also, reliability in qualitative research promotes consistency and mitigates
bias in the research data (Yin, 2018). Collecting data through organizational documents
and interviews and comparing the findings from this study to the literature on the subject
regarding the successful communication strategies used to improve fundraising revenues,
ensured reliability. To help ensure the reliability of the data, I provided participants with
transcripts of the interviews, allowing them to ensure the data obtained was an accurate
reflection of their responses. Additionally, I employed member checking to ensure the
interpretation of the data was accurate. Member checking is important for reliability and
dependability as it allows participants to verify that their responses are correct, thereby
preventing researcher bias from guiding the interpretation (Clark & Vealé, 2018).
Member checking entailed summarizing the data shared by participants and giving the
participants the summary to ensure what they shared was accurate. In addition, member
checking took place throughout the interview process by consistently checking if the
participants were sharing what they intended to share by frequently echoing back to them
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what I heard to ensure the dependability and reliability of the data gathered.
Validity
Ensuring validity in this study involved collecting data from multiple sources and
reaching data saturation. Validity refers to the credibility, confirmability, dependability,
and transferability of the data collected (Bansal et al., 2018). Researchers who collect
data from multiple sources and mitigate researcher bias increase the validity of the study
(Denzin & Lincoln, 2018). I obtained data from semistructured, face-to-face interviews,
organization documents, member checking, and reflective journaling. Additionally, I
ensured that I reached data saturation. According to Levitt et al. (2018), data saturation is
essential in ensuring the reliability and validity of a research study. Credibility also
contributes to the overall rigor and trustworthiness of a study.
Credibility
Ensuring credibility in this study involved member checking and methodological
triangulation. Credibility refers to the trustworthiness of the data collected (Denzin &
Lincoln, 2018). Researchers can ensure the credibility of the data by ensuring the
authenticity of the data collected and that it is free from bias (Stewart et al., 2017).
Researchers use member checking to strengthen the credibility of the study (Hancock &
Algozzine, 2017; Naidu & Prose, 2018). Therefore, I used member checking to ensure
that the information collected was an accurate reflection of the participant’s experience
and not the interpretation of the researcher. The use of member checking allows the
participants the opportunity to ensure the researcher’s interpretation of the data collected
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is an accurate reflection of their thoughts and experiences. I employed methodological
triangulation to further ensure the credibility of the study. Denzin and Lincoln (2018)
defined triangulation as the use of multiple sources and collections methods to establish
the credibility of the data collected. Therefore, I compared the findings from
semistructured, face-to-face interviews, and a review of the organization’s profile to
establish the credibility of the study’s overall findings.
Transferability
Ensuring the transferability of this study’s findings involved the inclusion of
descriptive details about the specificities of the case under study. Transferability refers to
the relevancy of the research findings in other studies (Denzin & Lincoln, 2018). Yin
(2018) explained that the results from case studies offer generalizations that would be
beneficial in other or similar contexts. The provision of detailed descriptions regarding
the population and procedures ensures the transferability of the research to future
researchers (Hancock & Algozzine, 2017). As such, I have provided detailed descriptions
of the eligibility criteria essential for participation in the study, as well as the data
collection methods used to conduct the study. Furthermore, I collected a thick description
of this single case study to allow external readers to draw their own conclusion. The
intent of this study was to explore successful communication strategies that NPO leaders
use to improve fundraising revenues. The findings identified in this study could
potentially be of use to others in a similar context.
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Confirmability
Ensuring the confirmability of the study’s findings involved member checking,
reflective journaling, and methodological triangulation. To ensure that the study is free
from researcher bias, qualitative researchers use a criterion called confirmability
(Carminati, 2018). Confirmability refers to the establishment of accurate and consistent
data to ensure its validity (Stewart et al., 2017). The process of confirmability ensures
that the data collected is a true reflection of the participants’ experiences and not the
researcher’s (Hancock & Algozzine, 2017). Reaching data saturation is another crucial
component of establishing trustworthiness in a study.
Data Saturation
To reach data saturation in this study I asked the same set of questions to each
participant and used methodological triangulation. Researchers use data saturation to
ensure they have gathered enough information to guarantee the validity of their research
(Levitt et al., 2018). The achievement of data saturation provides the researcher with
enough information to accurately draw conclusions from the data (Lowe et al., 2018).
Data saturation takes place when no new information or themes emerge from
interviewing the participants of a study (Denzin & Lincoln, 2018). One way to achieve
data saturation is for the researcher to ask each participant the same interview questions
(Levitt et al., 2018). I asked each participant the same set of questions to reach data
saturation. Methodological triangulation is another approach to reaching data saturation.
Comparing and contrasting the findings from interviews, company documents, and the
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existing literature contributed to reaching data saturation in this study.
Transition and Summary
The purpose of this qualitative single case study was to explore communication
strategies NPO leaders use to increase fundraising revenues. The target population
included two leaders from one NPO in Texas who have successfully implemented
strategies for increasing fundraising revenues. Section 2 of this study included a
comprehensive explanation of the research methodology. I functioned as the data
collection instrument for this single case study, described my role as the researcher,
gathered data through semistructured interviews, obtained organizational data, and
described the purposeful sampling method used to select the three seniors of the
organization in Texas to participate in the study. The sample size was sufficient to gather
rich information and achieve data saturation. To ensure ethical conduction of the
research, I followed the guidelines discussed in The Belmont Report (NCPHSBBR,
1979). I incorporated member checking and triangulation to ensure the reliability and
validity of the study. Then, used NVivo 12 software to organize and code the data for
thematic analysis.
In Section 3, I provide the findings through use of the 2019 Baldrige Excellence
Framework and interview questions for a comprehensive description of Organization
ABC, allowing for the assessment of the organization’s strengths and weaknesses. The
Baldrige criteria and the 2019 Baldrige Excellence Framework included the categories:
leadership; strategy; customers; measurement, analysis, and knowledge management;
77
workforce; operations; and results. Finally, Section 3 concludes with an executive
summary of the findings, application to professional practice, implications for social
change, recommendations for future research and for the client, and my personal
reflections.
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Section 3: Organizational Profile
The purpose of this qualitative single case study was to explore the outreach
strategies that a successful NPO uses to expand its revenue streams and donor bases. The
research question that guided this study was “What communication strategies do NPO
leaders use to improve fundraising revenues?” The focus of this study was Organization
ABC (a pseudonym), a 501(c)(3) NPO located in Texas, New York, Connecticut, and
Dominica that provides academic resources to over 12,000 students and teachers.
Materials collected for data analysis included semistructured interviews with three
organizational leaders, a review of internal documents, the organization’s website, and
other public documentation. I used methodological triangulation, thematic analysis, and
member checking to categorize and interpret this data.
With the aid of NVivo 12 for compilation and coding purposes, three relevant
themes were identified: (a) using their positive workforce environment to improve
fundraising, (b) the need for improved strategic communication, and (c) greater
fundraising and marketing strategies. It was determined that Organization ABC’s
leadership faced significant gaps in communication, goal-related alignment, and strategic
implementation, particularly as it applied to enacting an effective marketing strategy.
However, Organization ABC’s highly autonomous and motivated volunteer base was a
significant asset to the organization. These findings were supported by the Baldrige
Performance Excellence Program’s (2019) framework, Freeman’s (1984) stakeholder
theory, and other existing literature on NPO management.
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Key Factors Worksheet
Organizational Description
The purpose of Organization ABC is to connect with community leaders and
partners to train and mentor middle school, high school, and college-age students. These
student ambassadors then assist in providing academic help, books, and school supplies
to students in need. Students who participate in Organization ABC’s programs discover
their leadership potential through mentoring less fortunate students in reading and
writing. Every year Organization ABC’s efforts affect over 12,000 students in three states
(Texas, New York, and Connecticut) and the country of Dominica. Organization ABC’s
goal is to help teachers motivate their students to achieve personal and academic success.
The primary focus of Organization ABC is to assist low-income schools by providing
books, supplies, and supplementary academic assistance.
Organizational Environment
Product Offerings. Organization ABC uses three programs to accomplish their
mission. Through the backpack program, the organization provides individual students,
classrooms, and entire schools with necessary resources ranging from eating utensils to
computers. Organization ABC also has a book share program designed to inspire students
to foster a love of learning, reading, and creativity. The purpose of the book share
program is to encourage literacy in Title I students and schools across Texas.
Organization ABC provides adult literacy ambassadors with materials that encourage
students to lead and participate in the book share program. Finally, Organization ABC
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has a student ambassador program, to which student volunteers from Grade 8 to college
contribute. The mission of the student ambassador program is to increase awareness
about students in the local community who are in need and provide the necessary tools to
help foster their academic success.
Mission, Vision, and Values. The mission of Organization ABC is to provide
books, school supplies, and mentorship opportunities to Title I students and schools.
Organization ABC’s vision involves encouraging students and teachers to advocate for
educational equality. Organization ABC’s founder and board members believe that every
student deserves to have access to resources that allow them to strengthen their scholastic
skills, further their academic interests, and become community leaders. Figure 1
illustrates the organization’s mission, vision, and core values.
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Figure 1
Mission, Vision, and Core Values
To organize and manage a
network of leaders who
provide academic resources
such as: books and supplies,
to include projects to support
early literacy schools which
lack sufficient funding.
To commission students and
teachers to advocate for
equality in education for all
children.
- Join forces to emulate
compassionate teamwork.
- Respect for everyone in
our diverse world.
- A focused commitment to
lead with results.
VISION
MISSION
CORE VALUES
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Workforce Profile. Organization ABC has an all-volunteer workforce governed
by a board of directors (BOD) and led by the board chair (see Table 1). The leadership
and board consist of 14 members with varying experience in accounting, human
resources, marketing, technology, sales, literacy, education, corporate leadership, and
public leadership. The teacher and student ambassadors are the volunteers who
implement the organization’s goals. Teacher and student ambassador recruitment occurs
through an application process. Potential candidates complete an application, and the
founder selects candidates to interview. Hired candidates then complete an onboarding
process. The only required training consists of onboarding to orient volunteers to bylaws,
meetings, the structure of the organization, and goal setting.
In addition to onboarding, ambassadors attend training throughout the school year
to ensure competency in implementing the organization’s educational services. Training
subjects include marketing, operating social media platforms, fundraising event planning,
and volunteer engagement. Board members receive a job description and must sign an
agreement to fulfill their obligations. The ambassadors’ ages range from 11 to 23, and
board members’ ages range from 30 to 50. This approach to workforce has positive
implications for process integration, per the Baldrige Excellence Framework (Baldrige
Performance Excellence Program, 2019). By including students, professionals, and
teachers from many different age groups, personal backgrounds, and professional
backgrounds, Organization ABC goals include universal teamwork and success,
consistent with its equity-focused organizational aims.
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Table 1
Job Description
Position Areas of Responsibility
Board chair
●
Steering the development and governance.
● Responsible for grant writing and fundraising.
● Support the board of directors to fulfill their goals and duties.
● Board chair serves a 2-year term that can be renewed 2-3 times
based on the nomination committee.
CEO/founder
●
Manages the core volunteers, which consist of the student and
teacher ambassadors.
● Manages the marketing team.
●
Reports to the board chair.
Program chair
●
Oversees measurement of social impact.
● Oversees program goals and implementation.
● Conducts fundraising for programs and projects in collaboration
with the development committee.
Finance chair
●
Oversees financial health of organization, to include bookkeeping,
monthly and quarterly reports.
● Works with the finance director to ensure proper financial
reporting.
●
Develop and implement financial policies and procedures.
Finance director
●
Certified public accountant responsible for all the bookkeeping
and contracted voluntarily for 4 years.
Marketing
●
Coordinates social content quarterly to ensure promotion of brand,
events, and awareness.
Secretary
●
Responsible for administrative support for board meetings and is a
member of the grants committee.
Ambassador
coordinator
●
Lead, collaborate, mentor, and coordinate the ambassador
program.
Student ambassador
●
Primary targets of the ambassador program to be mentored and
educated as future leaders.
Teacher ambassador
●
Assist ambassador coordinators with the activities in the school
and communities.
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Assets. Organization ABC’s major assets include intellectual property and
marketing materials (i.e., banners) for events. The intellectual property includes expertise
in areas of literacy and online design for the organization’s leadership program.
Additionally, some of the assets include key financial and communications-based
partnerships with Microsoft, The Pollination Project, The Independent Educational
Consultants Association, First Book, and Volunteer NY.
Regulatory Requirements. Licensed in Texas, Organization ABC is a tax-
exempt NPO under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. According to IRS
requirements, Organization ABC must file an IRS Form 990 to disclose financial
performance (IRS, 2019). Organization ABC governance occurs through application of
bylaws and BOD oversight. The organization retains a certified public accountant who
reviews and approves all reimbursements submitted to the executive team. The
organization’s certified public accountant reconciles their books and accounting
procedures, which the board reviews monthly. Teacher and student ambassadors must
abide by the policies and regulations of the schools in which they serve and must provide
the organization with a background check.
Organizational Relationships
Organizational Structure. The BOD governs the operations of Organization
ABC, which include program goals, fiduciary responsibilities, and the fulfillment of the
mission and vision. The board chair leads the BOD, which consists of a CEO who is also
the founder, a program chair, a finance director, a finance chair, and a secretary (see
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Figure 2). The CEO has four direct reports consisting of marketing team members and
ambassador coordinators. The ambassador coordinators have two direct reports consisting
of student ambassadors. The organization’s workforce is entirely volunteer and currently
has no paid employees, and except for mileage reimbursement for travel, volunteers
receive no financial incentives. Organization ABC has 24 volunteers who serve an
average term of 2.5 years. In 2018, 24 volunteers assisted 8,000 students by providing
academic supplies and books.
Teacher and school ambassadors execute the organization’s goals. These
ambassadors develop and implement projects based on service projects throughout the
year. There is an executive student board responsible for the operations of student
projects, mentorship directives, and leadership conferences. There is also a storyteller
student board who is responsible for social media and collaboration with the graphics
team.
Organization ABC uses a report structure to disseminate information. However, I
obtained limited information regarding this structure as the organization is presently in
the process of restructuring the reporting system structure. What will remain consistent is
the organization’s reporting relationship, which begins with the board chair, moves to the
BOD, then the executive director who communicates with the teacher and student
ambassadors.
When evaluating these organizational processes with the approach, deployment,
learning, and integration (ADLI) process scoring tool from the Baldrige Excellence
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Framework (Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, 2019), the approach of this
organizational structure is sensical, repeatable, and functions largely without issues at
lower organizational levels. The reworking of the reporting system structure
demonstrates an ongoing learning process, in which Organization ABC is attempting to
refine its approach to efficient functioning (Baldrige Performance Excellence Program,
2019). This demonstrates ongoing organizational growth on the part of Organization
ABC.
Figure 2
Leadership Organization Chart
Customers and Stakeholders. The customers and stakeholders of Organization
ABC are the students, teachers, parents, contributors, and local community partners. The
customers and stakeholders are those who benefit from the provision of educational
resources provided by organization ABC. The middle school, high school, and college
students who participate in Organization ABC’s ambassador program are the primary
Board of Directors
Board Chair
CEO/Founder
Ambassador
Coordinator
Student
Ambassador
Student
Ambassador
Ambassador
Coordinator
Marketing
Marketing
Program Chair
Co-Chair
Co-Chair
Financial Chair
Finance Director
Secretary
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stakeholders. The ambassadors benefit through mentorship and support in becoming
future leaders. The Title I students and teachers served by Organization ABC act as its
customers, as they receive its resources. Teachers and students receive necessary
equipment such as books, computers, and mentorship to better assist the students’
academic performance. Teachers who also become teacher ambassadors facilitate the
coordination of activities within the school and community.
Community partners assist the ambassadors through the provision of various
resources necessary to execute Organization ABC’s programs. These community partners
are often businesses, teachers, community leaders, and school administrators. Community
partners provide materials for Organization ABC’s projects, brand awareness, and
marketing. Community partners also connect ambassadors with additional contacts and
assist with their fundraising programs. By actively recruiting the efforts of many different
community resources and figures in the pursuit of a common cause, Organization ABC
demonstrates a harmonized set of actions across work processes. Use of resources
contributes to a positive organizational identity. This demonstrates a positive integrative
practice as outlined by the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program (2019).
Suppliers and Partners. Organization ABC partners with different local and
national organizations to provide the funding for the projects necessary to accomplish
their mission. Key partners include the Independent Educational Consultants Association
foundation, The Pollination Project, Youth Services of America, and First Book. Student
and teacher ambassadors are also key partners, as they execute the projects in their
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communities. Organization ABC’s senior management is seeking coordination with
suppliers of educational goods to donate products and equipment; however, at present the
organization leaders use the funding from the various partners to purchase the supplies
for their missions. Such supplies include books, computers, backpacks, and those needed
for extra-curricular activities.
Organizational Situation
The following subsection contains a review of Organization ABC’s organizational
situation including its competitive environment, strategic context, and the performance
improvement system the organization uses to remain competitive.
Competitive Environment
Competitive Position. According to the Baldrige Excellence Framework
(Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, 2019), NPOs often compete with other
organizations with similar services. This is particularly true of organizations offering
similar services within the same community. To gain competitive advantage, nonprofit
leaders must understand how their competitive environment affects communicating with
stakeholders, particularly as it pertains to value proposition (Barney, 1991). Through an
understanding of its competitive environment, Organization ABC may improve its ability
to gain funding, improve its sustainability, and improve its competitive position within
the communities it serves. Based on communications regarding competing organizations,
Organization ABC’s awareness of its competition appears limited. Per the Baldrige
Excellence Framework (Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, 2019), a limited
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awareness of competition demonstrates an opportunity to improve any weaknesses in
their organizational approach.
Competitiveness Changes. Organization ABC has established several key
changes to improve its service availability and efficacy within the communities it serves.
These changes could also support improved competitiveness. It has recently expanded its
social media presence, creating profiles on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. The
social media infrastructure Organization ABC uses serves as a means through which they
can disseminate short narratives about the organization. Organization ABC has short
written and video testimonials on Facebook and Instagram that share the stories of the
customers (students and teachers) who have benefited from the organization’s services.
The senior leaders use LinkedIn to inform potential stakeholders, volunteers, and donors
of the organization’s history and what it is currently working to achieve. Social media
platforms serve as a great medium to strategically communicate to both current and
potential stakeholders. The ADLI process development tool would suggest that although
Organization ABC is actively refining its approach to competitiveness and promotion by
building new social media outreach tools, the extent to which these initiatives will be
repeated is unclear (Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, 2019).
Comparative Data. According to Independent Sector (2020), there are
approximately 11,653 NPOs that provide literacy programs in the state of Texas. In San
Antonio alone there are 708 literacy programs. According to the Baldrige Excellence
Framework (Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, 2019), information obtained
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from comparative data allows organizations to compare their performances with similar
organizations, which could help improve operational efficiency. Currently, the senior
leaders of Organization ABC are not gathering and analyzing comparative data in the
evaluation of their organization, which represents an opportunity for improvement.
Organization ABC could collect information about the many literacy programs available
within the communities they serve. Organization ABC could also collect benchmarks,
performance data, and operational budget data on competitive literacy nonprofits in the
areas they serve. The comparative data collected could help Organization ABC compare
strategies related to communication with stakeholders to improve fundraising techniques.
The Baldrige Performance Excellence Program’s (2019) ADLI process scoring criteria
suggests that this lack of data analysis and collection shows significant oversight in their
approach. Without creating repeatable, data-driven methods of analyzing competitive
organizations’ behaviors, Organization ABC will not be able to adequately respond to
market needs or shareholder expectations.
Strategic Context
Understanding the strategic context within an organization is critical to
organizational success. Although Organization ABC has not yet formally tracked their
strategic challenges and advantages, there are several challenges the organization has
faced, which have become clear during the research process. For example, the
organization has had strategic challenges with the organizational structure of the senior
leadership and competition between various literacy nonprofits make it challenging for
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the organization to obtain adequate funding. Additionally, the organization’s name did
not align well with the mission and vision of the organization. After discussing the matter
with the founder, he made the decision to change the name to better align with the
organization’s mission regarding the commission of students and teachers to advocate for
equality in education.
The inability of the organization to formally communicate and evaluate its own
strategic advantages and challenges continues to present an opportunity for improvement.
Organization ABC could conduct a strengths, weakness, opportunities, and threats
(SWOT) analysis to identify the organization’s strategic advantages and challenges. The
information taken from the SWOT analysis could allow the organization to focus on and
enhance their strengths and identify further opportunities for success. The SWOT could
also serve as an opportunity to identify areas of weakness or to identify any threats that
may serve to cause organizational instability. Using the Baldrige Performance Excellence
Program’s (2019) ADLI process scoring criteria demonstrates inefficiencies in
communication, which hinder an organization’s ability to create a strategic response.
Communication deficiencies express a significant problem with process approach and
process deployment. For Organization ABC to address this problem, significant learning
must take place.
Performance Improvement System
According to the Baldrige Excellence Framework (Baldrige Performance
Excellence Program, 2019), organizations should tailor their performance improvement
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systems to align with their goals. Interview responses from board members suggest that
although conversations regarding the efficacy of certain organizational practices—such
as outreach, pedagogical methodology, and board structure—are taking place, a formal
improvement system does not exist. Per the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program’s
(2019) ADLI process evaluation criteria, this lack of formal improvement processes
demonstrates problems with the organizational approach, which will hinder Organization
ABC’s ability to learn from its mistakes and reach goals. Although holistic, group-
mediated improvement-related discussions are important, the incorporation of a formal
performance improvement system would qualify as an opportunity for improvement
(Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, 2019). Through incorporating a formal
performance improvement system, the organization leaders could evaluate the efficacy of
different revenue streams in a more intentional, deliberate manner, allowing for a better
quantitative analysis of different types of organizational outreach.
Leadership Triad: Leadership, Strategy, and Customers
The following section illuminates the function of the leadership triad. Leadership
is an integral and fundamental component in achieving performance excellence within an
organization (Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, 2019). One purpose of the
Baldrige Excellence Framework (Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, 2019) is to
align the mission and vision of the organization with the stakeholders through effective
leadership. The alignment of leadership and customers is also the focal point of the
stakeholder theory developed by Freeman (Freeman, 1984). Freeman (2004) explained
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that an organizational leaders’ primary focus should be to stakeholders. It is similarly
imperative that leaders engage in strategies focused on meeting the needs of the customer
to build a culture of performance excellence and achieve positive results (Baldrige
Performance Excellence Program, 2019). Therefore, the decisions and strategies
implemented within Organization ABC should reflect the needs and expectations of its
stakeholders and customers.
Leadership
Senior Leadership
Since the establishment of Organization ABC in 2011, the founder and the
leadership board have provided strategic direction for the organization. Currently, the
organization is in the process of restructuring their leadership. Specifically, they are
seeking board collaborators with greater connections to local business communities and
with specialized knowledge relevant to different facets of nonprofit administration. The
purpose behind the restructuring is to build more cohesive methods of fundraising, a
clearer chain of command within the leadership board, and a better sense of Title I
schools’ academic needs.
The senior leadership consists of five members, who oversee the daily operations
of the organization: the board chair, the founder, the financial chair, the finance director,
and the secretary. Currently, the board chair reports to the full board and partners work
directly with the founder and the founder dictates financial allocations within the
organization. Together, the founder and the board chair oversee the organization’s
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operations. Figure 3 illustrates the senior leadership’s reporting structure. The core
leaders are the two student ambassador coordinators and the two teacher ambassador
coordinators. Figure 4 illustrates the reporting structure for the core leaders.
Figure 3
Senior Leadership Reporting Structure
Figure 4
Organization ABC Core Leadership
Setting Vision and Values. Organization ABC’s vision is to provide more
equitable public education resources for students in Title I schools. The organization’s
values include equality, justice, advocacy, and community building. Organization ABC
demonstrates its vision and values through mentorship and training. Communicating
vision and values begins during the recruitment process. Through the application and
interview process, organization leaders introduce prospective mentors to the
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organization’s mission, vision, goals, and values. Throughout the school year, the board
members, teachers, and students work towards the realization of this vision by
establishing partnerships, adopting Title I classrooms or schools, and empowering
volunteers in support of education equity and literacy for all students. The founder
communicates and reinforces his vision and values for the organization through
communication with board members, partners, and the stakeholders who execute the
vision at periodical meetings (see Table 2).
Table 2
Scheduled Meetings
Position
Scheduled meetings frequency
Items discussed
Board members Quarterly
goals, fundraising, program updates,
financials, old and new business.
Core leadership Monthly
marketing, social media, program
planning and implementation
Volunteers Monthly and as needed
program planning and
implementation
The senior leadership of Organization ABC is in the early phase of implementing
systematic approaches that will create a focus on action. Senior leaders focus on action
through innovation, strategic risks, and improvements related to processes that help
achieve their strategic objectives (see Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, 2019).
To reach maturity organizations must embed repeatable processes, which include a
method for evaluation and improvement (Baldrige Performance Excellence Program,
2019). Additionally, action-focused organizations ensure that applicable parts of the
organization integrate the processes and create a focus on action, giving Organization
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ABC an opportunity to improve the organization’s systems and processes. Per the
Baldrige Performance Excellence Program’s (2019) ADLI process evaluation criteria,
this demonstrates a meaningful attempt at organizational learning and process
improvement.
Promoting Legal and Ethical Behavior. Organization ABC does not have a
formal process for ensuring and promoting legal and ethical behavior, which presents an
opportunity for improvement. Leaders must ensure that they obtain desired results
through ethical action (Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, 2019). Therefore,
Organization ABC could establish a code of conduct that describes the organization’s
values and acceptable behavior. Organization ABC could also publish employee and
volunteer handbooks that detail policies on organizational ethics, including sexual
harassment, handling confidential information, and appropriately collecting fundraising
revenues. Because Organization ABC coordinates with several volunteers, the
development of a process of accountability related to productivity could prove beneficial.
As policies and standards of behavior vary slightly between different school districts and
schools, it is important to ensure that employees and volunteers in each scholastic context
have a set of school policy texts to review. According to the Baldrige Performance
Excellence Program’s (2019) ADLI process scoring tool, to lack a consistent standard of
behavior and personal ethics advanced by Organization ABC is both inconsistent with the
messaging of the organization’s brand and potentially disastrous for the organization’s
reputation. This demonstrates a significant organizational oversight.
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Communication. The senior leaders of Organization ABC use a collaborative
approach to communication. At the beginning of the school year, teachers and students
collaborate using virtual meetings. The teachers invite students to the virtual meetings to
hear their ideas and provide support and guidance to help the students successfully
implement their projects. Collaboration occurs through a Facebook community group as
well as through virtual meetings. One senior leader in Organization ABC mentioned that
adding collaborative virtual meetings is a new approach deployed throughout the
organization, which seeks to create a more pedagogically centered organizational
dialogue.
By deploying this collaborative communication approach, leaders in Organization
ABC operate within the tenets of stakeholder theory. Stakeholder theory tenets include
the principle that leaders should make decisions and implement processes supportive of
key stakeholders (Freeman, 1984), which for Organization ABC includes both the
teachers and the students. Implementing the collaborative communication approach also
aligns with Baldrige Excellence Framework criteria (Baldrige Performance Excellence
Program, 2019), which includes questions about how senior leaders encourage two-way
communication. In high performing organizations, senior leaders encourage two-way
communication and use the information received to make key decisions and determine
necessary organizational changes (Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, 2019). If
the virtual meetings and ongoing collaboration between teachers and students is
successful, Organization ABC leaders will have implemented a strong process that could
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lead to high performance and mission attainment.
Senior leaders in Organization ABC provided information about the internal
stakeholder communication approach, but when asked about the approach to their
external communication methods, leaders did not provide evidence of a common strategic
approach. Mature high-performing organizations must have processes to communicate
with external stakeholders (Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, 2019).
Additionally, mature organizations should be able to demonstrate a customer and
business focus. External communication with key stakeholders in Organization ABC is
an area deemed as an opportunity for improvement. The Baldrige Performance
Excellence Program’s (2019) ADLI process evaluation guidelines suggest that
Organization ABC has an efficacious and repeatable approach to communication at the
volunteer level, but an highly disorganized approach to communication at the managerial
level. Ongoing BOD restructuring demonstrates that Organization ABC is going through
a learning process to address this problem.
Creating an Environment for Success. To create an environment for success,
senior leaders seek competent, communicative board members and volunteers.
Organization desires volunteers committed to Organization ABC’s cause, with strong
academic capabilities, an abiding belief in Organization ABC’s social commitments, and
a willingness to undergo training to improve their understanding of pedagogy,
fundraising, and community building. Organization ABC’s board members have worked
collaboratively on building effective lines of inter-organizational communication,
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creating channels for private sector collaboration, and on developing more effective
managerial structures. The multitiered support systems used by Organization ABC,
although under-systemized at points, have both promoted a supportive organizational
culture and allowed for the expansion of the organization’s stakeholder/customer base.
The common approach to organizational goals and needs demonstrates a well-integrated
volunteer selection process, per the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program’s (2019)
ADLI process evaluation guidelines.
Creating a Focus on Action. Organization ABC’s leadership is in the early
phases of executing systematic approaches designed to generate a focus on action. Senior
leaders focus on action through innovation, strategic risks, and improvements associated
with processes that help achieve strategic objectives (Baldrige Performance Excellence
Program, 2019). One of the most recent approaches taken by senior leaders at
Organization ABC is the implementation of social media outreach designed to
communicate with the volunteers and other organizational stakeholders. The purpose
behind the organization’s use of social media sites is to help facilitate communication and
drive their actions toward mission attainment. In addition, the founders reorganized the
BOD and appointed a board chair charged with overseeing the BOD actions and
increasing accountability. Last, the organization rebranded its name to better align with
its overarching mission. These actions demonstrate the founder’s commitment to process
improvement and his desire to reach organizational maturity.
To reach maturity organizations must embed repeatable processes that include a
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method for evaluation and improvement (Baldrige Performance Excellence Program,
2019). Additionally, action-focused organizations ensure that applicable parts of the
organization integrate processes and create a focus on action. Although Organization
ABC’s founder is passionate about the organization’s mission and demonstrates a
willingness to improve the organization’s systems and processes, there are improvement
opportunities. Improvement opportunities include creating a virtual dashboard that would
facilitate communication between all levels of the organization. For example, the
organization could create a questionnaire for volunteers, customers, and stakeholders that
could provide insight on challenges that volunteers face in the field (Baldassarre et al.,
2017). In addition, the feedback received from questionnaires could improve business
decisions and ultimately, sustainability.
Governance and Societal Responsibilities
Discussed in the following subsections are a review of Organization ABC leaders’
governance system, legal and ethical behaviors, and social responsibility to the
community. According to the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program (2019),
governance is as an organization’s ability to ensure transparency and accountability to the
organization and all stakeholders. Organization ABC is governed by a board run by
volunteers and is discussed in detain below.
Governance System. The organization’s governance system is currently
composed of a six-member BOD, composed of individuals with varying backgrounds
including accounting, C-suite corporate execution, fundraising, and education. All
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members of the BOD are volunteers and are responsible for the operation of the
organization. Board members meet quarterly and annually, as well as communicating
frequently via email. All major decisions—including new programs and major
expenditures—are presented to the board for approval. Board members meet annually to
update the strategic plan and ensure its alignment with the organization’s mission and
vision. The board and the founder ensure accountability through their newly developed
governing policy manual.
The governing policy manual, developed by the BOD guides the action of the
BOD, senior leaders, volunteers, and other representatives of Organization ABC. The
various policies outline the founder and the BOD’s obligation and responsibility to ensure
accountability across all facets of the organization. Explicit within the governing policy
manual is the strategic plan. Every 3 to 5 years the BOD develops a long-term plan for
the organization to ensure its progressive growth and sustainability. The BOD determines
whether the existing services and programs align with the mission.
Organization ABC values transparency from its board members. The fiscal year
of the organization runs from July 1st to June 30th. All purchases that exceed $1000
require approval from the finance director. The founder, finance director, board chair, and
the accountant are the only personnel authorized to sign checks from the organization’s
bank. As an additional measure, all checks must be signed by two of the authorized
personnel. Petty cash of no more than $100 may be kept by the founder in a locked cash
box. However, any cash received greater than $100 must be deposited within 3 business
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days. Organization members must keep all receipts and submit them to the accountant
monthly. Finally, the board members may initiate an audit at their discretion.
Strategy
Strategy Development
Organization ABC’s strategic approach appears to be in a nascent stage of
development. There are several strategic objectives the CEO has outlined. These include
(a) strengthening youth leadership within Organization ABC, (b) increasing private sector
partnerships to expand capacity for reach, (c) adopting data-driven approaches to both
pedagogical practices and intraorganizational communication, and (d) expanding local
and national brand awareness. According to Baldrige Performance Excellence Program
(2019) standards, Organization ABC’s limited ability to standardize, replicate, and
measure the results of its own managerial strategies suggests serious strategic deficits.
Senior leaders of Organization ABC discuss strategic planning annually at a
retreat; the CEO, BOD, funders, and several ambassadors work to create a
comprehensive set of strategies designed to holistically address the challenges different
parts of the organization face. The efficacy of this process appears to be at an impasse for
several reasons. First, although the CEO does have actionable ideas, they do not represent
a meaningful break with the practices Organization ABC is already enacting, nor do they
appear ordered in such a way that would provide additional process structure to the
present approach Organization ABC has to strategy. Additionally, board members are
ostensibly supposed to approve and act on new strategic approaches, but the challenges
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with intra-board communication seem to significantly hinder Organization ABC’s
strategic development and strategic enactment. Finally, although this retreat provides a
forum in which to discuss the ambassadors’ problems, it does provide a means for the
organization’s main point of contact with its targeted population to have its
organizational concerns addressed and the ambassadors’ practices appear to be largely
self-directed and self-designed with little to no standardization.
Per the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program’s (2019) ADLI process
evaluation criteria, limited standardization is a significant hindrance to the success of an
organization, as it keeps the organization’s leadership from being able to easily analyze
the efficacy of the system’s individual parts. For this strategic planning to be more
efficient, the CEO and BOD would have to create a standardized infrastructure, and data-
driven process. Organization ABC’s inability to formally collect, organize, or interpret
data relevant to strategic development is a hindrance to its operating functionality.
Although the CEO has discussed incorporating qualitative and quantitative data relating
to Title I students’ reading progress before and after ambassadors’ interventions, this data
collection has not yet occurred.
For the purposes of this study, the CEO performed a SWOT analysis of the
Organization ABC (see Figure 5). The results of the SWOT analysis indicate an essential
strategic tension within the organization: although volunteer help is enthusiastic,
efficacious, and free, there are inefficiencies within higher levels of Organization ABC.
Significant communication gaps, murky financial management, and unclear
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organizational structure are all major contributors to what appears to be a pervasive
instability among the BOD.
Strategy Implementation
Effective strategy implementation requires cooperation from different managerial
entities to develop strategies to meet organizational goals. The implementation of
Organization ABC’s strategic plan is highly fragmented. While disarray at the higher
levels of the organization significantly limits large-scale strategic implementation, the
lower levels of the organization—the main point of contact with the communities
Organization ABC seeks to assist—are self-sufficient, which appears to allow for
ongoing organizational growth.
In the interest of empowering teacher ambassadors, student ambassadors, and
school administrators to tailor instruction to students, Organization ABC does not give
instructors any sort of strict curriculum which students must follow and does not give
instructors explicit proficiency benchmarks to meet. This allows ambassadors to work
with members of the school community to design their own lessons. Although this may
not be an ideal situation for the organization, it does allow the ambassadors to display
their passion for teaching and empowers young ambassadors to take leadership roles, in
accordance with the CEO’s first strategic objective.
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Figure 5
CEO’s SWOT Analysis of Organization ABC
Strengths
1. The people within our organization are
passionate about helping our targeted
audience.
2. Active members who support the growth
and operations of the organization
3. Variety of skills and talents from team
members
4. Community Partners
5. Global and local model; students can
impact students’ lives locally and
globally.
6. Innovative
7. Compassionate team: people want us to
be a part of their work because we bring
high energy to events.
8. Having a program that provides students
with the opportunity to become leaders.
9. Everyone is willing to lend a hand if
other people need assistance with their
own tasks
Weaknesses
1. Clear Communication - this is the number one key
in order for any organization to be successful.
2. Members clearly communicating their projects,
priorities, etc., effectively.
3. Fundraising: we need to have a cohesive
fundraising plan and strategy
4. Documentation of roles and responsibilities
5. We have a strong volunteer base and inspiring
leadership, but we lack someone who can
effectively budget operational funds to maximize
our impact on the community.
6. Our mission statement is broad. We could be
better served if we had a concise organizational
goal.
7. Committing to an effective organization process
that can be used by myself and others.
8. We need to set up foundational processes that can
be easily passed on in the future when bringing on
new leadership members.
Opportunities
1. Partnership with Microsoft
2. Funding opportunities with The
Pollination Project
3. Grants that are focused on youth
leadership, literacy, and education.
4. Sponsorships
5. Monthly, quarterly, and annual donors
6. Planning marketing that gets other
communities involved and having them
host events on their own
Threats
1. Different visions for organization
2. Lack of understanding of core values.
3. Negativity
4. Lack of grant writing
5. Lack of ownership
6. Funding
7. GMH member burnout
8. Lack of communication
9. Lack of professional development
10. Lack of a clear understanding of the vision of the
organization
11. Don’t have monthly, quarterly, and annual budget
reports sent out.
12. Planning things abruptly and making changes last
minute
13. Doing the tasks of other leadership members or
assigning a task to someone that is the
responsibility of another leader without their
knowledge
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Although Organization ABC is working toward certain elements of the CEO’s
strategic objective, the extent to which they have been/can be/will be adopted by other
members of the BOD is unclear. Adopting social media-based advertising approaches and
increased private sector partnerships via local business are both modest adoptions of the
CEO’s enacted strategic plans; however, the interviews with the participants suggest that
these are mostly the result of near-unilateral action on the part of the CEO. Until the
BOD can work in a more unified manner, the “strategy” of Organization ABC is going to
be significantly limited. The need for a unified strategic vision is consistent with
information identified in the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program (2019). A unified
strategic vision among upper management is lacking at Organization ABC,
demonstrating a significant flaw in the organization’s approach to managerial hiring and
communication, per the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program’s (2019) ADLI
process evaluation guidelines. In addition, Organization ABC does not adequately track
which ambassador approaches work, to what extent those approaches work, and how they
can use them to develop new approaches, thereby suggesting strategic deficits.
Customers
Customer Expectations
The students and teachers of the Title I schools Organization ABC services might
not align with the typical image associated with the term “customer”; however, when
interviewed, one of Organization ABC’s board members characterized teacher and
student ambassadors as their prime “customer base,” as these groups are one of the
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beneficiaries of Organization ABC’s services. The reason for this characterization, as
implied by the board member, is that Organization ABC provides indirect support to Title
I schools through the direct support of the organization’s ambassadors. In addition,
because most of the direct interaction Organization ABC’s board members have is with
student and teacher ambassadors, their “customers” perform the dual function of being
both volunteers and ambassadors.
Although Organization ABC could easily create metrics on the efficacy of
tutoring on student and teacher success through monitoring the changes in test scores of
students before and after working with Organization ABC ambassadors, Organization
ABC implicitly assumes that any well-intentioned intervention in Title I schools is a “net
good” if the administration of a given Title I school agrees, whether the overall effect is
positive. The board member interviewed characterized the organization’s approach to
working with students as highly flexible and adaptable, and largely designed and enacted
by the work of teacher/student ambassadors. This seems to suggest that feedback is only
given by members of Title I school communities to ambassadors and does not suggest
that Organization ABC has any infrastructure for reviewing individual ambassadors’
performances. This significantly limits the exposure Organization ABC’s board members
can get to types of constructive feedback, which could ultimately be a significant asset to
future student ambassadors, teacher ambassadors, and ambassador mentors. This
demonstrates a confused perception of Organization ABC’s aims and indicates room for
improvement on the part of Organization ABC.
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The majority of customer perception collection for Organization ABC occurred
via one board member’s direct conversations with student ambassadors, teacher
ambassadors, donors, and community representatives. The conversations this board
member had regarding customer perception were extremely open-ended. The board
member discussed potential projects teacher ambassadors could enact alongside student
ambassadors, and critically considered ways in which individualized approaches to these
products could enhance student learning. The assessment offered by this board member
could help address some of Organization ABC’s weaknesses. This could be considered
when setting organizational goals and standards.
To hold student ambassadors accountable and help lead them through their
projects, Organization ABC assigns each student ambassador a mentor. This mentor is
also a board member and it is the responsibility of this mentor to guide the student
ambassadors through the completion of their projects with Organization ABC and
develop them further as leaders. Student ambassadors have an opportunity to discuss
challenges they experience in the field with both their assigned board member and other
board members, in the interest of bettering their service project experiences and
developing their leadership potential for higher positions within the organization.
Although this has allegedly had positive implications for Organization ABC’s
adaptability when dealing with unfamiliar pedagogical situations, there is not a formal
paper trail provided to demonstrate this success.
The board member I spoke with also handles the majority of outreach to donors
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and community representatives. The purpose of this outreach is to help donors and
community representatives better understand Organization ABC’s mission, open lines of
dialogue to help better understand community needs, and ultimately encourage them to
get more involved with the organization. Although the board member cited this as a
means of “listening” to consumer groups, this analysis seems somewhat stilted. Although
this does demonstrate the organization’s willingness to have open-ended discussions with
stakeholders, this does not appear to represent meaningful engagement with anyone in a
customer-analogous role.
Organization ABC does have positive lines of communication open between the
organizations and various parties that ultimately influence its consumer experience;
however, the organization has a somewhat limited cognizance of who its consumer base
is. According to the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program (2019) and Freeman’s
(1984) stakeholder theory, the students and teachers using Organization ABC’s services
would be considered both customers and stakeholders. While Organization ABC’s
emphasis on increasing autonomy for ambassadors and Title I schools alike is
philosophically sound, the organization’s apparent lack of feedback collection or full
understanding of its customer base does not bode well for its ongoing efficacy.
Additionally, correspondence between Organization ABC’s stakeholders and workers
seems to be largely informal and under-documented. According to the Baldrige
Performance Excellence Program’s (2019) ADLI process evaluation criteria, these are
significant problems with process development, as they make processes less repeatable
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and harder to evaluate. Although Organization ABC seems to respond quickly and
readily to individual complaints, there appears to be limited cognizance about how to use
those complaints to enact greater systemic change.
Customer Engagement
As Organization ABC views its teacher and student ambassadors as its primary
“customers,” when discussing customer engagement, the Organization ABC board
member I interviewed focused on ways in which the organization supported ambassadors.
Teacher and student ambassadors interact with board members in ongoing in-person
meetings to ensure personal familiarity with Organization ABC’s leadership and to allow
for greater levels of communication activity between leadership and ambassadors. The
interaction that takes place between teachers, students, and other customers is critical for
building relationships, fostering trust, and encouraging the sharing of resources. Senior
leaders within Organization ABC have curated an extensive reference library, including
topic-specific PowerPoint presentations and videos of earlier in-person meetings, in the
interest of giving ambassadors the greatest possible collection of organization-related
knowledge.
Organization ABC has no formal process for handling complaints. One board
member has the task of directly handling, or if necessary, directing, all complaints. If a
complaint demonstrates a systemic problem rather than a unique one, the board member
may get in contact with other board members to investigate further. Should complaints
require human resources-based intervention there is another board member called upon to
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address these complaints. This presents an opportunity for improvement, as this limited
scope of oversight requires Organization ABC’s grievance process to be continuously
reactive rather than proactive, which allows for the possibility of the organization
ignoring, missing, or mishandling complaints.
As previously mentioned, Organization ABC does not use any kind of data,
surveying, or benchmarking to determine how satisfied their partner schools and students
are with their work. The only feedback Organization ABC regularly receives occurs
yearly when their partner schools and student ambassadors decide whether to continue
working with the organization; beyond this, the primary type of feedback Organization
ABC relies on are complaints as they lack a structured feedback system or any way in
which to rate feedback should they receive it. This is an area in which the organization
needs significant improvement, as it hinders organizational officials’ capacity to evaluate
repeated processes. Without developing an infrastructure for feedback, Organization
ABC will not be able to reliably respond to the needs of its customer base.
This suggestion significantly ties into stakeholder theory as the schools and
students served by Organization ABC are some of the organization’s key stakeholders
(see Freeman, 2004). Without being able to prove the relevance and positive impact of
their services on school communities, Organization ABC risks failing to adequately
service their primary stakeholders. This has potentially negative effects for organizational
leaders, as rejection by key stakeholders bodes poorly both for volunteer morale and
organizational stability (Miles, 2017). Similarly, the lack of input information
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Organization ABC collects on their own processes may not enable success (see Baldrige
Performance Excellence Program, 2019). Without data-driven, repeatable protocols for
improving organizational processes, Organization ABC cannot consistently improve its
performance.
Results Triad: Workforce, Operations, and Results
The following subsection includes a detailed description of Organization ABC’s
workforce and operational processes, and the performance results attained from those
processes. The Baldrige Performance Excellence Program’s (2019) framework is a viable
method for reviewing the three components make up the results triad. The use of
measurement, analysis, and knowledge management as foundational elements to achieve
workforce and operational results, allows leaders to improve performance and establish
sustainability (Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, 2019). The conceptual
framework, stakeholder theory, described previously in this study refers to the ability of
an organization to meet key stakeholder needs and demonstrate value to their customers.
Leadership and effectively functioning organizations have a stable and engaged
workforce, create efficiency at the operational level, and consistently deliver results that
support the organization’s vision and goals (Baldrige Performance Excellence Program,
2019). Using the standards set in the Baldrige Excellence Framework, leaders can
practice sustainable actions and behaviors, the use of which will allow their organization
to mature. A mature organization can make proactive decisions, rather than engage in
reactionary decision making, akin to less mature organizations (Baldrige Performance
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Excellence Program, 2019). Therefore, senior leaders should evaluate their workforce,
operations, and results to better align with the values that will attract stakeholders and
customers as noted by both the stakeholder theory and in the Baldrige Excellence
Framework (Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, 2019).
Workforce
The Baldrige Performance Excellence Program (2019) defined workforce as all
personnel at all levels, associated and responsible for the organization’s work. The
workforce is essential to the operations of an organization and is necessary in the
achievement of operational success. The stakeholder values are a necessary target if
senior leaders of Organization ABC desire to communicate effectively to attain the
necessary financial funding that will lead to operational efficiency. This assertion aligns
with stakeholder theory, as both Freeman (2004) and Lange and Bundy (2018) asserted
that improving stakeholder relationships and understanding the behaviors of stakeholders
can greatly improve overall organizational success. Similarly, the Baldrige Excellence
Framework criteria’s focus on integration of various stakeholder interests suggests that
high coordination of stakeholder expectations and duties has positive implications for
ongoing organizational success (Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, 2019). In the
workforce subsection is a description of how the senior leaders at Organization ABC
assess their workforce capability and capacity needs to ensure the workforce environment
is efficient in achieving high performance. Also, in this section, is an explanation
regarding how senior leaders at Organization ABC use their workforce to ensure
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alignment with their mission, and their efforts to successfully communicate with their
stakeholders.
Workforce Environment
Organization ABC’s workforce consists of volunteers, the BOD, teacher
leadership, student leadership, teacher ambassadors, student ambassadors, and support
staff. The Baldrige Excellence Framework describes workforce capabilities as the
organization’s ability to ensure that the organization operations are carried out through
the knowledge, skills, competencies, and abilities of its workforce (Baldrige Performance
Excellence Program, 2019). Workforce capacity is the organization’s ability to ensure
sufficient staffing levels to ensure the work processes are carried out (Baldrige
Performance Excellence Program, 2019).
Workforce Capability and Capacity. Organization ABC utilizes a systematic
process for evaluating their workforce capabilities with the board members, leadership
team, teachers, and student ambassadors. The organization has created a new
organizational structure called the Advisory Council, to more clearly determine the
experience, knowledge, and skills necessary for board members. The Advisory Council
differs from the BOD in several ways (see Table 3). Table 4 describes the responsibilities
of the BOD and the Advisory Council. The Advisory Council serves as an avenue for
skilled and experienced community champions to provide the organization with their
expertise, knowledge, philanthropic support, and their connections to local and national
resources. However, the Advisory Council has no authority or governing function within
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the organization. The Advisory Council has six members with knowledge and skills in
areas that could benefit the organization (Table 5). As positions on the board become
vacant, or as the board expands, Organization ABC will choose members from the
Advisory Council. The intention behind this action is that the potential candidates will
have the necessary skills and competency for the position. As stated previously, the board
members possess a variety of experiences in accounting, human resources, education, and
corporate leadership. During the board member selection process the founder of
Organization ABC searches for those with the skills necessary to help advance the
organization and improve its performance. According to the Baldrige Performance
Excellence Program’s (2019) ADLI process evaluation criteria, the implementation of the
advisory council is a positive process. The process has a high level of repeatability, helps
ensure Organization ABC’s staff’s ethical commitments align with the organization’s
mission, and helps ensure that Organization ABC hires competent employees.
The leadership team consists of the founder, two marketing team members, a
project manager team member, a social media team member, and an intern. The founder
is an educator with over 10 years of experience working in public schools and higher
education. One marketing team member has a bachelor’s degree in graphic design and art
and has done freelance graphic design for over 7 years. The project management team
member has a bachelor’s degree in economics and political science. Finally, the intern is
a sophomore and computer science major.
The teachers and student ambassadors are promoted from within the ranks of the
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previous year’s teacher and student ambassadors. The founder assesses and selects the
ambassadors based on their participation, commitment, and their ability to mentor new
ambassadors. The founder and the leadership team specifically look for currently certified
teachers to serve on this team. Many of the teachers recruited are English teachers, who
align well with the organization’s overall mission to improve literacy. A review of the
organization’s website further confirms that the founder seeks current teachers with
capabilities in reading, literacy, and English and reviews each volunteer’s resume to
determine whether they have the capabilities.
Table 3
Comparison of Board Members and Advisor Council
Board membership
Advisory council membership
Legal liability X
Fiscal responsibility
X
Governance responsibility
X
Oversight of executive
director
X
Strategic planning
X
X
Must attend board meetings
(75%)
X May attend, but not required
Annual contribution
$1,000 (personal
contribution, personal
fundraising or grant-
writing)
X
Committee
leadership/participation
required
X Possible, but not required
Recruit ambassadors and other
volunteers, as required
X X
Identify and cultivate potential
donors
X X
Mentor student or student
networks
X Recommended
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Table 4
Board of Directors and Advisory council Responsibilities
Position
Length of
term
Reports to General responsibilities Individual responsibilities
Board of
directors
2 years Chairperson
of the board
Legally and ethically
responsible for all
activities of the
organization
Promote the organization’s
mission.
Working knowledge of the
organization’s programs,
policies, and operations.
Actively serve on at least
one committee.
Provide mentorship to at
least one Ambassador per
year.
Update board members of
his/her specific activities
Make an annual contribution
to the organization.
Participate in fund raising
activities and special events.
Adherence to all
organizational policies
Advisory
council
2 years Board of
directors
Community Champion
to the organization,
sharing gifts and talents
in support of the
organization’s mission
No individual responsibilities.
Table 5
Advisory Council Skillset
Council member
Skillset
Member 1
Marketing – Facebook
Member 2
Former board chair
Member 3
Operations and fundraising, former board chair (Cisco)
Member 4
Operations and fundraising – Microsoft
Member 5
Certified public accountant
Member 6
Marketing
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Organization ABC is in the early stages of evaluating a systematic process for
workforce capacity. The senior leaders do assess the workforce capabilities and ensure
that they recruit a workforce with the necessary knowledge to accomplish the various
projects. However, the organization does not determine the capacity needed for
individual projects. The organization launches projects, then assigns the workforce to the
projects. Rather than first analyzing and determining how many volunteers will be
needed, as the project grows the founder reassesses his workforce capacity. In alignment
with the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program’s (2019) ADLI process evaluation
criteria, this demonstrates an active learning process which will positively benefit the
organization.
New Volunteer Workforce Recruitment. Organization ABC has 49 student
ambassadors, representing the largest workforce within the organization. Senior leaders
use a collaborative approach to select their student and teacher ambassador volunteers.
Figure 6 illustrates the student and teacher ambassador recruitment and selection process.
The selection process begins with an interest and an application to volunteer. Volunteers
can submit their application via the organization’s website. Once the prospective
volunteer applies, the founder or members of the leadership team interview them.
Ultimately, the founder makes the decision to select or reject the prospective volunteer.
One of the criteria for selecting volunteers includes individuals that have a prior history
of volunteer service or a sincere desire to serve for the first time. An additional criterion
includes selecting individuals that are passionate about improving literacy and want to
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make a difference in their community.
Figure 6
Student Volunteer Recruitment Process
The organization’s website displays several student volunteer biographies that
demonstrate their passion to serve. For example, one student ambassador explained that it
is a great opportunity to help more people. Another felt a great sense of purpose to give
back to the community. The biographies displayed on the organization’s website convey
the student’s interests in volunteering. These practices reflect a positive motivational
strategy in line with stakeholder theory and demonstrates effort on the part of
organizational leaders to create a highly personal sense of value and mission in its
volunteers (see Freeman, 2004). By demonstrating to volunteers that the leaders value
their positive efforts on behalf of the organization, the leaders simultaneously raise
volunteer morale and increase volunteer buy-in (Jones et al., 2018). Demonstrating the
value of volunteers increases the chances for continual organizational success as it adds
to both stakeholder and shareholder value (Jones et al., 2018).
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Workforce Benefits. Although the Organization ABC workforce is composed of
volunteers, the senior leaders in the organization support the workforce with a variety of
benefits. Senior leaders provided information indicating that benefits are structured
differently for teacher and student ambassadors. Although benefits vary amongst teacher
and student ambassadors, all volunteers are reimbursed for travel expenses related to
mileage, meals, and material costs. Table 6 lists the student and teacher benefits provided
by senior leaders in Organization ABC.
Table 6
Student and Teacher Ambassador Benefits
Volunteer type
Benefits
Student ambassador
Reimbursement for company related expenses
Letter of recommendation for college entrance
Earn 15 hours of community service.
Access to business professionals and networking opportunities
Gain transferrable skills to list on resume and scholarship programs.
An opportunity to enter the annual leadership award
Teacher ambassador
Reimbursement for company related expenses
Chance to witness service impact on community.
Receive access to lesson plans and new books to distribute.
Connect with a network of teachers for support.
Opportunity to receive awards and stipends.
All-expense paid teacher retreat.
Workforce Engagement
The senior leaders use a volunteer selection approach to drive engagement in
Organization ABC. As previously mentioned, there is a rigorous selection process for
both teacher and student ambassadors. The founder believes that the passion of the
individual will drive their engagement and commitment to the projects in which they
either participate or lead within the community they serve. Volunteers who express an
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interest must substantiate their desire by writing answers to application questions
designed to align the interest of the volunteers with the organization’s mission and vision.
Teachers must describe why literacy is important to them, while students must explain
why service is important to them. Volunteers demonstrate high levels of engagement and
commitment when their personal values align with an organization’s mission and vision
(Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, 2019). Table 7 lists the teacher and student
ambassador applicant questions the founder uses to measure engagement and select
candidates. Senior leaders understand that if they spend time selecting the right
volunteers to complete the organization’s work, the volunteers will demonstrate their
engagement through completing multiple projects and working with the organization for
several years.
Table 7
Student and Teacher Ambassador Application Questions
Volunteer type
Application questions
Student Ambassador
Why do you want to join the program?
What does service mean to you?
What does leadership mean to you?
Teacher ambassador
Why do you want to join the program?
What does service mean to you?
Why is literacy important to you?
Why is it important for teachers to be supported in their
community?
What ways can you help create a positive community?
What are some of your strengths or expertise that you could
share in support of your fellow teachers?
The Baldrige Performance Excellence Program (2019) criteria included retention
as a measure of workforce engagement. Organization ABC volunteer retention is a strong
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indicator of their workforce engagement. Organization ABC senior leaders are proud to
report they have over 2000 volunteers in the San Antonio market, many of which have an
average length of service of 2 years or more. Some volunteers have committed 5 years of
their time to helping Organization ABC achieve its mission. The founder explained that
he learned the key to longevity is to carefully select volunteers and then match their
projects to their schedules.
Other measures of workforce engagement indicated in the Baldrige Performance
Excellence Program (2019) criteria are performance management, performance
development, learning and development effectiveness, and career development as
opportunities for increasing workforce engagement. Senior leaders report they do not
have a formalized process for performance management and development, learning
development, and career development, largely because their workforce is composed of
volunteers. Senior leaders report that they are in the beginning stages of deploying
processes for performance management and development, career development, and
learning development.
Organization ABC leaders recently deployed a new program designed to provide
development opportunities for students. The new learning and development program
pairs student ambassadors with experienced teacher ambassadors or board members who
act as mentors to answer questions and facilitate leadership skills and development.
Additionally, student ambassadors who participate in this new program could be
appointed to the Student Executive Board or the Storytelling Board to increase their
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exposure to new challenges and to hone their leadership skills.
Operations
The following subsection contains information on how senior leaders of
Organization ABC design, manage, and improve their work processes to facilitate
operational effectiveness and deliver value to their stakeholders located in San Antonio,
Texas. The use of stakeholder theory, as well as the Baldrige Performance Excellence
Program (2019), will allow essential business processes to work on a companywide level
to assist leaders in reaching their organizational goals. A discussion of the work process
begins the following sections.
Work Processes
Organization ABC key work processes support the delivery of book and school
supplies to the children in San Antonio Title I schools. As previously mentioned,
Organization ABC’s key work process are the national book project, backpack program,
and student ambassador program. The national book project occurs each school year to
ensure children have access to books and allows the organization to partner with teachers
and students at Title I schools to provide books to underfunded communities. Each book
distributed contains inspirational words to encourage, inspire and motivate the recipients.
The national book project provides an opportunity for the student ambassadors to lead a
project independently. Senior leaders provide the student ambassadors with a step-by-
step framework they can follow to complete their project. Because this is an independent
project, student ambassadors must apply for and be selected to participate. Figure 7
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illustrates the process senior leaders and student ambassadors use to execute the national
book project every school year.
Figure 7
National Book Project Process
Although the national book project represents a major contribution to Title I
schools, Organization ABC provides additional academic resources to students in San
Antonio, TX through the backpack program. Organization ABC’s backpack program is
another key work process that supports the mission to deliver school supplies to children
in underfunded schools. The backpack program provides academic resources such as
computers, pens, papers, crayons, bookshelves, and curriculum materials to the schools
adopted by the student ambassadors. To raise funds for this program, the student
ambassadors follow the organization’s standard fundraising model (see Figure 8). Senior
leaders encourage student ambassadors to host an event to fill the backpacks with school
supplies purchased with money raised or donated by local stores such as Walgreens,
Walmart, and Target. Once volunteers fill the backpacks, the student ambassadors deliver
Improving Literacy 1 Child at a Time
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them to the classroom. Considering the global pandemic caused by the COVID-19,
student ambassadors adjusted their backpack process to include school supplies, books,
and personal hygiene products. Additionally, the student ambassadors included a
handwritten note in each care package backpack to demonstrate love and caring for
students who were not able to return to the classroom because of COVID-19.
Figure 8
Standard Fundraising Model
Student ambassadors execute most Organization ABC’s work processes through
their involvement in the student ambassador program. The student ambassador program
is a leadership and mentoring program for middle school, high school, and college
students. Student ambassadors collaborate with each other, teachers, and the senior
leadership to organize the national book projects and the backpack program. While
Organization ABC’s overall mission is to create a network of leaders that help improve
early literacy in underfunded schools, the student ambassador program has a slightly
Step #1
Pick a Project
Step #2
Determine the
costs
Step #3
Use Social
Media to set up
Fundraiser
include goal.
Step #4
Purchase
Books, School
Supplies, or
other project
materials
Step #5
Deliver project
items to school
classroom
126
different mission. Their mission is to support overarching missions, raise awareness, and
pinpoint children in need of help. They are the frontline workforce responsible for
completing the organization’s work. Volunteering creates opportunities for student
ambassadors to form beneficial relationships with Organization ABC’s senior leaders.
One way the student ambassadors benefit from relationships with senior leaders is
by working together to develop leadership skills. Senior leaders benefit from
relationships with the student ambassadors by helping to maximize fundraising efforts for
the organization. One of the guiding principles of fundraising in Organization ABC is
that kids helping kids inspires adults to donate. See Table 8 for a description of other
ways student ambassadors and senior leaders benefit from the relationship formed while
volunteering.
Table 8
Relationship Benefits
Student ambassadors
Senior leaders
●
Gain mentorship from senior leaders
●
Mission attainment
●
Given opportunities to give back to the
community
●
Budget neutrality
●
Awarded 15 hours of community service
●
Low operating cost
●
Develop a portfolio for college entrance
●
Build public image
●
Personal enjoyment
●
Improve stakeholder relationships
Operational Effectiveness
The Baldrige Performance Excellence Program (2019) criteria helps scholar-
consultants evaluate an organization’s operational effectiveness by reviewing how
leaders control costs, add customer value, track key measures, maintain business
continuity, and manage security. In this subsection, I provide an overview of how senior
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leaders in Organization ABC control costs, add customer value, track key measures,
maintain business continuity, and manage security.
The founder of Organization ABC believes that operational effectiveness begins
by forming strategic partnerships. To fund the organization’s national book project, the
senior leaders formed a partnership with one major book distributor who charges $1-$2
per book, which is a low-cost method to provide books for the children who need them.
This method is effective at containing costs, as providing books for an entire school with
500 students costs approximately $500. Leaders in well-run organizations are responsible
to control costs and add value for their customers (Baldrige Performance Excellence
Program, 2019).
Customer experiences influence the value of an organization. A pillar principle of
the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program (2019) criteria is customer focused
excellence. One way that senior leaders demonstrate value to the customer is by
providing books at no cost. Senior leaders, teacher ambassadors, and student ambassadors
work hard to make sure that each child who receives a book feels like they have received
a gift of love. To create customer focused excellence, as previously mentioned, the
student ambassadors take the time to handwrite notes in each book and include smiley
faces, hearts, and other emojis to help convey care and love. The books distributed to the
children are part of Organization ABC’s mission to improve literacy. To ensure mission
attainment and operational effectiveness, the senior leaders of an organization must track
key measures (Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, 2019).
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Key measures tracked by Organization ABC include funding sources and funding
uses. The founder of Organization ABC admits that tracking key measures is not an
organizational strength and he has worked to improve tracking processes. Although
tracking key measures was not a strength, senior leaders provided funding data dating
back to 2016 for review (see Table 9 and Table 10). Tracking key measures is essential
for operational excellence. Additionally, maintaining business continuity in extreme
circumstances also provides insight into operational effectiveness (Baldrige Performance
Excellence Program, 2019).
Like many NPOs, Organization ABC had to adjust operations due to the extreme
circumstance created by the COVID-19 global pandemic. When discussing operational
adjustments with two key leaders, each one had a different perspective about how
COVID-19 affected business operations. One leader mentioned that there were no
disruptions in operations. Book distributions continued without interruptions and are on
track to exceed the numbers from 2019. Figure 9 illustrates the effect COVID-19 had on
book distributions. Another leader reported that COVID-19 had a major impact on the
organization and that they had to make rapid operational adjustments. Table 11 lists the
adjustments senior leaders made in response to COVID-19. Making rapid adjustments
and implementing processes to create operational effectiveness is a critical function that
leaders must perform (Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, 2019). Additionally,
leaders must make efforts to implement cybersecurity processes within their organization
(Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, 2019).
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Table 9
Tracking Funding Sources
Funding Sources FY 2016 FY 2017 FY 2018 FY 2019 FY 2020 Total
Donations $9,185
$17,054
$76,700
$28,660
$21,110
$152,709
Corporate
Sponsorships
$1,117
$2,053
$20,870
$4,887
$4,685
$33,612
Foundation Support $1,800
$1,900
$19,000
$0
$2,500
$25,200
Grants $500
$7,500
$5,300
$1,516
$19,000
$33,816
Program Service
Revenue
$0
$0
$0
$0
$120
$120
Fundraising Income $5,741
$1,937
$1,128
$1,203
$0
$10,009
Total Income $18,343
$30,445
$122,998
$36,266
$47,415
$255,466
Table 10
Tracking Funding Uses
Funding Uses FY 2016 FY 2017 FY 2018 FY 2019 FY 2020 Total
Program 1 $1,862
$9,139
$12,435
$6,823
$13,184
$43,443
Program 2 $3,785
$7,533
$24,904
$7,727
$9,708
$53,657
Program 3 $0
$0
$41,228
$2,723
$15,772
$59,723
Program 4 $475
$1,613
$3,555
$3,385
$903
$9,930
Program 5 $0
$0
$0
$1,222
$18,177
$19,399
Other Program
Expenses
$9,012
$2,900
$2,265
$33
$373
$14,583
Admin &
Fundraising
$2,047
$6,172
$8,047
$4,352
$4,176
$24,794
Total Expenses $17,181
$27,356
$92,434
$26,265
$62,293
$225,529
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Figure 9
The Effects of Book Distribution
Table 11
COVID-19 Adjustments
Adjustments
Adjustment types
Description
Operational adjustment
5 – day Leadership Conference was converted to Virtual
Leadership Conference
Project adjustment
Care packages that included books, and healthy snacks were
delivered to the homes of students
Operational adjustment
The Teacher Ambassadors summit was converted to a virtual
conference
New process added
Book readings are being through virtual platforms
0
2000
4000
6000
8000
10000
12000
14000
Year
Jan - Dec 2019 Jan - Jul 2020
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As indicated in the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program (2019) criteria, the
management of information security in an organization is essential for operational
effectiveness. Effective information security processes help protect the organization from
cyber-attacks, data breaches and other threats (Baldrige Performance Excellence
Program, 2019). Organization ABC leaders operate in a virtual environment, which
negates a need to provide physical security. However, because they operate using the
internet and other web-based platforms, this makes them vulnerable to cyber-attacks such
as hacking. Google is the main platform that the organization uses. One senior leader
reported that the organization has not implemented a formal cybersecurity program and
relies on the security provided by the internet company and by Google. Leaders use
Google Docs to share internal documents. As an extra security measure, sensitive
information such as financial data is only accessible to the finance director and the
certified public accountant who manages the accounting and tax submissions.
Measurement, Analysis, and Improvement of Organizational Performance
NPOs must have a mechanism in place to help them attain their goals. Critical to
goal attainment is the ability to measure effectiveness and to manage knowledge. The
measurement, analysis, and knowledge management of an organization’s performance is
paramount for understanding and improving the performance of the organization
(Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, 2019). The following subsection contains a
description of how Organization ABC leaders gather data, analyze data, and improve
upon their processes. Also included is an overview of how senior leaders learn from
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information they receive in their daily operations.
Measurement, Analysis, and Improvement of Organizational Performance
Senior leaders of Organization ABC realize the importance of measuring
performance, reviewing the results, and making improvements based upon data. My
review of the organization indicated that the senior leaders are in the beginning phases of
implementing a systematic approach to measurement analysis and knowledge
management. According to the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program’s (2019) ADLI
process evaluation criteria, this is a positive process which demonstrates a significant
process-based learning initiative in action. Traditionally, the leaders of Organization
ABC aggregate organizational data using a manual process of entering data on Excel
spreadsheets. The type of data collected consists of financial data, volunteer demographic
data, and project related data. One senior leader reported that the organization is just
starting to connect their strategic plans to the financial and budget forecast. Additionally,
another senior leader reported that future considerations for collecting data include
purchasing a small database and reporting system. Timing of implementation is
contingent upon finding volunteers to add data to the database. Although gathering
performance measures are important, equally important is the ability to review and
analyze data.
Organization ABC uses what I have coined as the three R approach to data
analysis: receive, review, and respond (see Figure 10). First, the senior leaders receive
information from daily operations, organizational spreadsheets, and direct visualization
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of projects under implementation. Second, the BOD reviews all the data during ad hoc
and annual meetings. Board meetings serve as opportunities to assess organizational
successes, performance, and financial health. Important to this process, is that the board
members obtain documents prior to the meeting, which allows time for review and to
promote productive discussions. In addition, the BOD and senior leaders complete the
review and analysis process by comparing internal data and processes to other nonprofits
of similar size and purpose. One senior leader stated they research comparative
organizations to make decisions; for example, the decision to allow teachers to have a
stipend resulted from researching another organization and finding out the benefits they
have for their volunteers. The founder uses personal interactions with other partner
organizations to glean information that guides decisions. In the future, Organization ABC
plans to join nonprofit networking organizations to help connect with other NPOs. As
shown by the stipend example, the senior leaders demonstrated their ability to respond to
information and make organizational changes.
The third R in the analysis process is related to leadership response. Leaders must
be able to respond to rapidly changing conditions and make appropriate decisions
(Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, 2019). The senior leaders of Organization
ABC believe that their small size provides an advantage to respond quicker than larger
organizations. The organizations response to the COVID-19 pandemic provided a prime
example of their rapid leadership response. When schools closed and derailed the
national book project and backpack program, the BOD met and agreed to reallocate the
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funding resources to provide care packages to the homes of the students.
Figure 10
The Three R Approach
Another example of quick decision making, and rapid response occurred during
the outbreak of COVID-19. The leaders learned of a financial grant for $10,000 from
their book distributor. To receive the grant, the organization had to invest $10,000 in a
one-to-one match program. The BOD convened an ad hoc meeting, reviewed the
financial statements, and approved the investment. In that situation, the BOD made a
quick decision that resulted in an improvement in the organization’s overall financial
position.
Information and Knowledge Management
In this subsection, I describe how senior leaders of Organization ABC manage
information and organizational knowledge assets. Knowledge is a valuable resource that
facilitates an organization’s ability to innovate, improve efficiency, and gain a
135
competitive advantage (Assensoh-Kodua, 2019). Using the information and knowledge
management category of the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program (2019) allows the
organization’s leaders to solidify employee engagement, produce high quality data, and
ensure that partners, collaborators, suppliers, and customers have their needs met based
on a holistic framework. Senior leaders of Organization ABC are committed to the
management of information and knowledge throughout the organization. Senior leaders
of Organization ABC are in the beginning phases of implementing a systematic approach
to share organizational knowledge.
Organizational Knowledge. Organization ABC uses Google Suite as the
foundation for their organizational knowledge. Each branch of the organization, such as
teacher ambassadors, student ambassadors, and board members, have their own section
and varying degrees of access to the information in the organization’s shared Google
Drive. The senior leaders make every attempt to ensure that the shared Google Drive
provides a medium through which the organization can share information and knowledge
consistently and efficiently. One senior leader reported that most knowledge sharing
occurs using presentation technology. For example, mentors and student ambassadors
receive training on the processes used for fundraising and how to execute the
organization’s projects. Organization ABC also provides student ambassadors with
mentors who assist them throughout their projects. Assigning student ambassadors
mentors demonstrates the commitment Organization ABC senior leaders have regarding
the sharing of organizational knowledge. Per the Baldrige Performance Excellence
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Program’s (2019) ADLI criteria for evaluation, this demonstrates a positive and effective
approach to intra-organizational communication and a simple and widely accessible
deployment of an organizational knowledge building apparatus. Assigning student
ambassadors mentors gives an effective means through which ongoing organizational
learning can take place, which supports the goals of the organization. Considering the
depiction of ambassador training and ambassador-teacher relationships, this process
appears to be effective.
Organizational Learning. Senior leaders of Organization ABC are in the
beginning phases of implementing a systematic process to ensure organizational learning.
One method for doing so is the development of a governance manual. Additionally, the
founder and board chair have collaborated about the need to provide manuals to volunteer
students and teachers in leadership positions. One way that the organization has promoted
organizational learning, is sharing information about fundraising and project efforts that
occur throughout the organization through presentation technology. To help ambassadors
learn from one another, such things as student fundraising efforts and teacher efforts are
shared with other ambassadors.
To ensure the quality of the information, all organization information goes
through a peer-review and editing process before it is published. A major focus of
Organization ABC is on learning, which means that together the BOD, teacher
leadership, student leadership, teacher ambassadors, student ambassadors, and support
staff refine and update processes as they work through them. Additionally, any changes
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made to existing processes are updated in organizational documents. This ensures that all
members of Organization ABC have access to the most recent and accurate information.
Organization ABC attempts, where possible, to share and reuse information to
maintain consistency while building new knowledge. Board members receive details
regarding changes to processes and additional pertinent information to ensure they can
read, analyze, and formulate questions about the information prior to the board meeting.
This step helps the BOD to make effective decisions regarding organizational processes
and how best to communicate these processes.
Per the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program’s (2019) ADLI process scoring
evaluation, the creation of an organizational knowledge base with a working
infrastructure available to all internal organizational affiliates suggests a repeatable and
effective process approach consistently applied deployment via a single web application,
and well-aligned process integration. Although this has positive implications for ongoing
organizational learning, it appears that there is a learning gap, as the lack of common
learning goals and assessments has negative implications for the collection of
organizational data (Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, 2019).
Collection, Analysis, and Preparation of Results
The purpose of this qualitative single case study was to explore communication
strategies NPO leaders use to increase fundraising revenues. The central research
question was: What communication strategies do NPO leaders use to improve fundraising
revenues? I used a conceptual framework based around Freeman’s (1984) stakeholder
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theory, which stresses that organizational leaders critically consider the functions of their
relationships with stakeholders to create competitive advantage for the organization. I
used semistructured telephone interviews, email, Organization ABC’s website, and a
review of the organization’s documents to obtain data. In addition, I used the 2019–2020
Baldrige Performance Excellence Program (2019) to collect data on the organization’s
profile, including (a) leadership, (b) strategy, (c) customers, (d) measurements, (e)
workforce, (f) operations, and (g) results.
Thematic Findings
To identify key interview themes, I performed a thematic analysis based on
participants’ responses to semistructured interview questions and my own in-depth
review of organization data. The central research question for this study was: What
communication strategies do NPO leaders do to improve fundraising revenues? The
participant responses from the interview process and the review of organizational data
revealed several themes concerning: (1) using their positive workforce environment to
improve fundraising, (2) the need for improved strategic communication, and (3) greater
fundraising and marketing strategies. Presentation of these key themes may allow NPO
leaders to consider new methods for improving fundraising revenues. By utilizing
stakeholder theory as a means of analyzing leadership responsibilities, Organization
ABC’s board members could ensure they meet stakeholder needs.
Theme 1: Using Their Positive Workforce Environment to Improve Fundraising
The key asset working in Organization ABC’s favor is its volunteer workforce.
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BOD members described Organization ABC’s volunteers as highly enthusiastic, with
high levels of organizational commitment, and strong beliefs in the organization’s set of
values. BOD members described interactions between volunteer ambassadors, teacher
ambassadors, and students as the primary means through which Organization ABC
creates stakeholder value. Jones et al. (2018) argued that in order for NPO leaders to be
effective, they must be able to efficiently understand and execute their mission. A
reliance on high-quality volunteer work demonstrates a success for Organization ABC.
The positive and supportive environment created by volunteers suggests, per the Baldrige
Performance Excellence Program (2019), that Organization ABC has a strong positive
workforce environment.
Though communication problems have created significant challenges for
Organization ABC’s BOD, communication between ambassadors and teacher volunteers
was described as proactive, robust, and meaningful. This demonstrates an effective
attempt on the part of senior management to create positive stakeholder relationships, in
accordance with Miles’s (2017) view of stakeholder theory. In addition, this demonstrates
a positive organizational communication strategy, which Duralia (2018) cited as an
imperative element of building an enduringly viable organization.
Direct communication between Organization ABC leaders and volunteers was
described as somewhat limited. The CEO described recruitment, volunteer orientation,
and the formal complaint process as the three primary points of contact organization
leaders had with volunteers. A focus on these three contact points demonstrates an
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opportunity for improvement on the part of organizational leaders, as described in Theme
3. When conducting searches for volunteers, board members found it relatively simple to
identify and recruit both ambassador trainers and ambassadors with beliefs which align
with the commitments Organization ABC has made to its educational stakeholders.
Although Organization ABC has high levels of structural instability stemming
from its poor communication structure, unclear strategic approach, and limited ability to
collect data, the organization may still appear more effective to stakeholders because its
volunteer workforce provides the point of contact with students. This allows for an
effective line of communication and organizational outreach to be built between
customer-adjacent stakeholders (i.e., students, teachers, and school administrators) and
worker-adjacent stakeholders (i.e., volunteers and BOD members), in accordance with
Baack et al.’s (2017) recommendations for strategic external communications.
Theme 2: The Need for Improved Strategic Communication
The next theme that emerged from data analysis was problems with
communication. A major element of effective planning is strategic communication.
Jaomiasa (2019) defined strategic communication as the systematic process of sustained,
meaningful activities conducted across organizational levels to ensure that a given
audience is understood. The definition included behaviors that can be used to elicit a
reaction from that audience can be identified. In addition, Brunton et al. (2019) asserted
that both internal and external stakeholder communication is a significant element of
running a successful business and inspiring ongoing stakeholder confidence in the
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organization. Regarding internal communication outside of the BOD context, the primary
function of the organization means that many important stakeholders (i.e., ambassadors
who provide volunteer educational services to schoolchildren) function more as
contractors than as true internal entities. Although the organization consistently keeps in
touch with its ambassadors through digital communications and gives its ambassadors
contact with trained teacher mentors to answer pedagogy-related questions, the
organization itself does not implement programs that seek to demonstrate organizational
efficacy.
Although the ambassadors are often given measures of direct support from
Organization ABC, and some degree of knowledge regarding the organization’s
functioning, they work with a large degree of curricular independence. This represents a
substantial consequence of the organization’s problem with determining its own
direction. Instead of training ambassadors with a common set of organizational resources,
Organization ABC allows most of the pedagogical training to be guided by teacher
volunteers. Although this is not necessarily a negative strategy, it means that
Organization ABC loses an opportunity to establish its own curriculum and a set of its
own educational goals. Having their own set of goals and curriculum, Organization ABC
could create assessment tools to evaluate its students, which could ultimately be used to
create data proving the organization’s positive efficacy. Organization ABC’s lack of self-
sufficiency in creating assessment tools to evaluate its students conflicts with the tenets
of stakeholder theory (see Freeman, 1984). By not creating data-driven metrics that
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demonstrate organizational efficacy, the organization loses an opportunity to build its
reputation and hinders growth; something noted by all the participants.
Theme 3: Greater Fundraising and Marketing Strategies
The final theme that emerged from data analysis was the need for greater
fundraising and marketing strategies. Organization ABC is attempting to use a social
marketing strategy to attract new donors, a practice which is supported by existing
literature (Rundle-Thiele et al., 2019). Stakeholder theory suggests that organizational
leaders must make decisions and enact policies that will maximally benefit key
stakeholders (Freeman, 1984). To ensure that Organization ABC’s stakeholders (i.e.,
ambassadors, students, investors, and BOD members) receive the maximum benefit, the
organization must make more significant progress in addressing its challenges with
marketing. One significant problem is its limited understanding of its market competition.
Communications with Organization ABC’s BOD members and CEO suggest that
organizational leaders do not have a concrete sense of what other literacy-related
nonprofits, working in similar areas, are doing to ensure ongoing community outreach
and greater outcomes for school stakeholders. The importance of understanding effective
funding strategies in the growing American nonprofit market is becoming more and more
necessary for success (Nageswarakurukkal et al., 2020). Additionally, the Baldrige
Performance Excellence Program’s (2019) LeTCI results scoring criteria demonstrates
that a lack of knowledge regarding competitors makes critical results comparisons
impossible to use or act on. Without a stronger understanding of marketing strategies,
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little effort can be made to ensure Organization ABC’s ongoing stability.
Although organizational leaders have identified several potential venues through
which additional fundraising could be secured, little has been done to capitalize on these.
One goal the CEO has set for increasing funding is increasing national brand awareness;
however, plans for achieving this are not clear. Regarding its social media presence,
Organization ABC has recently expanded its public presence on LinkedIn, Facebook, and
Instagram. Social media can provide a very effective means through which an
organization can communicate with the public. However, the way Organization ABC
evaluates, or plans to evaluate, the effectiveness of its social media program is unclear.
Although using social media suggests a move toward expanding organizational outreach,
the lack of a concrete social media plan or analytical framework for measuring its
effectiveness suggests a questionable process approach (Baldrige Performance
Excellence Program, 2019).
BOD members have discussed the possibility of creating an online store for
Organization ABC in the interest of building a more diverse set of revenue streams;
however, there are no tangible plans for establishing the online store. A possible
hindrance to both creating an online store and the organization’s ongoing marketing plan
is that Organization ABC’s awareness of its own branding is also limited. Although the
CEO discussed the possibility of completely rebranding the organization, the BOD’s
limited ability to productively discuss issues makes this a challenging proposition. While
nascent ideas for building a greater stakeholder base exist, concrete plans for
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improvement are extremely limited.
Product and Process Results
This section contains a description of Organization ABC’s products and process
results. Organization ABC is a nonprofit founded in 2011 to offer academic resources to
students and teachers in San Antonio, Texas. The primary mission of Organization ABC
is to improve literacy in underfunded Title I schools. The key process measures for
Organization ABC are the backpack, book share, and student ambassador programs. The
Baldrige Excellence Framework (Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, 2019)
includes questions that senior leaders can ask themselves to describe their results for key
product and process measures.
Senior leaders in Organization ABC recognize the importance of measuring
results to gauge their organization’s progress toward mission attainment. Although the
senior leaders do not have a fully established performance measurement system, they
have begun developing key performance indicators, as well as tracking and measuring
performance outcomes. In the current paradigm, Organization ABC leaders track the
number of backpacks delivered to students, books distributed via the book share program,
and the number of student ambassadors. Leaders use the previous year’s performance as
the benchmark for the next performance year with a goal to meet or exceed the previous
year’s performance. Using past performance as a benchmark is advocated by both
stakeholder theory and the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program (2019).
Stakeholder theorists find that identifying and meeting stakeholder needs is an important
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practice for building financial stability and organizational value (Abebe & Cha, 2018).
Measuring and sharing organizational outcomes helps an organization evaluate its
shareholders’ perceptions of success, and determine the most lucrative path forward;
thus, helping ensure continual stakeholder buy-in. The Baldrige Performance Excellence
Program (2019) stressed the importance of continually collecting data concerning
organizational performance with the aim of standardizing and replicating productive
practices.
Figure 11 illustrates Organization ABC’s yearly comparisons of the number of
backpacks delivered to students. Senior leaders consider 2016 as the baseline year as this
is when they started formally tracking results. The year-over-year trend, excluding the
2019 outlier, indicates effectiveness in meeting and exceeding the prior year’s
performance outcomes. Banu (2018) mentioned that the measurement of key
performance indicators is paramount to making sure an organization meets its objectives.
According to the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program (2019), tracking key
indicators, such as product and service performance, reveals whether there is an issue
with workforce or a change in the market (determining the effects of supply and demand
on selling products and services). Tracking key indicators has significant implications for
stakeholder theory; Freeman (2004) and Harrison et al. (2015) indicated that
demonstrating sustainable organizational outcomes to stakeholders increases
organizational sustainability. When organizational leaders show proactive responses to
organizational performance metrics, value is created for shareholders and stakeholders
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(Freeman et al., 2016). Being proactive has positive implications for continuing
shareholder growth, as contributions to the organization are seen to be genuinely useful.
Figure 11
Backpack Results Between Years 2016-2020
Figure 12 illustrates the organization’s yearly comparisons of the number of
books distributed in the book share program. As previously mentioned, senior leaders
consider 2016 as the baseline year as this is when they started formally tracking results.
The year-over-year trend, excluding 2018 outlier results, indicates effectiveness in
meeting and exceeding the prior year’s performance outcomes.
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Figure 12
Book Share Results Between Years 2016-2020
Figure 13 illustrates yearly comparisons of the number of books distributed in the
book share program in San Antonio, Texas. As previously mentioned, senior leaders
consider 2016 as the baseline year as this is when they started formally tracking results.
The yearly trend results indicate effectiveness in meeting and exceeding the prior year’s
performance outcomes. However, the founder reported that the decline in 2020 was not a
result of COVID-19, but a result of the organization’s focused efforts on rebranding. The
reallocation of resources during the rebranding process resulted in performance outcome
declines reflected in the number of books distributed.
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Figure 13
Student Ambassador Results Between Years 2016-2020
In this qualitative single case study, I sought to utilize stakeholder theory and the
standards created by the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program (2019) to find
communication strategies NPO leaders use to improve fundraising revenues.
Organization ABC, which was the focus of this study, sought to assist Title I schools in
San Antonio, Texas with literacy outreach programs. To respond to stakeholder concerns
regarding organizational impact and efficiency, Organization ABC released metrics
charting the growth of three different ongoing projects: backpack donation, book
donation, and student ambassador program volunteers. All three initiatives showed an
upward trend in the period from 2016-2020, except for a decline in 2020 for the student
ambassador program as an orchestrated focus on rebranding.
Organization ABC’s proactive behavior is consistent with stakeholder theorist
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Freeman’s (2004) asserted that organizational leaders should focus on strategically
leveraging stakeholder relationships and responding to stakeholder expectations. By
explicitly identifying for stakeholders how Organization ABC is growing and providing
metrics by which this growth is understood, organizational leaders demonstrate how they
are being responsible to their shareholders.
Similarly, this behavior is advocated by the data-driven approach used in the
Baldrige Excellence Framework. The Baldrige Performance Excellence Program (2019)
advocates that organizational leaders craft a consistent, tightly managed system with clear
benchmarks for organizational success. Using this approach gives a clear understanding
of how the organization is progressing and gives both managers and stakeholders a strong
sense of how the organization will continue to build.
Customer Results
This section contains information about how Organization ABC collects
information related to the satisfaction or dissatisfaction of their customers. The Baldrige
Performance Excellence Program (2019) authors explained that customer-focused
performance results demonstrate customer satisfaction levels and how the organization
builds loyal relationships with their customers. The senior leaders of Organization ABC
report that they do not have a formal performance measurement process for monitoring
customer satisfaction or dissatisfaction. Organization ABC’s customer-focused
performance results come from the feedback received from the volunteers during their
yearly meetings. Senior leaders use the feedback received from the volunteers to
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implement changes in the organization’s future programs. The lack of a systematic
process to determine customer satisfaction represents an opportunity for improvement.
Measuring and analyzing customer satisfaction is one way to demonstrate
communication with stakeholders. The central research question for this study was: What
communication strategies do NPO leaders do to improve fundraising revenues? Meeting
the needs of the customer and aggregating data that demonstrates customer satisfaction
could motivate stakeholders to donate to Organization ABC. Organizations that have
satisfied customers are likely to develop customer loyalty (Lim et al., 2020). Also,
customer satisfaction often results in promotion of the organization through word of
mouth, which can benefit the organization financially (Lim et al., 2020). Therefore,
adopting a customer-focused approach would allow the organization to learn more
through tracking customer satisfaction, allowing the organization to improve their
offerings and demonstrate value to the customer, ultimately improving their fundraising
efforts. Table 12 illustrates customer-focused and donor satisfaction surveys that
Organization ABC could implement.
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Table 12
Customer-Focused and Donor Satisfaction Survey
Customer satisfaction questionnaire Donor satisfaction questionnaire
Was our volunteer staff courteous and
respectful
Did the staff show gratitude for your
donation?
How do you rate your satisfaction on a scale
of 1-10, where 10 is excellent?
Did you receive immediate confirmation that
we received your donation?
How many books did you receive Did we express to you the impact of your
donation?
Did we meet the students’ needs? Was your online donation experience good?
Would you recommend our services to other
schools and families?
Would you recommend family and friends to
donate to us?
Do you feel that Organization ABC has made
a great impact on your school?
Dou you feel your donation will make a
difference?
What other resources could your school
benefit from?
What can we do to improve?
Do you have any additional comments? Do you have any additional comments?
Workforce Results
Organization ABC does not have a formal performance measurement system to
analyze the performance of its workforce. However, the senior leaders of Organization
ABC report that they assess the organization’s workforce engagement by tracking the
number of events conducted. In addition, the organization tracks the number of
volunteers that join and books distributed. They compare the goals for the year against
the previous year’s achievements. Additionally, mentors track projects and communicate
with the student ambassadors, assisting them with challenges that may occur and helping
them to maintain engagement.
Workforce Leadership
Organization ABC recently initiated a mentoring program for student ambassadors.
The design of the mentorship program is to provide leadership development by pairing
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student ambassadors with an experienced ambassador or board member. The mentors are
available to answer questions or connect student ambassadors with the appropriate help
they need to be successful. In addition, the student ambassadors have an opportunity to be
appointed to the student executive board to increase their exposure to new challenges and
improve their skills.
Organization ABC does not have a learning and development system. However,
ambassadors receive trained via PowerPoint presentations, Zoom conferences calls, and
partnerships with their mentors. They also have opportunities for promotion that can
further increase their competencies as they continue their education and pursue their
individual careers. The senior leaders believe that providing opportunities to succeed
ignites an interest in advocacy.
Leadership and Governance Results
Board leaders in Organization ABC have demonstrated strong leadership and
governance results. Governance results indicate that board members comply with all laws
and regulations governing NPOs in the multiple regions in which Organization ABC
works. Based on the information outlined in the Baldrige Performance Excellence
Program (2019), Organization ABC’s leadership and governance results appear strong,
but offer limited information with regards to organizational data. However, Organization
ABC was able to (a) demonstrate efficiency in their accounts of their work; (b) sustain
this efficiency throughout the organization’s existence and expansion; and (c)
demonstrate a culture of support and positivity, which appeared to confirm the board’s
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legitimacy as leaders. Quantitative accounts of leadership and governance were not
available for review; subsequently, I have limited quantitative evidence to support
positive trends of this nature over time.
Financial, Market, and Strategy Results
Organization ABC’s board leaders understand the importance of revenue surplus
to the organization’s overall financial health and continued growth. Board leaders
expressed a clear understanding of financial diversification in the nonprofit sector, as
well as an understanding of the importance of private sector funding such as grants.
According to the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program’s (2019) process scoring
guidelines, Organization ABC is in a mature development phase. This is based on (a) the
organization’s strong showings that demonstrate positive trends in surplus revenue
generation and (b) the organization’s push to diversify into new revenue streams,
including courting large corporate donors and selling products. Although Organization
ABC board members spoke of positive trends, I did not receive a data set to understand
the extent of the trends’ behavior. This may suggest a deficit on the part of Organization
ABC’s board with regards to bookkeeping.
Key Themes
The focus of the Baldrige Excellence Framework is on processes and results as
the key dimensions by which an organization’s strengths and weaknesses can be properly
evaluated (Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, 2019). An analysis of key themes
in Organization ABC’s interviews regarding organizational processes and results allowed
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for a comprehensive evaluation of the organization’s performance. A performance
evaluation will be detailed in this section and considers the organization’s strengths and
weaknesses based on the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program.
Process Strengths
The Baldrige Performance Excellence Program (2019) characterized fully mature
processes as those that are repeatable, evaluated for improvement, and include the ability
to track progress. Organization ABC’s board has some processes that act as strengths,
which include a positive work environment and a comprehensive approach to online
donation seeking. In analyzing the data collected by the processes outlined in this
doctoral study, I found that Organization ABC’s strategic fundraising plan appears to be
in the early stages of development. Organization ABC has begun to perform fundraising
operations with repeatable processes through the development of a rough, yet
multifaceted virtual strategy, which utilizes a multiplatform approach through social
media outlets, to target diverse demographic groups. The approach as described is
inefficient and inadequate because of the limited technical understanding on the part of
board members. Although this strategy is repeatable to the extent that a variety of social
media platforms can be used as a means of outreach, without an understanding of online
trends, online platforms, and online marketing, future payoffs may be more limited.
Organization ABC described the bulk of their strategic planning as online based, though
interviews with board members demonstrated an eagerness to collaborate with private
sector entities. Strategy and quantitative goals have been very loosely determined and
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board members indicated that data metrics have not been created to evaluate the efficacy
of the online approach.
According to information outlined in the Baldrige Performance Excellence
Program (2019), the strategic planning processes Organization ABC described are (a)
effective to the extent that they have been proven to generate revenue; (b) repeatable to a
degree but owing to the limited technical acumen of the board, perhaps not sustainably;
(c) deployed within the leadership team and deployable by other stakeholders, though not
necessarily in an organized capacity; (d) fail to consider present and future organizational
needs by laying out clear opportunities for small-scale involvement; and (e) not
adequately monitored in a strategic capacity, because of the limited amount of donation
metrics generated. Because the strategic planning process met two of these criteria,
partially met two of these criteria, and missed one of these criteria, I would evaluate
Organization ABC’s strategic planning process as somewhat positive for the
organization.
As previously outlined in this doctoral study, to effectively realize their
organization’s mission, senior leaders rely on the cooperation of volunteers and board
members. The nature of the positive workforce environment is communicative, friendly,
and innovative. According to the criteria outlined in the Baldrige Performance Excellence
Program (2019), Organization ABC has a strong positive workforce environment.
Leaders were able to demonstrate an open sense of collaboration and passion, often
describing group efforts and complimenting each other’s ideas during our interviews.
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These processes were determined to be repeatable, as demonstrated by emails and
corroborated accounts of regular meetings. Additionally, these processes were
determined to be fully deployed and demonstrating meaningful learning, as the
communications described were characterized as a great determinant of policy direction.
Organization ABC’s positive workplace environment is a great asset to the organization.
Process Opportunities
Organization ABC’s board has some processes that act as weaknesses, and some
gaps in data collection that obscure the true efficacy of certain processes. Weaknesses of
Organization ABC include limited collection of revenue-related data resulting in the
inability to track and trend, challenges relating to employee knowledge of technology.
Additionally, they have an underdeveloped strategy to communicate with stakeholders
through an effective marketing approach.
The workforce development approach in Organization ABC was not completely
clear based on interview material. Most of Organization ABC’s discussion of workforce
investment had to do with restructuring the responsibilities of board members. Nonboard
member stakeholders discussed in interviews were overwhelmingly donors targeted by
board member outreach. Commercialization through communication and marketing was a
type of workforce development discussed. One participant discussed a desire to expand
into the merchandise market by selling products to build new revenue streams, which
implies a need to expand workforce and supply systems.
According to the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program’s (2019) process
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scoring guidelines, Organization ABC’s workforce development is in an early
developmental phase, while Organization ABC’s commercialization process is in a
reactive developmental stage. Organization ABC’s workforce development has some
coordination and some repeatability, as it seeks to reorganize and separate out the
responsibilities of the board members. For example, delegating different responsibilities
of the board members into a coherent system with clearly defined spheres of influence.
Interviews with Organization ABC’s board members suggested that this system is in the
process of improvement and refinement. The limited exposure I was given means that I
cannot properly judge the way these processes work at lower levels of the organization.
Overall, Organization ABC’s workforce development process appears to be in the
beginning phase of a systemic approach. Regarding the commercialization process,
Organization ABC’s merchandise sale venture seems to exist solely as a concept.
Although Organization ABC has recognized that this type of expansion may be a fruitful
revenue-building venture, no clear processes, goals, or systems have been defined.
Results Strengths
According to the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program (2019), results are
outputs that reflect an organization’s performance in the Baldrige Performance
Excellence Program category 7; this encompasses product and process results, customer
results, workforce results, leadership and governance results, and financial, market, and
strategy results. Organization ABC was able to provide results strengths in two of these
categories. Key themes were (1) using their positive workforce environment to improve
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fundraising, (2) the need for improved strategic communication, and (3) greater
fundraising and marketing strategies.
Results Opportunities
There are several results opportunities for Organization ABC, including limited
self-evaluation abilities, a weak system of organizational communication, and limited
development opportunities for ambassadors. Organization ABC’s board has poor
organization, coordination, and division of responsibilities. Although a board of
organizational leaders has developed, one particular senior leader seems to have taken on
most of the responsibility for the direction and operation of the organization. The senior
leaders have a very difficult time coordinating organizational action, owing to persistent
communication gaps and gaps in organizational commitment. One such consequence of
this is an extremely limited ability to develop tools for strategic oversight; Organization
ABC has done little collection of performance-related data, leading to a stifled ability to
implement effective, data-driven organizational change in line with the Baldrige
Performance Excellence Program (2019). Lack of leadership coordination and lack of
data collection both constitute opportunities for improvement on the part of Organization
ABC.
Organization ABC’s lack of a formal learning system for its ambassadors
demonstrates a significant opportunity for improvement. Ambassadors do receive some
training in the form of PowerPoint Presentations and direct communication with mentors,
but there is not a formal means through which ambassadors are trained or receive some
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sort of official acknowledgement for their skill growth. Although ambassadors may
become well-trained in a particular aspect of mentoring or teaching, the lack of
professional development-style opportunities explicitly guided by Organization ABC
limits both the ongoing payoffs for ambassadors and the strength of the organization. By
providing ambassadors with formal, guided, topic-specific training seminars,
Organization ABC can give ambassadors additional professional credentials which may
help them as they continue in the job market. By collecting student achievement data
which accounts for the impact of this ambassador training on student achievement,
Organization ABC may be able to give data-driven demonstrations of organizational
efficacy to shareholders and students. Rather than appearing as an organization which
simply pairs schools with student volunteers, Organization ABC could demonstrate its
profound investment in its own volunteers and, by extension, in the local communities it
serves.
Project Summary
The ability to adequately raise funds is a survival necessity for NPOs. Without the
donations of external stakeholders, nonprofit leaders could face significant challenges in
conducting efficient operations and financially sustaining their organization, which for an
NPO results in a mission failure. Like for-profit organizations, NPOs have operational
costs that require funding to keep the organization functioning. Whereas for-profit
organizations provide a service or product at a cost that accounts for operational expenses
and profit, nonprofits rely on willing donors that support the organization’s vision
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through their donations. Ultimately, these charitable donations help NPOs sustain the
organization, failure to acquire these donations will increase the likelihood that NPOs fail
to achieve their mission. Donors, or external stakeholders, are essential to the financial
sustainability of NPOs. The purpose of this qualitative single case study was to explore
communication strategies NPO leaders use to improve fundraising revenues. As a scholar
consultant, I was assigned an NPO vetted by Walden University’s administration. As a
scholar consultant, I gathered and reviewed Organization ABC’s internal and external
information. The population for this single case study consisted of three participants,
which included the founder and two senior leaders of the organization located in San
Antonio, Texas. These participants have implemented successful communication
strategies that assisted the organization in receiving donations, thereby allowing the
organization to consistently remain financially stable.
In this study, I used the stakeholder theory as the conceptual framework, and the
2019 Baldrige Performance Excellence Program as the performance framework to obtain
a detailed understanding of Organization ABC’s operations. To obtain relevant data, I
gathered information via semistructured interviews with the founder and two senior
leaders and reviewed organization documentation. I also obtained relevant data from
internal and external organizational documents, which included the organization’s
website. After analyzing the collected data and reviewing the Baldrige Excellence
Framework, three key themes emerged related to Organization ABC’s process strengths,
process opportunities, results strengths, and results opportunities. The key themes were
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(1) using their positive workforce environment to improve fundraising, (2) the need for
improved strategic communication, and (3) greater fundraising and marketing strategies.
Strategic recommendations based on the findings of this doctoral study that could help
Organization ABC senior leaders include: (a) assessing customer and volunteer feedback,
(b) monitoring financial results from fundraising, and (c) an effective communication
strategy that will engage stakeholders in the vision of the organization.
Organization ABC senior leaders were beginning to show signs of a strategic
approach to creating a systemic process to maximize operations. This was evident by the
organization’s rebranding to better communicate with their stakeholders. The original
name of the organization was not reflective of the mission, vision, and values related to
ensuring that students in Title I schools achieve academic success. Secondly, the
organization also began demonstrating signs of an efficient data-driven process. This was
evident through their use of data to track fundraising efforts. However, the data was
limited, in that it only provided details about the entire organization. Senior leaders could
improve this process through the collection of data by location, school, and volunteer. In
doing so, the organization could track individual productivity, creating a more efficient
process related to fundraising. Furthermore, the organization could track the individual
donors by location to determine how much, how often, and through what route they gave.
A data-driven approach could also provide quantitative data that stakeholders or potential
donors could review to evaluate the organization’s progress and effectiveness.
Demonstrating the efficiency of the organization via data could communicate to
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stakeholders that Organization ABC is using funds efficiently. Moreover, the data could
also demonstrate to stakeholders the benefits the organization provides to Title 1 schools.
Both donors and potential donors who see an organization use donations appropriately
may be more apt to donate frequently or for the first time.
Contributions and Recommendations
Fundraising is an essential component to the successful achievement of an NPOs
mission. The increasing demand for social services, number of nonprofits competing for
the same financial resources, and limited availability of government and corporate
funding significantly increases the importance of having an effective strategy for
fundraising (Nageswarakurukkal et al., 2020). Without the collection of necessary
monetary funds, Organization ABC will be unable to complete their mission. Therefore,
identifying successful communication strategies that senior leaders of NPOs can use is
essential to increasing fundraising revenues.
To achieve a successful communication strategy to improve fundraising revenues,
the senior leaders of Organization ABC should develop an effective marketing strategy
within their strategic plan that includes all potential stakeholders within the communities
in which they are seeking to make a difference. To do so, Organization ABC could
launch a marketing campaign that includes commercials at theaters prior to the beginning
of movies. They could also work to establish a strong presence on multiple social media
platforms, such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. Moreover, senior leaders
of Organization ABC should incorporate a data-driven process to monitor the donations
163
resulting from the use of the social media platforms. In alignment with stakeholder theory
is the idea that monitoring where donations come from can help senior leaders improve
fundraising revenues. One of the components of an organization’s success is
accountability for their performance (Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, 2019).
Through monitoring donations resulting from social media presence, Organization ABC
could identify whether their marketing efforts are efficient. However, it is essential that
senior leaders have a good understanding of the market space in which they function.
To develop an effective strategic plan, the senior leaders of Organization ABC
should consider learning more about their specific ecosystem. In the Baldrige
Performance Excellence Program (2019), an ecosystem is described as a conglomerate of
suppliers, customers, competitors, stakeholders, and collaborators. Understanding an
organization’s current and shifting ecosystem can help organizations create an innovative
space where senior leaders can identify unique services that may set them apart from their
competitors. A focus on these unique services may then resonate with stakeholders who
are looking for ways to monetarily give back to their communities. Understanding
internal and external stakeholders is a key component of stakeholder theory.
Although Organization ABC has a strategic plan, there is very little specificity
related to marketing strategies. For example, the organization does not have an effective
data analysis process regarding the efficiency of those marketing processes. Additionally,
the senior leaders were unable to identify who their competitors were. This conveys that
the senior leaders of Organization ABC were missing an essential component related to
164
understanding who competitors are to identify what communication strategies may be
most effective in each market space. To remedy this deficiency, senior leaders could
create an aggregated spreadsheet that includes a comparison of Organization ABC to
other organizations engaging with the same financial sources, locations, and stakeholders
that Organization ABC engages with.
Understanding what stakeholders want in terms of value, could be valuable
information to nonprofits, as it allows the organization to focus on communication
strategies that would align the values of the stakeholder to the values of the organization.
Effective feedback information from customers could communicate to potential
stakeholders the benefits of donating, as demonstrated by the success of Organization
ABC in giving academic resources to Title I schools in San Antonio. The senior leaders
of Organization ABC could adopt a feedback method to determine customer satisfaction
and dissatisfaction through (a) disseminating surveys, (b) maintaining a customer account
history, (c) compiling a stakeholder account history, (d) tracking transaction completion
rates, (e) obtaining and recording Title I school satisfaction or dissatisfaction rates, and
(f) gathering formal or informal feedbacks from volunteers or customers. According to
the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program (2019), the information could be
aggregated and used as comparative data with that of Organization ABC’s competitors.
The comparison of data may prove useful in determining successful projects with
Organization ABC’s efforts to provide academic resource and services to Title I schools
in San Antonio, Texas. Such communication would thus create the narrative necessary to
165
align the value of the stakeholders to that of the organization.
Application to Professional Practice
Organizations that are for-profit obtain their financial sustainability directly
through income obtained from their products or services, and usually focus on profit.
However, NPOs rely solely on donations given through an array of funding resources and
a focus on mission attainment. Therefore, financial acumen is essential for ensuring the
financial sustainability of an NPO (Ilyas et al., 2020). Equally important is the
organization’s ability to manage a willing volunteer workforce that exists solely to bring
the organization’s mission to fruition. Therefore, a thorough understanding of the
organization’s stakeholders, competitors, and workforce is paramount to the financial
sustainability and mission attainment of Organization ABC. To build a financially stable
nonprofit, senior leaders of Organization ABC must have an effective volunteer
engagement process that incorporates a systemic process for managing feedback,
communicating with donors, and building trust to garner continued financial support. In
this component, I provide insight regarding how business practitioners could apply the
findings in this qualitative single case study to their professional practice, and to share the
knowledge I obtained to assist them in improving their processes and advancing their
organization’s business practices.
The intent of research is to inquire about a particular phenomenon and facilitate a
scholarly conversation (Brooks et al., 2019). Researchers use qualitative research to
explore a phenomenon, such as exploring individual or group behaviors within an
166
organization (Pathiranage et al., 2020). The purpose of this qualitative single case study
was to explore communication strategies that Organization ABC leaders use to improve
fundraising revenues in San Antonio, Texas. NPO leaders who want to improve their
fundraising efforts may benefit from the findings and recommendations in this study
when designing an effective strategy for their organization.
The results of this study may add to existing knowledge on communication
strategies for improving fundraising efforts within the nonprofit industry. It may also help
to fill gaps in the research on fundraising strategies used by NPOs. Senior leaders of
NPOs seeking to improve their existing fundraising strategies or to formalize a
communication strategy to improve fundraising revenues could review my
recommendations and use them as a guide in the development of strategies within their
organization. My recommendations are as follows: (a) retrieve comparative data within
the organization’s ecosystem; (b) analyze the comparative data to create innovative
unique ideas; (c) utilize social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and
LinkedIn and create narratives that would demonstrate value to the stakeholders,
customers, and volunteers; (d) establish data-driven processes for customer, stakeholder,
and volunteer feedback; and (e) establish data-driven processes related to fundraising
efforts. Organizations could then use the data-driven process to: (a) determine location of
fundraising, to include the stakeholders involved; (b) determine success of fundraising by
location and by volunteer; (c) determine which stakeholders are donating, to include what
platform was used to donate; and (d) determine productivity of the social media platforms
167
used.
As the recommendations in this study are grounded in theory, NPO leaders may
find it beneficial to explore stakeholder theory to improve business practices. A review of
the other theories considered for this study could also result in a deeper understanding for
NPO leaders regarding grounded in theory that could ultimately facilitate the
development of strategic processes in improving fundraising revenues. Additionally, the
Baldrige Performance Excellence Program could be used as a guide for reviewing an
organization’s leadership performance, strategy, customers, operations, workforce,
measurement analysis, and results. NPO leaders can use the Baldrige Performance
Excellence Program to conduct a thorough assessment of the organization to improve
their overall mission.
Implication for Social Change
Walden University degree programs are centered around facilitating the education
of students and equipping them to have a positive impact on social change in their field
and within their communities (Walden University, 2020). In Walden University’s
doctoral program, students must include information regarding the positive impact that
the study will have on social change within the community. Nonprofits play an essential
role in affecting social change via the delivery of services and the facilitation of volunteer
involvement to increase growth and development in underfunded areas (Clear et al.,
2018). The ability of nonprofits to provide services positively influences the
communities, which, in the case of Organization ABC, provides necessary academic
168
resources to underfunded schools. As a scholar consultant, my research provides
information that may impact social change within the communities abroad.
At Walden University, the DBA programs were not only designed to educate and
create practitioners but also equip students to have a positive impact on social change.
Brown and Baltes (2017) postulated that there is a direct relationship between education
and social change. As levels of education increase, involvement in social change
activities increase (Brown & Baltes, 2017). Senior leaders of Organization ABC who
participated in this study facilitated the exploration of successful communication
strategies used to increase fundraising revenues that could be used by other organizations
to improve their fundraising strategies and affect social change.
The implications of social change resulting from this study could include the
potential to offer senior leaders of NPOs innovative communication strategies that would
lead to an increase in fundraising revenues. Nonprofits are reliant on charitable donations
to fund the organizations’ efforts in the community and bring about social change. The
financial contributions obtained through effective communication strategies would give
senior leaders the ability to provide more schools with academic resources such as books
and computers, thereby facilitating the education of students in Title I schools. The
dissemination through academic literature, workshops, and company training could
provide senior leaders with the necessary strategies they can use to improve their
fundraising processes. Further implications for social change may include the ability of
Organization ABC to provide additional resources and services to promote the success of
169
students in Title I schools. Students, parents, and teachers directly or indirectly
influenced by the provisions of Organization ABC may be encouraged to further
influence their communities via positive social change.
Recommendations for Action
This section includes recommendations for senior leaders of Organization ABC
and other NPOs can consider for improving fundraising revenues. Levitt et al. (2018)
stated that researchers provide recommendations for action that explains the significance
of the study. A researcher’s interpretation includes information obtained from existing
knowledge and information gathered related to the subject (The Association for
Qualitative Research, 2020). This research study revealed that improving or increasing
fundraising is a multifaceted approach that includes: (a) understanding the business
ecosystem that the organization abides, (b) aligning the values of the organization to the
stakeholders, (c) creating an effective marketing strategy designed for recruitment of
volunteers and giving stakeholders, and (d) having a detail data-driven process that allow
the leaders to analyze, interpret, and improve processes. Although Organization ABC has
a potentially impactful approach to improving Title I student welfare, the organization’s
lack of a coherent means of communication, lack of a consolidated vision, and limited
ability to practically collect or utilize data are all serious hindrances to its success. In
order to ensure Organization ABC will be successful, organizational leaders must speak
honestly and openly about their communication problems. They should identify which
priorities and goals the organization should pursue. A clear set of organizational goals
170
must be created with a plan for how to quantitatively track progress. In addition, a
detailed financial plan must be made to ensure that the organization remains viable. The
BOD must oversee this process, ensuring that their division of responsibilities is
equitable and practical.
The results found in this study could assist NPO leaders in developing innovative
strategies in improving their ability to obtain the necessary funding to improve and
sustain operations. The results of this study will be disseminated via conferences,
lectures, and training events. Other methods for dissemination might include social media
platforms, word-of-mouth, and literature searches.
Recommendations for Further Research
The primary purpose of this study was to explore successful communication
strategies that senior leaders of nonprofits use to improve fundraising revenues. In
conducting my research, a limitation of this study emerged. The primary experiences I
explored were from senior leaders of one NPO in San Antonio, Texas and not the
experiences of multiple NPOs. Making inferences about one NPO’s experiences limiting
as there was no account for variations in location, multiculturalism, or a survey of
different NPOs that differ in size, volunteers, and how this effects the organization’s
efforts if the employees were paid. Because of this limitation, my recommendation is to
expand this research to identify the successful communication strategies used in multiple
organizations in San Antonio, Texas and other cities. Additionally, I recommend that
future researchers use other conceptual frameworks to identify communications strategies
171
to improve fundraising revenues. Using other conceptual framework may present a
different perspective that senior leaders of NPOs could use to improve fundraising
revenues.
Reflections
The Walden University’s Consulting Capstone Program provided me an
opportunity to conduct qualitative research. Additionally, I was given the opportunity to
work as a scholar consultant in assisting an NPO in San Antonio, Texas in evaluating
their organization’s performance using the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program.
The Consulting Capstone is a rigorous program, which challenged my preconceived ideas
about consulting. Prior to my doctoral journey, I was a Healthcare Consultant for a large
nursing home company with over 100 nursing homes. Throughout my doctoral journey
and in consulting with my assigned NPO, I continually faced challenges regarding my
personal and professional bias. During my journey, I learned to focus on the information
presented and then analyze that information through the lens of my conceptual
framework and the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program. I learned that though my
experience is valuable, other senior leaders are in different places within vision and
journey. My job as a scholar consultant was to identify their vision, where they were in
achieving this vision, and help guide them to where they wanted to be. For Organization
ABC, this meant assisting them in identifying successful communication strategies that
would assist the senior leaders in improving their fundraising efforts.
Looking back at my journey, I have identified some things that I would do
172
differently. First, I would have translated the information from the Baldrige Excellence
Framework in a way my client could have understood. In the beginning, I assumed that
my client would understand the business jargon. I quickly learned that he was very
knowledgeable but needed more clarity on what I was asking. Secondly, I should have
spent more time in the beginning to understand the Baldrige Performance Excellence
Program. It was difficult asking the client questions about their organization based on the
Baldrige Performance Excellence Program when I was just learning it. The Baldrige
Commentary proved to be a very important tool in understanding the information and
increased my ability to form the questions to my client in a manner that would be
understandable and not intimidating. Lastly, procrastination was my biggest challenge in
this journey. Being an active husband, father, grandfather, and a nursing home
administrator while completing a doctoral program caused me to put off things that I
could have done. Because of this procrastination, I did not meet the completion goal that
I set. However, I also learned that the journey was mine and could be completed at a pace
that I could handle. Thankfully, my peers helped pull me along and kept me accountable.
Since the beginning of my doctoral journey, I have evolved into a scholar consultant with
a deeper understanding on how to add value to an organization.
Conclusion
The purpose of this qualitative single case study was to advance the knowledge of
communication strategies to improve fundraising efforts used by NPO leaders.
Identifying successful innovative communication strategies to improve fundraising
173
revenues and reduce the risks associated with ineffective strategies may provide NPO
leaders information that may increase their chances of a sustainable process. The use of
the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program allowed me to serve as a scholar
consultant and assist the senior leaders to identify strengths and opportunities for
improvement and to add value to the organization. Additionally, use of the Baldrige
Performance Excellence Program allowed me to gain the experience and skills necessary
to be an effective consultant regardless of the industry.
During the research process, I was able to identify one limitation that was
essential to providing a deeper understanding about effective communication methods to
improve fundraising. The most important component to arise from this study was that
NPO leaders must develop a strategic plan for marketing and effectively communicating
with their stakeholders using a data-driven process. Using a data-driven process will
allow the leaders to analyze and interpret data to develop innovative unique strategies
that could yield more charitable donations, ultimately leading to mission attainment and
positive social change in the communities in which they are located.
174
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Appendix A: Interview Protocol
Interview Title: Communication Strategies Leaders of Nonprofit Organizations Can
Use to Improve Fundraising Revenues
Protocol:
1. The interview begins using the protocol.
2. I will introduce myself to the participants.
3. Participants will be given opportunity to read the inform consent form and
provide their consent to participate in the research via email.
4. I will thank the participants for their agreement to participate in the research.
5. I will provide information to the participants on how they can withdraw from the
research.
6. I will ask the participants’ permission to record the interview.
7. I will begin recording the interview, noting the date, time, and location. In
addition, I will have the appropriate writing tools to take notes as needed during
the interview.
8. I will inform the participants of their alphanumeric code for identification (I.E.
Participant 1, Participant 2, Participant 3) on the audio recording and place the
information on the copy of the consent form.
9. I will begin the interview.
10. I will begin the interview with question #1 and follow through to the final
question.
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11. I will end the interview sequence.
12. I will thank the participants for his or her time in the participation of this study.
13. I will reiterate my contact information for any follow-up questions or concerns
that the participants may have.
14. I will end the audio recording.
15. The interview ends.
16. I will call the participants a few days after the interview.
17. I will ask the participants to review what they have shared during and after the
interviews.
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Appendix B: Interview Questions
1. What communication strategies do you use internally to improve fundraising
revenues?
2. What strategies do you use externally to improve fundraising revenues?
3. How do you measure the effectiveness of the strategies implemented to improve
fundraising revenues?
4. What were the key challenges you encountered when you implemented those
strategies?
5. What approaches have you used to overcome the key challenges you encountered
when you implemented those strategies?
6. What additional information would you like to add about your organization’s
strategies for improving fundraising revenues?
