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Modeling the adoption and use of social media by nonprofit organizations
Seungahn Nah, Gregory D. Saxton
TL;DR
Nonprofit organizations’ social media adoption and use remain poorly understood. This study models adoption, frequency, and dialogue across 100 large US nonprofits using strategy, capacity, governance, and environmental factors, finding that all contribute to these outcomes.
Problem
Understanding of the factors shaping nonprofit organizations’ social media adoption and use remains weak.
Method
The study uses a four-factor model—strategy, capacity, governance, and environment—to examine determinants of social media adoption, frequency of use, and dialogue.
Results
Strategy, capacity, governance, and external pressures all play a part in social media adoption and utilization outcomes.
Takeaways & Limitations
The integrated perspective helps uncover what drives organizational adoption and use of social media.
Takeaways & Limitations
The findings are based on a specific set of organizations, motivating studies using randomized samples from a broader range of organizations.
Abstract
from arXiv · showhide
This study examines what drives organizational adoption and use of social media through a model built around four key factors - strategy, capacity, governance, and environment. Using Twitter, Facebook, and other data on 100 large US nonprofit organizations, the model is employed to examine the determinants of three key facets of social media utilization: 1) adoption, 2) frequency of use, and 3) dialogue. We find that organizational strategies, capacities, governance features, and external pressures all play a part in these social media adoption and utilization outcomes. Through its integrated, multi-disciplinary theoretical perspective, this study thus helps foster understanding of which types of organizations are able and willing to adopt and juggle multiple social media accounts, to use those accounts to communicate more frequently with their external publics, and to build relationships with those publics through the sending of dialogic messages.
Introduction
The introduction frames nonprofit social media use as important but understudied, and presents a four-factor model tested across adoption, frequency, and dialogic communication outcomes.
- Research gap: Nonprofit social media use is important, but existing understanding remains weak and prior studies have examined only a handful of use-related issues.Prior research predominantly focused on nonprofits’ dialogic communication.
- Research objective: The paper seeks to explain what drives organizations to employ social media.
- Conceptual framework: The proposed explanatory model centers on strategy, capacity, governance, and environment as key factors in organizations’ social media adoption and use.
- Empirical focus: Using Facebook, Twitter, and other data from the 100 largest US nonprofit organizations, the study examines whether organizations use social media, how frequently they use it, and how often they employ dialogic relationship-building messages.
Literature Review: Nonprofit Adoption and Use of Social Media
Existing research explains individual technology preferences and selected nonprofit technology uses better than organizational social media adoption and utilization. This study addresses the gap with an integrated organizational-level model examining adoption, frequency of use, and dialogic engagement.
- Theoretical limitations: Individual-level technology theories explain preferences between technologies but are less suited to explaining organizations’ selection of communication technologies.The literature contrasts individual preferences, such as Twitter over email, with organizational technology selection.
- Prior organizational research: Existing nonprofit website and information-technology studies emphasize strategy, institutional pressures, and organization studies, but social media may differ from prior technologies.Budgetary constraints previously identified as important for website and IT adoption may be less relevant to social media.
- Empirical gap: Nonprofit social media research has emphasized basic informational activity and dialogic use, without explaining organizational adoption or usage frequency.The literature identifies heavy reliance on update frequency as a lost opportunity for deeper supporter engagement.
- Empirical gap: The review identifies a broader gap: what compels nonprofits to adopt social media and what drives different communication strategies remains poorly understood.Existing work concentrates on website and IT adoption and dialogic uses of websites and Facebook.
- Study contribution: The study weaves organizational-level literature into a comprehensive explanatory model of three social media utilization facets: adoption, frequency of use, and dialogic engagement.The model is intended to explore determinants of all three facets suggested by the literature review.
Model and Hypotheses
The model integrates four dimensions—strategy, capacity, governance, and environment—to explain nonprofit social media adoption and utilization. It develops hypotheses linking mission strategies and organizational resources to social media adoption and use.
- Integrated framework: The framework identifies strategy, capacity, governance, and environment as critical dimensions determining social media adoption and utilization outcomes.Strategies guide communication choices, capacities provide resources, governance supports implementation, and the environment shapes strategy selection and success.
- Strategy hypotheses: The study examines fundraising, lobbying, and market-based approaches as strategic pathways through which nonprofits pursue their social missions.The first three hypotheses predict positive relationships between fundraising expenses, lobbying expenses, and Program Service revenues and social media adoption or use.
- Strategy hypotheses: Fundraising-focused organizations are hypothesized to adopt and use Facebook and Twitter to reach and interact with broader groups of potential donors.Hypothesis 1 states that fundraising expenses will be positively related to social media adoption.
- Strategy hypotheses: Lobbying-focused nonprofits are hypothesized to use social media because mobilizing broad external publics to act creates distinct communicative needs.Hypothesis 2 states that lobbying expenses will be positively related to social media adoption and use.
- Strategy hypotheses: Market-based nonprofits are hypothesized to use social media to reach both current and prospective customers through fee-for-service programs.Hypothesis 3 states that Program Service revenues will be positively related to social media use.
- Capacity hypotheses: Organizational capacity is theorized to affect social media adoption and use through financial assets and established Website capabilities and presence.Larger organizations can better acquire technology and fund social media efforts, while older and more far-reaching websites may signal earlier adoption, available resources, and communication competency.
Method
The study examines the 100 largest non-educational US nonprofits using multi-source organizational and social-media data. It operationalizes social-media presence, posting frequency, and dialogic messaging, then applies categorical-data regression methods.
- Sample: The sample comprised the 100 largest non-educational US nonprofit organizations by revenue from the 2008 Nonprofit Times 100 list.The focus on large organizations reflected their greater likelihood of having a significant social-media presence.
- Measures: Independent-variable data came from charitable-statistics records, 2008 IRS tax returns, the Internet Archive, and Google, while dependent-variable data came from Twitter and Facebook.Measures covered strategy, capacity, governance, resource environment, organizational controls, and social-media utilization.
- Estimation: Logit regressions estimated binary Facebook and Twitter presence, while generalized maximum likelihood methods modeled ordinal Social Media Presence.OLS was rejected for the binary outcomes because it would produce biased, inefficient, and inconsistent parameter estimates.
Results
The regression models were significant, with pseudo-R2 values ranging from .18 to .43, and results showed that strategy, capacity, governance, and funding variables had mixed associations with social media adoption and use. Website Reach, commercial orientation, and several financial and governance measures were positively associated with selected outcomes, while other hypothesized relationships received limited or no support.
- All regression models were significant, with pseudo-R2 values ranging between .18 and .43.
- Fundraising Ratio received no support, while Lobbying Expenditures was positive for Facebook adoption but negative in four other utilization models.Program Service Revenues was significantly positive in four models, and commercial nonprofits were more likely to maintain a social media presence and send frequent messages.
- Website Reach was significantly positive for all but Facebook Presence, whereas Size and Website Age generally failed to support their hypothesized relationships.Size was significantly negative only for Twitter Presence, and Website Age was significantly negative only for Facebook Presence.
- Overall, the findings provided substantial support for Website Reach, partial support for membership and donor dependence, and no support for several other hypotheses.
- Membership had mixed associations, Board Size received only marginal support, and Efficiency was significant for five of nine dependent variables.Membership was positive for Facebook Presence but negative for several frequency and relationship-building outcomes; Board Size was positive in Twitter Presence and negative in three models.
Discussion and Conclusions
The study finds that strategy, capacity, governance, and environment jointly shape nonprofit social media adoption and use. It shows that organizations differ in their ability to adopt multiple accounts, communicate frequently, and build relationships through dialogue.
- Strategy: Strategy mattered: program service revenues generally predicted adoption and more updates, whereas lobbying expenditures and fundraising were generally linked to less frequent use and less dialogue.The findings suggest market-based program delivery may encourage client communication, while social media and paid fundraising activities may function as substitutes.
- Capacity: Pre-existing Website reach powerfully predicted social media utilization, while website longevity was largely insignificant and asset size did not positively predict outcomes.The study cautions that asset-related findings should be interpreted carefully because the sample comprised large organizations.
- Governance: Governance characteristics were vital: membership predicted less updating and dialogue, board size had mixed effects, and efficiency was consistently positively associated with adoption and use.Board size increased the likelihood of Twitter adoption but was associated with lower updating and dialogic-message volumes.
- Environment: External factors significantly predicted adoption and use, with donor reliance more influential than government funding after controlling for other organizational factors.Reliance on public donations had a considerable effect, whereas government funding was not shown to be important.
- Platform differences: Facebook and Twitter differed substantially: predictor signs changed for 6 of 11 presence variables, 3 volume variables, and 4 dialogue variables.The results suggest the platforms may serve different purposes and require different configurations of organizational resources, governance, and contextual factors.
Appendix B.
Appendix B presents descriptive statistics and correlations for social-media dialogue measures and organizational characteristics. The reported variables include Facebook, Twitter, and total dialogic messages, financial and program measures, organizational size, website age, and dependence measures.
- Appendix B is titled “Descriptive Statistics and Correlations.”
- The correlation table reports Facebook, Twitter, and total dialogic-message measures alongside fundraising, lobbying, program-service revenue, organizational size, and website age.
- The table also includes donor dependence and government dependence among the reported organizational variables.