Thesis exploring how not-for-profit organisations utilise websites and the Internet.

1. Not–for–Profit Organisations’ Use of the Internet –
A Content Analysis of 100 Websites
Agnes Jumah
Kingston Business School
MA in Strategic Marketing Management
2010

2. Contents
Acknowledgements i
Abstract ii
Table of Tables iii
List of Appendices iv
Chapter 1 Introduction and Background
1.1 The Internet 1
1.2 Not–for–Profit Organisations (NPOs) 1
1.3 The Internet and the NPO 2
Chapter 2 Literature Review
2.1 Internet Adoption 5
2.2 Website Interactivity 7
2.3 NPO Trust, Accountability and Transparency 9
2.4 Ecommerce and Fundraising NPOs 11
Chapter 3 Research Methodology
3.1 Research Objectives and Methodology 14
3.2 Research Technique and Procedure – Content Analysis 15
3.3 Research Preparation 19
3.3.1 Preliminary Checks 19
3.3.2 Pilot Test 19
3.4 Sampling 19
3.5 Coding of Websites 20
3.6 Recording of Information 21

3. Chapter 4 Analysis and Results
4.1 Statistical Techniques 22
4.2 Results 22
4.2.1 Frequency of MEIA Features Present on Websites 22
4.2.2 Total MEIA Scores and Income of Organisation 25
Chapter 5 Analyses and Discussion
5.1 Research Objectives 29
5.2 Research Discussion 29
5.2.1 Content on Medium–Sized Fundraising NPO Websites 29
5.2.2 NPO Website Interactivity 33
5.2.3 NPO Website Stakeholder Engagement and Organisational Income 34
5.2.4 Internet Adoption 34
Chapter 6 Conclusions
6.1 Conclusions 39
6.2 Thesis Contributions 39
6.3 Managerial Implications 39
6.4 Limitations 40
6.5 Future Research Opportunities 43
Bibliography and References
Appendices

4. Acknowledgements
I would like to thank my family for their support over the course of this degree particularly
during the writing of this dissertation. I would also like to thank John Eldred in his role as
dissertation supervisor and those that took part in the interviews.
i

5. Abstract
There are over 180,000 Not–for–Profit Organisations (NPOs) in England and Wales. The
sector’s workforce totals 668,000 and has a collective income of approximately £52 billion1.
Despite the scale of the sector, relatively little is known about its online marketing activity.
This exploratory study’s aim was to gain insight into the way in which fundraising NPOs
engage stakeholders through their websites. The main aims were to find out i) what type of
content medium–sized, fundraising NPOs have on their websites; ii) whether fundraising
NPO websites were interactive and iii) if there was a relationship between the website’s
stakeholder engagement capability and its organisational income.
Key online stakeholder engagement features were classified into four main headings:
Mission, Ecommerce, Interactivity and Accountability (abbreviated to MEIA). Through a
priori content analysis of 100 websites, the presence of different MEIA features were logged
in SPSS and analysed. Each website was assigned a MEIA score which was related to the
number of stakeholder engagement features on the website.
Frequency analysis across all websites was conducted revealing the most frequently used
website features. Cross-tabulations and Chi–square analysis indicated that the level of
organisational income was not related to an NPO’s online stakeholder engagement
capabilities. In addition, it was found that more NPO websites featured low maintenance,
one–to–many interactivity features such as email addresses rather than the more involved but
arguably more engaging, many–to–many interactivity features such as forums.
Influencing factors of websites’ adoption of technology or innovation have been found by
some researchers to be related to internal factors such as the senior management team (SMT)
and organisational strategy and whether online capabilities exist in the organisation.
Following interviews with staff at the organisations whose websites were analysed, it was
confirmed that those that achieved high MEIA scores also had an organisational focus on the
website with SMT support.
Keywords: not–for–profit; online marketing; websites; Internet; charity; content analysis.
1
Charity Commission and NCVO UK Civil Society Almanac 2010
ii

6. Table of Tables
Table 1 Mission Features Examined in Content Analysis
Table 2 Ecommerce Features Examined in Content Analysis
Table 3 Interactivity Features Examined in Content Analysis
Table 4 Accountability Features Examined in Content Analysis
Table 5 Scatterplot of Website Stakeholder Engagement Score (MEIA Score) Against
Income
Table 6 Summary of Website Features with Significant Differences Between Income
Brackets
Table 7 One–to–Many and Many–to–Many Interactivity Features Comparison
iii

7. List of Appendices
Appendix 1 Charity/Not–for–Profit Categorisation
Appendix 2 American Cancer Society & its Stakeholders
Appendix 3 Six Stages in the Decision Innovation Process
Appendix 4 Fit and Reinforcement of 7Cs
Appendix 5 Reasons for the Increase in NPO Accountability Measures
Appendix 6 Key Online Stakeholder Engagement Features
Appendix 7 Coding Rationale
Appendix 8 Coding Manual
Appendix 9 Coding Form
Appendix 10 List of Pilot Study Websites
Appendix 11 Post–Pilot Changes to Coding Form
Appendix 12 List of Websites Analysed
Appendix 13 Sample Classified by Type
Appendix 14 Cross-tabulation and Chi-Square Analysis Tables
Appendix 15 MEIA Features Ranked by Frequency
Appendix 16 Interview Questions
iv

8. Chapter 1 Introduction and Background
1.1 The Internet
The Internet, websites and their implementation as business tools have over the years become
increasingly important to organisations (Doherty et al. 2003) and the way they conduct
business (Lee and Kim, 2007).
The World Wide Web‘s first website http://info.cern.ch was launched in 1991 (Chaffey et al.
2009) and according to its creator Tim Berners–Lee at the Cern WWW 20th Birthday
Conference, it was created for the purpose of improving communication. Since 1991, millions
of other sites have been launched, becoming a fundamental element of organisational
operations influencing everything from branding to logistics. The UK has an Internet
penetration rate of 76%1 with both the supporting technology and Internet surfers becoming
more sophisticated (McNutt, 2008).
1.2 Not–for–Profit Organisations (NPOs)
Alongside the development of the Internet – although unrelated – NPOs have also grown and
developed in terms of numbers and their remit. According to Grobman (2008), the definition
of an NPO is ―an organisation that does not distribute its surplus funds to owners or
shareholders, but instead uses them to help pursue its goals‖; this definition covers charities,
voluntary bodies and social enterprises. The not–for–profit sector is hugely diverse covering
community groups, environmental agencies, housing and health organisations (see Appendix
1). Often public sector bodies are included in the not–for–profit category. However, this
exploratory study will focus on fundraising organisations with ‗charitable aims‘. Today, there
are over 180,000 NPOs registered with the Charity Commission in England and Wales,
employing a total of 668,000 people with a collective income of approximately £52 billion2.
With such diversity a significant rise in numbers and the subsequent rise in competition, the
not–for–profit sector, the organisations within it and their implementation of marketing
strategies have become an important area of academic discussion.
1
Internet World Stats – www.internetworldstats.com – accessed June 2010
2
Charity Commission and NCVO UK Civil Society Almanac 2010
1

9. NPOs have specific marketing requirements as they face specific challenges. These include
but are not limited to the following:
 Income is often generated through donations with the donor often receiving little
tangible return.
 NPOs are accountable to many, i.e. they have multiple stakeholders that may not be
the beneficiaries (Cukier and Middleton 2003, Andreasen and Kotler, 2008).
 The driver of NPOs is not profit but the need to change behaviour – such as social
change (Whymer et al. 2006).
 Results of the NPOs can be ‗invisible‘ or hard to measure; Andreasen and Kotler
(2008) cite the example of an NPO that encourages those to take hypertension
medication. When campaigns are successful there are fewer hypertension-related
illnesses yet there is still the ongoing need for the preventative medication. It is
difficult to prove that this campaign influenced behaviour resulting in the reduction of
hypertension cases.
 Customisation of the core product offering can be difficult – to some stakeholders the
offering may only be available as information provided in a certain format, or for
example, with a donor donating to a cancer research charity there may only be the
promise of further research into cancer treatments.
 There is a blurring of boundaries between ‗not–for–profit‘ and ‗for–profit‘
organisations (McKnight, 2010) this means that NPOs have to work harder to achieve
standout often with a lower marketing budget.
 Many NPOs rely on some free labour (volunteers) and free resources to support and
deliver their mission. This can make strategic planning difficult, short term or vague.
Each of these challenges can be tackled with different uses of the Internet and websites. For
example a website can effectively communicate the NPO‘s accountability to its stakeholders
through emails or tailored content. Social networking tools can galvanise campaigns and rally
individuals to sign to up to a cause, volunteer or donate; a frequently used online activity of
www.greenpeace.org.uk. These unique challenges make an NPO‘s online strategy an
interesting area of discussion and worthy of further investigation.
2

10. 1.3 The Internet and the NPO
NPOs have developed – but has their use of the Internet? Literature has indicated that
constant communication between NPOs and their constituents is important (Henley & Guidry,
2004). This statement is supported by Whymer et al. 2006 who suggest that market-orientated
NPOs must ―communicate a consistent and focused message to groups of interest (clients,
volunteers, donors, publics, etc)‖. Andreasen and Kotler (2008) and Whymer et al. (2006)
suggest NPOs have upwards of 15 types of stakeholders (see Appendix 2). Websites can
provide exciting and more importantly, engaging ways for NPOs to communicate with their
stakeholders.
As noted by Andreasen and Kotler (2008), the website ―is an important source of information
and insight‖ about the organisation yet NPOs appear to lag behind other sectors in terms of
investment in websites or in capitalising on new technology (Wagner 1998, Brown 2003, Burt
& Taylor 2000, Grobman & Grant 1998, Jamieson 2000). This has been termed the
Organisational Digital Divide i.e. where ―organizations...have effective technology as
opposed to those that do not...‖ (McNutt, 2008). McNutt (2008) continues, suggesting that
NPOs that are less technologically savvy are less able to function properly and may, in
addition, be less capable of accessing funding or generating awareness. Elliot et al. (1998) in
one of the first papers on NPOs and the Internet support this view: ―In order to raise needed
funds, NPOs must maintain widespread exposure to ensure that the public is aware of their
mission and needs‖.
With a poor online reputation it seems ironic that NPOs were the first group to grasp the
potential of the Internet as a multidimensional communications vehicle (Hopkins 2003,
Johnston 1999). It has also been suggested by McNutt (2008) that this position that NPOs
now occupy is because they ―often lack the funds and technological expertise needed to
benefit from information technology‖.
The Internet has given NPOs the ability to engage more effectively and to a greater number of
audiences. The aim of this dissertation is to gain a better understanding of how fundraising
NPOs utilise websites (particularly interactivity tools) to engage stakeholders. What do
fundraising websites need to do in order to engage stakeholders? Is there is a link between the
website‘s stakeholder engagement ability and its organisational income?
3

11. Much of this paper will replicate the Richard D Waters paper from 2007: Nonprofit
Organisations’ Use of the Internet – A content analysis of communication trends on the
internet sites of the Philanthropy 400. Waters‘ (2007) study focussed on US NPOs and is an
interesting paper as it provides a picture of how websites were being utilised by fundraising
organisations and builds upon previous research. This study provides similar information on
medium-sized NPOs in England and Wales. 100 UK NPO websites have their content
analysed.
This dissertation will attempt to answer the following questions:
 What type of content do medium–sized, fundraising NPOs have on their websites?
 Are their websites interactive? Do they make use of interactive tools such as social
networking media, online polling, email or website surveys; all of which can be used
to engage different stakeholders?
 Is there is a relationship between the website‘s stakeholder engagement capability and
its organisational income?
The benefit of providing this insight is four–fold:
1) Medium–sized, fundraising NPOs will be able to benchmark themselves against those
selected in this research.
2) Analysing the content of fundraising NPO websites will demonstrate the diffusion of
innovation and adoption of online technologies in the not–for–profit sector.
3) An understanding of how fundraising NPOs communicate using interactive
technologies will be gained.
4) The research will help indicate whether organisations with more interactive and
engaging sites have a greater income.
Does the success of an NPO‘s website depend upon the organisation itself as Teo et al.
(1997–1998) suggest? How much resource is available to be invested in the website? How
will the website be developed and who will be responsible for its maintenance? How does the
organisation view Internet technology and strategy? Are the leaders of the organisation
believers in technology? To understand how fundraising NPOs utilise the Internet and their
respective websites requires examination of the existing research.
4

12. Chapter 2 Literature Review
Chapter 2 examines the extant research exploring what are considered to be important website
criteria. By the end of this chapter the reader will understand why certain NPO website
features were researched during the content analysis and why this area is worthy of
exploratory research.
2.1 Internet Adoption
Several papers have examined the factors influencing Internet adoption. Though most of the
studies have focussed on companies and are therefore not entirely generalisable to NPOs, they
may help explain why NPOs are behind companies in terms of the development of their
websites.
Internet adoption cannot be examined without first revisiting Rogers (1995) seminal Diffusion
of Innovation Theory. In it, he states that diffusion is:
The process by which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time
among the members of the social system.
Rogers‘ theory can be applied to this dissertation as follows:
The process by which an innovation (the Internet and its interactivity tools) is communicated
through certain channels (their respective websites) over time among members of the social
system (100 NPOs).
Different studies have highlighted a number of factors that can influence a company‘s
adoption of the Internet and website technologies. Some of the most prevalent factors
affecting the adoption of website technologies are internal capabilities, expertise and
resources. Doherty et al. (2003), Lee and Kim (2007), and O‘Keefe et al. (1998) in their
respective research suggest that an organisation‘s staff capabilities could determine their level
of Internet adoption. Doherty et al. (2003) drew on UK online retailers as their sample and
found what they termed inhibitors and facilitators (strategy, infrastructure and development
capability) exerted the largest influence on Internet adoption. Lee and Kim (2007) in their
study that investigated 129 Korean companies, proposed that the understanding of various
aspects of the Internet increases the business use of the Internet, i.e. the more an organisation
understands the benefits of the Internet and its various tools; the more likely it is to use it and
therefore adopt it.
5

13. Lee and Kim (2007) also found that expertise was a determinant of Internet–based
information systems implementation. In addition, they found that companies with
sophisticated internet–based system expertise were able to capitalise on any additionally
required resources such as hardware, software, and staff to implement Internet systems more
successfully. This notion that a lack of expertise can influence adoption is supported by
McNutt (2008). After researching a number of NPOs, specifically advocacy groups, McNutt
(2008) combined the results and found that internal expertise was the most ―commonly
identified barrier‖ to technology adoption.
A lack of expertise may indeed be the main reason that NPOs adopt Internet technologies
later than companies as the majority of NPOs are small3. Rogers (1995) states that larger
organisations have been found to, generally, be more innovative than smaller organisations.
Rogers‘ (1995) Stages in the Decision Innovation Process (see Appendix 3), shows that
knowledge is the first stage. If an NPO lacks the internal knowledge i.e. marketing or IT staff,
they are likely to reach the Confirmation stage at a later point in time and therefore adopt
online technologies later.
As a result of the factors outlined above, there is also unlikely to be an Internet marketing
strategy or vehicle for planning or implementing new technologies. An Internet marketing
strategy is vital (Doherty et al. 1999, Porter 2001). Implementing Internet marketing should
start at the top of the organisation i.e. be aligned with the organisation‘s business strategy
(Chaffey et al. 2009). See Appendix 4 for Mohammed et al. (2002) model on the 7Cs of
websites. It illustrates how the business model should direct the Customisation, Community,
Context, Content, Communication, Commerce and Connection of the website. It may be the
case that the smaller organisations have more basic websites with less alignment with the
offline brand unless they are marketing-orientated, innovative or ‗technologically savvy‘. Do
NPOs have online marketing strategies? Is the presence of an online marketing strategy
related to the presence of stakeholder engagement features on the website?
Senior management ‗buy–in‘ was suggested by Doherty et al. (2003) as a key reason for
Internet adoption. Teo & Too (2000) support this. They state that with top management
3
According to March 2010 figures from the Charity Commission, of the 160,000 registered charities
approximately 130,000 charities have an income of less than £100,000.
6

14. support, the role of IT will be elevated leading to greater business use of the Internet. Other
researchers have found that there is an insignificant effect of top management support on
Internet adoption levels.
Teo et al. (1997–1998) suggest three other types of factors that influence Internet adoption:
organisational (technology policy and management risk position), technological
(compatibility with existing systems and relative advantage) and environmental (opportunities
and constraints on technological innovations such as competition, information and
government support).
The Internet technology adoption of fundraising NPOs became more apparent following the
website content analysis. Further analysis determined whether there was a direct relationship
with the income of an organisation. In addition, interviews were conducted with some
organisations that had their website analysed to gain insight into whether there was an online
strategy and how involved the SMT were in the development of the website.
2.2 Website Interactivity
Hoffman and Novak (1996) said that the Internet created a new ―marketing paradigm‖ in the
way interactions take place. A key difference between traditional media and new media is
interactivity. One is about unilateral communication whereas the other facilitates a two–way
discussion or relationship which has been shown to be beneficial for website loyalty or
‗stickiness‘ (Bucy, 2003 cited in Sundar and Kim, 2005). In addition, the Internet and
websites can provide many–to–many communications (Hoffman and Novak, 1995). This is
essential for NPOs as engaging, communicating with and connecting stakeholders is
important along with garnering support and creating affinity between the stakeholders. Those
websites that show a low level of interactivity may be limiting stakeholder engagement as
they are not making use of the often free online tools that can engage audiences. Sundar and
Nass (2000) in their research of US political websites demonstrated that where there was
more interactivity on the website, there was a greater likelihood of the sample liking the
candidate. As cited by Sundar and Kim (2005), increased interactivity has been shown by
different researchers to create feelings of a ―higher involvement with the site‖ and ―higher
credibility‖. Additionally, Berthon et al. (1996) (cited in Ghose and Dou, 1998) suggested the
7

15. interactivity level of a website could be key to ―converting site visitors from interested
contacts into interactive customers‖. These aspects are important for all NPOs.
From reading the extant research, one issue that can be highlighted is the number of different
definitions attached to interactivity and the results gained when examining it. Liu (2003) in
her paper highlights the ―conflicting results‖ from some research and suggests the reason for
the incongruity is the ―lack of conceptualisation...of interactivity‖. Interactivity is subjective
and abstract (Ghose and Dou, 1998). Ghose and Dou (1998) in their seminal paper on
business websites also cite the definition of interactivity from Blattberg and Deighton (1991)
and Steuer (1992). The former define interactivity as ―...the facility for individuals and
organisations to communicate directly with one another regardless of distance and time‖. The
latter defines it as ―...the extent to which users can participate in modifying the form and
content of a mediated environment in real time‖.
Across the board, there is a shared appreciation of the relevance of interactivity when
discussing websites. When it comes to defining interactivity there are three main schools of
thought: the functional view; the contingency view; and the social psychology view.
The functional view is as it suggests: a functional approach to interactivity and it has been the
most popular view (Sundar et al. 2003). Proponents of this view believe that the presence of
interactivity features is sufficient as it is these that provide the functionality for interactivity.
Examples of which include email addresses, downloadable content and feedback forms. The
more features present, the more interactive the website. Chaffey et al. (2009) in their
definition follow the functional view, describing a medium as having interactivity when it
enables dialogue between the company and the customer.
The contingency view championed by Sundar et al. (2003) and Raphael (1988) is more
complex and focuses on how one message relates to another, i.e. subsequent messages being
contingent on previous messages. Deighton (1996) as cited by Ghose and Dou (1998) is also a
proponent of this view along with Ha and James (1998). Interactivity here is considered
transactional. This type of interactivity can be seen with chat rooms or forums e.g. many–to–
many communications.
Interactivity from the social psychology view as described by Nass and Moon (2000) presents
the theory of the ―human–like cue‖ within human–to–computer actions. This school of
thought suggests that computers are treated like sources of communication and not as the
8

16. medium for communication. Interactivity is seen as key to the way in which a user will
respond socially to a computer.
Within this dissertation, the functional and contingency views of interactivity will be
examined as:
1. Fundraising NPO websites are likely to have a combination of both functional and
contingency interactivity features.
2. Both of these features can be captured accurately with content analysis.
3. These features can provide a relative indication of interactivity.
In addition to Sundar and Nass (2001), others have demonstrated that interactivity or
participatory features have resulted in positive attitudes towards websites (Ghose and Dou,
1998). Ha and James (1998) state that: ―...more communication between the consumer and the
company will build the relationship between the two and hence result in higher sales‖. Can it
therefore be claimed that the more interactive the website, the more online donations there
will be? Online donations will not be examined within this dissertation but overall income of
NPOs will.
2.3 NPO Trust, Accountability and Transparency
NPO websites must convey information about their mission. Hoffman‘s guide Principles for
an Effective Nonprofit Website states that an important feature of an NPO‘s website is
information on its mission, organisation, people and activities. In addition, Hoffman outlines
four other points: Engagement, Accessibility, Design and Reliability.
Pollach et al. (2005) point to the work of Supphellan and Nelson (2001) who suggest that
most people are reluctant to donate large amounts because they ―cannot control what happens
with their money and...find it difficult to assess the quality of a nonprofit organization‖.
Pollach et al. (2005) further suggest that ―Nonprofits need to create high levels of trust since
their service... in most cases is not directly visible‖. NPOs are moving more towards
demonstrating their accountability and measuring their impact as organisations, with much of
this being visible on their websites.
Metrics and accountability have become business buzzwords, spanning logistics, marketing,
websites and now NPO activity. With marketing, the drive for metrics and accountability was
9

17. in part created by the CRM system (Farris et al. 2008) which gave marketers the opportunity
to capture and measure, in detail, the purchasing habits of customers. Online analytics have
also driven a metric approach to marketing. With NPOs, an accountability approach is less
advanced but showing progression. In the past, donors or supporters of NPOs have been less
concerned with results (Andreasen and Kotler 2008) unlike the shareholders of companies.
However, NPOs are evolving and so too are donors. Some reasons for this relatively new
focus on accountability are outlined in Appendix 5.
As accountability have their roots in the private sector, the introduction of business concepts
such as these into the NPO sector have been criticised by some including Peter Dobkin Hall
for being at odds with charitable aims (cited by Andreasen and Kotler, 2008). What are the
implications of accountability for NPO websites? Will accountability features be low because
the sector does not feel the need to ‗prove‘ its accountability?
Some NPOs post their annual (financial) report, impact (non–financial, narrative) report or
case studies outlining their benefit to society on their websites. The advantage of doing this
may be obvious. In the private sector, companies post annual reports on websites mainly for
reasons of investment, demonstrating ROI to existing and potential shareholders. For NPOs,
one reason for posting this type of information on their website may be to demonstrate return
on donations or funding. With increasing competition and reduced government funding,
demonstrating the value an NPO can deliver is key for future donations and funding.
Saxton‘s et al. (2010) paper Web Disclosure and the Market for Charitable Contributions
presents interesting findings on the online disclosure of the finances and performance of over
100 NPOs. The researchers prove through website content analysis, financial data gathering
and multivariate regressions that ―donors are ‗willing‘ to pay, in the form of increased
donations, for quality information disclosed on nonprofit Websites...‖. Though conducted in
the US, the research is relevant and adds to our extant knowledge in the UK. However, one
could argue the reason certain NPOs had greater donations was because they had higher brand
profiles or better relationships with funders or government and not because they disclosed
more information on their finances and performance. Although the research focuses on US
community foundations and is therefore not entirely generalisable, organisations that improve
the accountability cues on their website may benefit from an increase in donations.
10

18. Demonstrating accountability engenders trust in charitable organisations (Lee, 2004 as cited
by Saxton et al. 2010). Trust is a core actor in the donor/NPO relationship. It is therefore
important for NPO websites to demonstrate accountability over and above their private and
public sector counterparts. Andreasen and Kotler (2008) note that sometimes ―trust in the
mission of the organisation‖ is enough for donors but this trust cannot be assumed. Neither
can it be presumed that trust will translate into support. Dhanani (2009) adds further weight to
the accountability argument by stating that an NPO needs ―the support of all stakeholders and
that in order to engender this support it needs to account to all stakeholders...‖
Morgan and Hunt (1994) in their seminal paper put trust and commitment at the centre of
successful customer relationships with trust dependent on shared values, communication and
opportunistic behaviour. Macmillan et al. (2003) develop this thinking for the relationship
between funders and NPOs. One of their conclusions was that by improving communication,
NPOs can create a lever for improving trust with their funders. Websites can provide this
two–way communication that builds both a relationship with different stakeholders and
therefore builds trust.
2.4 Ecommerce and Fundraising NPOs
In their paper examining small to medium-sized enterprises, Tiessen et al. (2001) stated that
ecommerce posed challenges and opportunities for large and small organisations. They also
stated that at the time small and medium enterprises were only just beginning to ―embrace
these new opportunities‖. The reason the authors cite for these missed opportunities is that
―SME managers...tend to be unfamiliar with the technology and its benefits, and they perceive
it to be both costly and a source of security concerns‖. If this was the case for commercial
enterprises then what is the situation for the NPO sector? Internet Management for Nonprofits
by Hart et al. (2010) suggested that nonprofit organisations have begun to take advantage of
the Internet to raise funds in the last 10 years.
In this exploratory study, the group of NPOs that will have their websites analysed are those
that state fundraising as an organisational function. Ecommerce should therefore be a tool that
the sample has embraced in order to generate much-needed funds to support beneficiaries;
whether through donations or an online store. Charities used to gain much of their donated
revenue from door–to–door fundraisers, events or direct mail campaigns followed by a
cheque in the post or credit card details over the telephone. Today significant revenues are
11

19. generated online. It has been suggested that as much as 20% of all donations are online4. The
Obama election campaign website handled donations worth half a billion US Dollars5. An
argument against the perceived success of online donations came in 2005, in a research paper
by Pollach et al. suggesting that despite the commerce capabilities of websites, the issues of
trust persisted and described the quantity of online donations as ―miniscule‖.
Ecommerce has acted as a great ‗leveller‘, allowing smaller organisations to some extent
compete more efficiently with larger organisations or as Kang and Norton (2004) stated ―...the
Web provides NPOs with smaller budgets new opportunities to thrive in cyberspace‖. Waters
(2007) in his paper that studied American NPO websites observed a 94% occurrence rate for
websites that allowed online donations. This study will attempt to find out how medium–sized
NPOs in England and Wales utilise ecommerce as a fundraising tool.
Ecommerce can significantly change the way an organisation operates and conducts its
business (John Eldred Lecture 22 November 2009). Ecommerce software may well be
available for NPOs to implement but this does not eliminate the issue of distrust. For an NPO,
this distrust can manifest in two ways:
1. Distrust because the online donor setting is not face–to–face, and/or
2. The distrust that may inherently exist towards the organisation.
NPOs are relying on donations from donors that often receive nothing tangible in return.
Donors do however want accountability (Dhanani, 2009 and Saxton et al. 2010). Pollach et al.
(2005) state ―that distrust in the Organization... concerning the use of funds, lack of
disposable income or a negative attitude towards donating may inhibit a person from
supporting nonprofit organizations‖. So although the organisation may have the facility to
take online donations, donations are unlikely to take place online (or offline) if the donor has
no trust in the actual organisation. What can NPO websites do to overcome these challenges?
From Pollach‘s et al. (2005) point of view, donors must believe the organisation's cause is
worthy of a donation.
4
Is it right to charge for online donations? The Times, 16 October 2009
5
Obama Raised Half a Billion Online The Washington Post, 20 November 2008
12

20. Accountability and ecommerce appear to be closely linked. Accountability features should be
present on websites where ecommerce or requests for donations are made. Is this borne out in
reality?
This critically evaluating review has assembled different arguments and views on NPOs and
their online presence. It has become apparent that for all NPOs, particularly fundraising
NPOs, communication with stakeholders, particularly donors, is key. Internet
communications can provide platforms for effective engagement with stakeholders however
implementing them may be difficult. From the literature, it is evident that for some NPOs, the
Internet and websites have the potential to be challenging as there are a number of issues to
contend with. There are still significant gaps in our knowledge of NPO websites and how they
engage stakeholders as limited research has been conducted. The content analysis conducted
for this paper will provide further understanding of what is currently an under–researched
area.
Four online areas can be highlighted as essential support for NPO–stakeholder/donor
relations. It is suggested that NPO websites have four key stakeholder engagement factors as
proposed below. The author of this study has termed these MEIA Features (see Appendix 6).
1. Convincing information about the organisation‘s Mission (M)
2. The ability to donate supported by security cues or Ecommerce capabilities (E)
3. Interactivity to engage existing and potential stakeholders and donors (I)
4. Accountability cues to reassure the donor their money is being well spent (A)
This study will examine the website content of medium–sized fundraising NPOs to gain an
understanding of their MEIA features. After analysing the websites, a stakeholder
engagement feature score or MEIA score will be created and used for SPSS analysis.
Appendix 7 provides the rationale behind the content analysis methodology and what each
website was scored on.
The next chapter highlights the way in which the websites were examined; how the presence
of stakeholder engagement features (MEIA) was gathered and how the relationship between
MEIA features and organisational income was measured.
13

21. Chapter 3 Research Methodology
This chapter provides a comprehensive account of the methodology employed for this
research. The aims of the paper are reiterated followed by an outline of the pilot test and
sampling methods. The coding rationale, manual and form used to analyse each website can
be found in Appendices 6–8. The chapter concludes with the data collection methods utilised.
3.1 Research Objectives and Methodology
The primary objectives of this study are to:
 Investigate the type of stakeholder engagement (MEIA) features that medium–sized
fundraising NPOs have on their websites.
 Establish whether there is a relationship between the content on a fundraising NPO‘s
website (specifically its stakeholder engagement or MEIA features) and the income of
the organisation.
The aim is to provide insight to the following questions:
 What type of stakeholder engagement features do medium sized fundraising NPOs
have on their websites?
 Do the websites engage stakeholders by defining their missions?
 Can stakeholders support the organisation through purchasing items on the websites or
donating online?
 Do the websites help demonstrate the organisation‘s accountability?
 Are the websites interactive? Do they make use of interactive tools e.g. social
networking media or email options, etc. to engage different stakeholders?
 Is there a relationship between the key online stakeholder engagement features
(MEIA) and the income of an organisation?
This area of research was conducted as there is a considerable gap in the extant research with
studies on UK NPO websites limited. Research specifically on NPO website content features
such as interactivity and accountability is even less comprehensive. The sampling unit of this
14

22. research consisted of fundraising NPO websites with an income between £1,000,000 and
£10,000,000 across England and Wales as listed on the GuideStar6 register.
3.2 Research Technique and Procedure – Content Analysis
To answer the questions posed above, the content analysis of 100 NPO websites was
undertaken. Although Content Analysis began in traditional media, it has been recognised as a
useful method of analysing website content and was therefore an ideal technique for this
paper.
Krippendorff (2004) describes Content Analysis as one of the most important research
techniques in the social sciences and defines it as7:
Analysis of the manifest and latent content of a body of communicated material through the
classification, tabulation and evaluation of its key symbols and themes in order to ascertain
its meaning and probable effect.
Content Analysis is a widely acknowledged and used technique; however, its complexity is
underestimated. In order to utilise Content Analysis for this research, considerable time was
spent creating:
 An in–depth a priori coding rationale, justifying the stakeholder engagement features
that would be investigated on each website (Appendix 7).
 A detailed coding manual (Appendix 8) to aid the coding of the websites alongside the
production of a coding form for the input of data of the pilot study websites (Appendix
9).
The literature review highlighted different features important for stakeholder engagement on
an NPO website. The stakeholder engagement features (MEIA) investigated on the NPO
websites are listed in Tables 1–4 with further details listed in the coding rationale. The coding
manual took several elements from Ghose and Dou‘s seminal 1998 paper on website
interactivity.
6
GuideStar UK was set up in 2003 to ―provide a single, easily accessible source of detailed information about
every charity and voluntary organisation in England and Wales‖. Taken from the GuideStar website – August
2010.
7
Further information relating to Content Analysis and its definition can be gained from Holsti (1969), Neuendorf
(2002) and Stemler (2001).
15

23. Table 1 Mission Features Examined in Content Analysis
Mission Details of the charity's mission or statement of purpose, what they do,
Statement objectives or vision are available on the website.
History The history of the organisation is on the website.
There are options of how to support/become involved/engage with the
Get Involved organisation/online campaigning/activism. E.g. Sign this petition or letter,
attend a meeting, become a member, volunteer, etc.
Staff Staff and/or board member details are on the website.
Volunteer
The activities of volunteers are explained.
Activity
Table 2 Ecommerce Features Examined in Content Analysis
Proceeds of
The ability to sign up to Ebay for Charity, or another online auction function
Online
or facility such as Everyclick/Spendandgive.
Auctions
Online Order An option to order products online or the presence of an online store.
Online transaction security cues such as VeriSign, security padlocks,
Security Cues
Fundraising Standards Board (FRSB) are visible on the website.
Online
Online donations facility is available.
Donations
16

24. Table 3 Interactivity Features Examined in Content Analysis
Software
Downloading/Download Surfers can download items from the website.
function
Online Customer Support is available such as online problem diagnostics or order status
Support tracking.
Customers can complete e–forms to express their opinions about the
Email Us/Comment company, products and the website or there is an email address
hyperlink.
Online Polling Online polls or market research is conducted on the website.
A function that allows a visitor to pinpoint the particular information he
Keyword Search
or she is interested in.
A function that allows users to pinpoint an office or closest store to his
Branch Locator/Map
or her residence or see branches or area of coverage.
Social Networking
Presence of LinkedIn, blogs, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, Share this
Group/Online
page or Twitter software.
Communities
A section or the facility for surfers to write their stories, opinions, or
Surfer Postings
other comments.
Electronic Postcard Epostcards for surfers to write and send online to recipients.
Website visitors are asked to sign up to receive emails, information or
Email
e–communications.
Events held to attract surfers and/or to encourage surfer participation by
Sweepstakes/Prize
special incentives e.g. competitions, lotteries, etc.
Quick time movie, and/or other forms of multimedia presentations for
Multimedia Shows
promotional purposes such as podcasts.
Games Online games are available on the website.
Tailored information or designated areas are on the website homepage
Tailored Content
for different stakeholders.
Site Customisation Customisation in terms of site preferences e.g. WAI.
Website requests users to register or provides special log-in areas for
User Registration
website visitors to access.
Wikis Wiki software available on the website to allow users to edit pages.
17

25. Table 4 Accountability Features Examined in Content Analysis
Impact Report An Impact Report is available on the website.
Annual Report An Annual Report or annual accounts are available on the website.
Case The presence of beneficiary case studies/stories about those served by
Studies/Testimonials the organisation.
There is a ―privacy statement‖ describing how the organisation will
Trust Cues
handle personal information.
Postal Address The postal address is provided on the website.
The website explains how donated funds will be/were used or shows
Results/Donations
the results of the organisation's campaigns.
Once all the research was conducted, as Ghose and Dou (1998) created an Interactivity Index,
the author created a MEIA score (stakeholder engagement feature score) for each website.
The MEIA score was a direct count of the features present, i.e. one point awarded for each
engagement feature. Only one coder was used and so there was the possible issue of intra–
coder reliability. The coding manual helped address this and ensured consistency. The income
and website addresses of the respective NPOs were obtained from the GuideStar website and
added to the coding form.
After producing the coding rationale, manual and form, the Content Analysis in this thesis
followed the five stages below:
1. Preliminary checks
2. Pilot testing
3. Sampling
4. Coding of websites
5. Data input
18

26. 3.3 Research Preparation
3.3.1. Preliminary Checks
Prior to the pilot test and the content analysis, preliminary investigations into NPO websites
were undertaken. It was found that organisations with ultra-low incomes (under £10K per
annum for example) were of limited value in analysing as their websites were often
exclusively brochure websites i.e. the aim of the website was to provide basic information. An
example of this is www.10thairedalescouts.org.uk.
3.3.2 Pilot Test
10 different NPO websites of various incomes were tested during this stage. These were
selected from the Charity Commission website. The pilot NPOs can be found in Appendix 10.
Ha and James (1998) recommend analysing the home page of a website due to time
constraints and website size bias; Woo et al. (2004) also proposed this. Other authors such as
Machias and Lewis (2003) have suggested that entire websites need to be analysed for the
research to be of real value. For this paper, the coding units, i.e. the MEIA features, were
manually searched for on the NPO‘s main organisation website. The maximum time spent
analysing each website was 35 minutes. A time limit can help in reducing any bias that arises
as a result of website length (McMillan, undated).
Once the pilot study was completed, the coding manual and form were adjusted taking into
account the pilot study issues. See Appendix 11 for post–pilot coding form changes.
Following the coding form adjustments, the content of 100 NPO websites (excluding the pilot
sample) was logged.
In the process of the pilot test, it was found that organisations with incomes of under £100,
000 had websites that were largely too simplistic to investigate and very large fundraising
organisation websites (income over £10 million) examined were too complex and diverse.
Medium–sized NPO websites provided a practical and valuable sample with sufficient
similarities to investigate.
3.4 Sampling
Accessing a random sample of NPOs from the Charity Commission proved difficult and so
GuideStar was used as an alternative source.
19

27. A list of 100 medium–sized fundraising NPOs registered with GuideStar was created. NPO
income can range from £0 to well over £25 million8. Medium–sized organisations for this
study were classed as those with an income of between £1 million and £10 million. The
websites were selected via systematic sampling from fundraising organisations in the £1
million – £10 million income bracket as listed on the GuideStar register. Every third NPO
stating fundraising as an organisational function with an active website and returned accounts
for the financial year ending 2008 or 2009 on the GuideStar website was selected.
The sample of 100 websites represents approximately 6% of the 1,697 medium–sized
organisations with annual incomes of between £1 million and £10 million with fundraising
listed as part of the charity‘s function on the GuideStar website which covers NPOs in
England and Wales.
The 100 NPOs had their sites‘ content analysed over the course of three weeks in August and
September 2010. A set period was selected as websites can change rapidly with pages moved
or changed (McMillan undated, Ha and James 1998).
A full list of the NPOs that had their websites analysed can be found in Appendix 12.
3.5 Coding of Websites
As there was only one coder, inter–rater testing (e.g. Cohen‘s Kappa, Scott‘s Pi or Holsti‘s
Intercoder Reliability Formula) was not required.
The Mission features (M) took into account whether the details of the organisation‘s mission
were on the website. Ecommerce features (E) logged included the ability to donate or
purchase a product online. The Interactive features (I) logged were those that followed both
the functional (e.g. email addresses, feedback forms) and the contingency views (e.g. chat
rooms, forums). The interactivity features were logged as the presence of the feature (manifest
content) or whether it could be accessed (latent pattern content). The Accountability features
(A) logged were those that indicated NPO performance. These include the presence of an
annual report, an impact report or case studies indicating how income is spent or beneficiaries
serviced. In addition, online accountability features such as postal addresses and trust cues
(how personal data will be used) were considered.
8
Charity Commission and GuideStar – August 2010
20

28. 3.6 Recording of Information
The data gathered from the content analysis was entered into SPSS. Like the Waters‘ 2007
paper Nonprofit Organizations’ Use of the Internet, cross-tabulations and Chi-square analysis
were conducted for the variables collected with the sample split by income.
The next chapter discusses the results gained from conducting the statistical analysis in SPSS.
21

29. Chapter 4 Analysis and Results
The content from 100 websites was logged in SPSS. The codebook was formatted and the
data were analysed. This chapter highlights the main findings of the content analysis
following the application of SPSS statistical techniques.
4.1 Statistical Techniques
The first objective of this exploratory research was to establish the type of stakeholder
engagement features present on NPO websites. Like other content analyses studies, the data
gathered was nominal and therefore did not meet the assumptions of parametric tests. As a
result of this, non–parametric analyses were conducted. The Frequencies distribution function
in SPSS can be used as a way of exploring and screening data (Field, 2005). Frequencies
analysis was conducted to examine the number of times the stakeholder engagement or MEIA
features – as listed in the coding rationale and coding manual – appeared on the fundraising
NPO websites. Cross-tabulation analysis was conducted to compare the presence of website
features of organisations in two different income bands (£1,000,000–£5,000,000 and
£5,000,001–£10,000,000) and by the NPO sector e.g. Children & Youth, Environmental, etc.
See Appendix 13 for the types of organisations in the sample.
4.2 Results
The rest of the chapter outlines the main findings of the research as analysed with SPSS. In
line with the research objectives, the findings highlight:
 The types of MEIA features present on the 100 NPO websites examined.
 Whether there was a relationship between income and the MEIA score given to each
website.
4.2.1 Frequency of MEIA Features Present on the Websites
Overall, 39 different stakeholder engagement features were examined across 100 NPO
websites. These 39 features were categorised into four areas (MEIA):
 Mission related (M)
 Ecommerce related (E)
 Interactivity related (I)
22

30.  Accountability related (A)
The reasons for analysing these particular features were justified in the Coding Rationale (see
Appendix 7).
Within the Mission category, 90% of all websites analysed featured mission statements or
information about their mission or what they do as an organisation. Information on how a
stakeholder can get involved also scored high, present on 92% of all websites. 79% of the
sites featured information on the board or staff of the organisation followed by information on
the organisation‘s history (77%) and details of what volunteers do for the organisation (73%).
The Accountability category covered features that help an organisation to show that they are
accountable or to indicate how donations are spent or how beneficiaries benefit from their
services via case studies, for example. 100% of the websites gave their postal addresses.
Three quarters (75%) demonstrated how donations were or would be spent with 65%
indicating their benefit to beneficiaries through case studies or testimonials.
In addition to organisational accountability, online accountability features were sought too.
Just under half (46%) gave visitors a trust cue e.g. a privacy policy that indicated what
personal information would be gathered about the visitor and/or how it would be used.
Lee (2004), Hodgkinson and Nelson (2001) (cited by Waters 2007) and Saxton et al. (2010)
claimed that demonstrating accountability and disclosing finances is important for an NPO
however only 53% of websites held audited accounts and only 44% had an impact report.
Four Ecommerce features were examined. Arguably the most important ecommerce feature
would be the ability to donate online. Only 3% of the websites examined did not provide
visitors with the ability to make a donation online. Of the 97% that did, donations could be
made online. To enhance the trust required for online transactions, websites should reassure
visitors with some form of security cue (Arrigo 2000, Epner 2004 as cited by Waters 2007)
however only 64% provided visitors with the certainty that their donation would take place
via a secure server or a data–encrypted ecommerce service such as VeriSign or that the NPO
was a member of the Fundraising Standards Board (FRSB).
One way in which NPOs have started to generate donations is via auction services such as
Ebay for Charity, where individuals can elect a charity for their auction sale proceeds to be
23

31. donated to. This service is free to charities yet only 38% of the sites analysed were making
use of this facility.
More Interactive features were examined than any other category. The most common features
found were the functional interactive features: the ability to download software (96%) and the
presence of an email address or Contact Us form (98%). Keyword search functionality – the
function that allows visitors to ‗pinpoint‘ the information they are looking for (Ghose and
Dou, 1998) was found in 78% of the sample. The popularity of these features may be due to
the fact that they require little maintenance. As discussed in the literature review, a ‗digital
divide‘ is thought to exist between NPOs and companies: NPOs may have less knowledge and
budget to maintain their websites. This finding – the popularity of low maintenance,
functional interactive features – may support this notion.
One feature that would require a greater level of resource would be online customer support.
Only 8% of the sites surveyed offered some form of online visitor support. In addition, the
ability for visitors to add content to a website page (Surfer postings) was low (8%) as was the
presence of Wiki pages (1%). Other ‗low‘ maintenance Interactivity features examined
included giving visitors the option of signing up to an enewsletter (61%), watching a
video/podcast (63%) or having information or maps that aided the visitor in locating the
offices of the organisation (Branch locator/map: 64%).
Social networking features were also examined. Engagement with stakeholders was shown to
be essential for NPOs, whether to gain support, donations, or continued awareness. Online
social networking capabilities provide organisations with an ability to maintain a dialogue
with their audiences and create an online community for stakeholders. LinkedIn was not a
favoured tool with only one website utilising it. In contrast, Facebook was popular with nearly
half (49%) of all websites surveyed highlighting a Facebook group or Fan page. 15% of the
websites also offered some other form of bespoke online social network or forum that could
be joined; for example, www.churcharmy.org.uk. Blogging facilities were fairly well
represented. Twitter was featured on 43% of the websites and the ability to follow the
organisation‘s blog was featured on 22% of the websites.
Other social networking capabilities were measured. Flickr appeared on 14% of websites and
YouTube on 31%.
24

32. Features normally associated with advanced websites were also examined. These included the
ability for visitors to customise the website in some way, like changing the size of font (42%);
providing visitors with tailored content (34%); website registration/log-in (17%); sending a
postcard from the website (7%) or the ability to play games (1%). In addition, as suggested by
Ghose and Dou (1998), interactive websites should solicit comments from visitors on the
content of the website – only 5% of the websites did this. The ability to share website content
by emailing it, ‗tweeting‘ it or adding it to Facebook walls, for example, was observed in
34% of the sample. In a bid to engage stakeholders and generate additional income, some
NPO websites offered prize draws or lotteries. This type of activity could be lucrative for
fundraising organisations. 27% of the sample offered visitors the opportunity to join a prize
draw or buy lottery tickets with proceeds going to the charity.
4.2.2 Total MEIA Scores and Income of Organisation
Once the MEIA features were logged, the individual websites were assigned their own MEIA
score. The MEIA score is the tally of the stakeholder engagement features on each website;
one point was awarded for each feature available on the website. The total MEIA score
denotes the number of stakeholder engagement features per website. The website with the
highest recorded MEIA score of 29 was www.warchild.org.uk with an annual income of less
than £1.3m. The lowest recorded MEIA score of 6 was for www.nnab.org.uk with an
organisational income of £1.6m. The interesting point illustrated here is that two organisations
with similar incomes have the ability to create very different websites in terms of their
engagement facilities and capabilities.
To illustrate the weak relationship between the website stakeholder engagement capabilities
(MEIA score) and NPO income levels, a scatterplot was created (see Table 5). The scatterplot
indicated a weak relationship between the income of the organisation and the number of
stakeholder engagement features that the website had. A stronger relationship may have been
expected, i.e. the more income an organisation has, the more advanced the website in terms of
the number of stakeholder engagement features it had – this however, as indicated by
Warchild and NNAB and illustrated by the scatterplot, was not found to be the case.
25

33. Table 5 MEIA Score against Organisation Income
Cross-tabulation analysis was conducted to discover any trends in the data as did the Waters
(2007) paper. The Chi–Square test for Independence was used despite the fact that websites in
one sector may be similar – .i.e. they are not entirely independent and the design of one could
influence the other. Chi–Square tests for content analysis is often used.
The cross-tabulations analysis was conducted to compare the proportions of website features
in two income brackets (£1,000,000–£5,000,000 and £5,000,001–£10,000,000) and the
significance of the associations. The Chi–Square test for Independence indicated significant
associations with income for five of the website features analysed (Impact Report, Keyword
Search, Branch Locater/map, Multimedia and Site Customisation). See Summary Table 6. For
all other features the Pearson Chi–Square and Continuity Correction value was larger than the
alpha value of .05. This suggests the null hypothesis that there is no association or significant
difference between organisations of the different income brackets and the presence of the
other 35 features can be accepted. Yates Correction for Continuity is recommended for use by
Pallant (2007) as the Chi–Square value can be overestimated when used with 2x2 tables.
26

34. Table 6 Website Features with Significant Differences between the Two Income
Brackets (£1,000,000–£5,000,000 and £5,000,001–£10,000,000)
Continuity
Correction alpha (based on
Pearson Chi- Pearson Asymp. Asymp. Sig (2- Continity
Type of MEIA Feature Website Feature Square Value Cramer's V Sig (2-sided) sided) Correction) =
Accountability Impact Report*Income Bracket 5.239 0.229 0.220 0.037 0.050
Interactivity Keyword Search*Income Bracket 7.630 0.276 0.006 0.012 0.050
Interactivity Branch Locater*Income Bracket 4.690 0.271 0.030 0.050 0.050
Interactivity Multimedia*Income Bracket 6.867 0.262 0.009 0.016 0.050
Interactivity Site Customisation*Income Bracket 5.076 0.225 0.024 0.040 0.050
Table 6 shows that of the five features that had significant differences between the two
income brackets, four of these were Interactivity features. This suggests that income will
determine whether these features appear on the website. Interestingly, the Impact Report, an
Accountability feature, is also influenced to some degree by income. Full outputs of this
analysis can be found in Appendix 14.
Of the features that were shown to be significantly different, four were more likely to be
present on the websites of organisations in the higher income bracket than those in the lower
income. The only feature that opposed this was the Branch locater/map.
Cramer‘s V value indicates the strength of significant relationships. A value of 0 indicates no
relationship whereas a value of 1 suggests a perfect relationship (Janssens et al. 2008). None
of the five Cramer values for the features above suggest a strong relationship.
Appendix 15 ranks the frequency of the different MEIA features across the sample and by the
lower and higher income brackets.
Cross-tabulations were conducted for the features by type of organisation but as the sample
was small (two or less organisations in some categories) meaningful conclusions could not be
drawn. In addition, Chi-Square analyses could not be conducted for the different types of
organisations as its assumptions were violated. For the analyses to be valid, Chi-Square tests
require at least five counts in each cell that is analysed.
This chapter discussed the statistical techniques applied to the data and presented the main
findings surrounding the types of stakeholder engagement features on 100 NPO websites. In
addition, the analysis highlighted the differences in stakeholder engagement feature
implementation by income of the organisation. The analysis showed that no significant
27

35. relationship existed between the stakeholder engagement features of a website and the
organisational income.
28

36. Chapter 5 Analysis and Discussion
This chapter discusses the main findings of this relatively unique analysis. The research
objectives are reiterated and examined with reference to the literature review and the results
of the content analysis. The content analysis findings are triangulated with existing research
as recommended by Shapiro & Markoff (1997). Though the samples are different, many
comparisons are made with Waters (2007) and NfP‘s Virtual Promise 2008 report as there are
few research papers that have been conducted on UK NPO websites. Supporting evidence was
added, with relevant feedback gained from interviews with some of the staff of the NPOs
whose websites were examined.
5.1 Research Objectives
The aim of this paper was to:
 Investigate the type of stakeholder engagement or MEIA features that medium–sized
fundraising NPOs have on their websites.
 Establish whether there is a relationship between the content on a fundraising NPO‘s
website (specifically its stakeholder engagement or MEIA features) and the income of
the organisation.
Answers to these questions were sought through the content analysis of 100 NPO websites
and categorisation of specific stakeholder engagement features.
5.2 Research Discussion
5.2.1 Content on Medium–Sized Fundraising NPO Websites
The first objective was to investigate the type of content on the websites of NPOs. Through an
a priori coding form, this exploratory objective specifically examined stakeholder engagement
features.
The content analysis showed that the more popular stakeholder engagement features were
those that did not require significant maintenance. The Postal address, for example, featured
on all websites and some form of email contact appeared on 98% of all websites. These
provide a facility for engagement, albeit basic.
29

37. NfP Synergy‘s research in 2008 examined 54 NPOs (as part of a larger study) with an annual
income bracket of between £1 million and £10 million. Their research supported the literature
review suggestions that budget and time available to maintain the website may be an issue for
NPOs. NfP‘s report Virtual Promise had feedback from its entire sample of 184 that indicated
that when asked about the constraints for their websites, 72% of respondents cited insufficient
budget as either a major or moderate constraint. 54% cited inadequate skills as a major or
minor constraint. Although their sample was not restricted to fundraising NPOs, this feedback
lends some support to the suggestion that some NPOs need to keep their websites simple for
reasons of limited resources.
Information based features and one–to–many communications (broadcast features) also
scored reasonably high. NPO missions were apparent on 90% of the websites. According to
Andreasen and Kotler (2008) paraphrasing Drucker, every organisation starts with a mission.
This view is echoed by Yang and Taylor (2010) who ask the question how can you achieve
your mission if no one knows your mission? This statement is applicable for both NPOs and
for–profits and their respective stakeholders. As discussed in the literature review, according
to Elliot et al. (1998) widespread exposure of the NPO mission is required to raise needed
funds. This high scoring mission result therefore comes as no major surprise. The findings
here are slightly lower than the findings of Kang and Norton‘s (2004) seminal NPO website
study at 94%. A potential reason for the difference in mission feature scorings could be the
sample. Kang and Norton (2004) explored the ―top 100 NPOs‖ in the US who may have
access to more website resources than the medium–sized organisations studied here.
How to get involved and support an NPO was the second most frequent Mission feature
appearing on 92% of all the sites. Understandably this achieved a high frequency as NPOs are
reliant on support from volunteers and supporters to achieve their mission.
Around only half of all websites analysed had either an impact report or annual report despite
the extant literature supporting the need to demonstrate accountability and transparency (Lee
2004, Hodgkinson and Nelson, 2001 and Saxton et al. 2001). Waters (2007) in his content
analysis found a greater proportion (64%) of his sample had annual reports available on their
website. This higher response rate could be because of Waters‘ sample: the Philanthropy 400.
The Philanthropy 400 is the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s annual ranking of 400 charities that
raise the most money through private sources. It is likely that these organisations place their
annual report on their websites to assist in their funding efforts with private companies. As
30

38. proposed in the literature review, one reason NPOs may post information relating to their
accounts on their website may be to demonstrate return on funding or to appear ‗fundable‘
and credible in the eyes of donors wishing to donate or companies looking to ‗invest‘.
The finding of a relatively low presence of accountability features on the websites may
indicate that many fundraising organisations are still unaware of the benefits. The
accountability and transparency concerns towards charities have made headline stories9.
Researchers, as discussed, have defended the importance of charity accountability. The
Accountability features findings suggest a gap exists between the theory and practice. A
potential reason for the gap may be a lack of knowledge or resources or a culture that believes
accountability to be at odds with charity, as was the thinking of Peter Dobkin Hall cited
earlier.
A lack of internal skills may point to the reason why lesser known ethical issues such as
privacy statements were omitted from many sites. Less than half (46%) of websites examined
had a privacy policy highlighting data protection policies or how personal information would
be used or stored. Waters and Lord (2009) in their paper discussing how advocacy groups
build relationships with the Internet found that only 11% of NPOs and community groups in
their sample of 122 organisations indicated that visitors would not be spammed or that their
data would not be sold on.
The more complex, time-consuming stakeholder engagement features were related to the
Ecommerce and Interactivity analysis. The Ecommerce findings covered four features;
possibly the most important feature for fundraising organisations is online donations. 97% of
the sites surveyed had an online donation facility feature of some kind whether hosted directly
on the website or via an offsite facility such as www.justgiving.com. It can be deduced that
the reason behind this high percentage is the sample: the sites examined were fundraising
NPOs. Waters (2007) found a similar percentage (94%) of his sample of Philanthropy 400
NPOs.
9 Improve accountability and openness, says Impact Coalition – Third Sector, 17 September 2010;
Organisational transparency in the third sector – Third Sector Australia, January 2010; Transparency key to
success – Evening Standard, 27 September 2010.
31

39. Only 24% of NPO sites had some form of online store. This low presence may again indicate
the need to keep the website simple as an online store moves the NPO – in part – to becoming
an ebusiness – fundamentally more complex than accepting epayments or online donations as
it incorporates research and development, stock management, inbound and outbound logistics
(Chaffey, 2008). Less than 34% of Waters‘ (2007) sample featured online stores.
With regards to security cues that should be prevalent in an online transaction environment,
64% of the websites analysed had some form of security cue present. Hoffman et al. (1998)
research indicates a negative relationship between security and probability of purchase. The
authors state that as security concerns increase, the likelihood of purchasing online decreases.
Though their research does not focus on NPO websites but websites as a whole it is unlikely
that this online attitude would be different for NPO online transactions such as donations. In
fact it could be argued that security concerns may be stronger for NPOs as there are often no
tangible returns for the donor. Though the Hoffman et al. research was conducted several
years ago and based on US consumers and is therefore not entirely generalisable to NPOs in
the UK, it is still applicable when considering the importance of online security. Sargeant and
Lee (2004) emphasise the importance of trust in the donor and charity relationship stating
―...trust is viewed as particularly important where intangible services are provided; because
consumers often lack objective criteria to assess the performance of a relationship‖.
The gap between those that offer online donations (97%) and those that also provided a
security cue (64%) was considerable. This may have implications for the NPO in terms of a
donor‘s propensity to donate. Reducing trust barriers such as low security cues may add to the
bottom line. This gap between the two features may also be due to a lack of internal
knowledge. The consumer psychology and behaviour behind an online transaction versus a
face–to–face transaction is very different.
Virtual Promise 2008 found that only 41% of its sample featured auctions. This dissertation
found 38% of the sample had an auction function. These relatively low figures for what is a
free income generator may in part be due to Ebay for Charity being reasonably new (it was
launched in 2005) and therefore could still be in the introduction or growth stage of its
lifecycle.
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40. 5.2.2 NPO Website Interactivity
Of the Interactivity features examined, most were functional rather than contingency features
(where one message was contingent on the one that went before it). Functional features such
as software download capability was high at 96%, as was the presence of an email address or
Contact Us form at 98%. The ability to download software and send an email provides the
visitor with the facility to interact with the website without the NPO expending a significant
amount of time or money. Other functional interactivity features were the ability to sign up
for emails; 61% of sites had this feature.
Contingency features examined included surfer postings and Wikis; these appeared on 8%
and 1% of sites respectively. The Wiki figure is in line with the NfP report which found 2%
of NPOs surveyed utilising this feature.
The interesting observation that can be made about the NPOs‘ interactivity features is that
there appeared to be low usage of the features that provide many–to–many interactivity. See
Table 7. Apart from Facebook and Share this software, other many–to–many interactivity
features appeared on only 15% or less of the websites examined.
Table 7 One–to–Many and Many–to–Many Interactivity Features Comparison
One-to-Many (NPO to Website Audience) Many-to-Many (Stakeholder-to-Stakeholder)
Interactivity Features % Interactivity Features %
Email Us 98 Facebook 49
Software Downloading 96 Sharethis 34
Keyword Search 78 Other Forum 15
Branch Locater 64 Surfer Postings 8
Email (enewsletter) 61 Epostcard 7
Twitter 43 Wikis 1
YouTube 31 LinkedIn 1
Blogs 22
Flickr 14
One reason for this could be because many–to–many features usually require a website
mediator to moderate postings or page changes. This mediation could possibly be viewed as a
drain on NPO staff time which could otherwise be directed at its front-line service. Kang and
Norton (2004) found similarly low results with their research (discussion forums 8.3%, chat
rooms 4.2%). Brigida and Colman in Internet for Nonprofits Management suggested that
there is a culture within the NPO sector that views social media as a waste of time although
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41. nearly a quarter (24%) of NfP‘s Virtual Promise respondents featured an online community
on their website.
Finally, more sophisticated interactivity features were explored. These types of features are
usually those implemented at the design stage of a website or are often dependent on the
content management system of the website or provide the visitor with a more personalised
online experience. These features were the ability to customise the website in some way
(42%), offer tailored content (34%), and offer site registration (17%). These features may
appear on less than half the sites because they require a high level of expertise and
maintenance such as up–to–date content, database maintenance and online design or
maintenance capabilities. These findings appear to align with the thoughts of McNutt (2008)
as referred to in the literature review, highlighting the barriers to technological acceptance and
NfP‘s feedback of NPOs where inadequate skills and insufficient budget are cited as
constraints on the organisation‘s use of the Internet.
5.2.3 NPO Website Stakeholder Engagement and Organisational Income
The scatterplot created illustrates that organisational income and website stakeholder
engagement features are broadly unrelated. The cross-tabulation analysis comparing lower
and higher income bracket organisations also confirmed there were no significant differences.
One cannot assume that the larger an organisation is, the better its website will be in term of
stakeholder engagement features. Reflecting on the literature review, Rogers (1995) theory
that larger organisations are more innovative than smaller organisations – as one may have
thought – does not apply to the innovation of medium–sized, fundraising NPO websites in the
cases studied here.
The Chi-Squared analysis indicated five features that were significantly different between the
two income brackets. When scrutinised further, these differences were shown to be weak and
could not be relied upon.
5.2.4 Internet Adoption
The content analysis showed that the NPOs explored adopted different stakeholder
engagement features and website technologies and that the adoption of stakeholder
engagement features is not directly related to the income of the organisation. If income is not
the factor that determines website feature adoption or innovation, other factors must be
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42. considered as causes in the differences of the MEIA scores. The literature review cited
Rogers‘ (1995) Stages in the Decision Innovation Process which illustrated knowledge as the
first stage of the innovation process. As suggested, if an NPO lacks internal knowledge, it is
likely that it will reach stages of the process later and therefore adopt online technologies later
than those that have the internal knowledge. This argument, to some extent, is in line with the
Doherty et al. (2003), Lee and Kim (2007) and O‘Keefe et al. (1998) research papers that
suggest Internet adoption of an organisation is the result of its internal capabilities. The
literature review also highlighted theories that suggest Internet marketing strategy starts at the
top of the organisation and is aligned with the organisation business strategy e.g. Chaffey et
al. (2009).
As part of this dissertation six interviews were conducted with some of the organisations that
had their websites analysed; interview questions can be found in Appendix 16. The
organisations were selected from the highest and lowest MEIA scoring observations to see if
it was possible to gain an understanding of the differences in the scores.
Hope HIV was one of the organisations whose website was explored. The Hope HIV website
scored a high MEIA score, 26 out of a possible 39. Lindsay Palmier, Relationship Manager at
Hope HIV was interviewed and her feedback indicated that there was an aligned Internet and
business strategy. Although no single team is responsible for the maintenance of the website,
Hope HIV was working towards a website strategy that reflected the organisation‘s
fundraising strategy and involved ―two years of website analytics‖. The objective of
www.hopehiv.org is to ―Get new leads, build relationships and reflect what the organisation
does offline‖. Palmier also mentioned that the senior management team (SMT) ―was quite
involved‖ with direction of the website. Hope HIV‘s approach to their website, to some
degree supports Doherty et al. (2003) and Teo and Too (2000) who suggested that top
management support can lead to a greater use of the Internet. Hope HIV also had one of the
lowest incomes of the organisations examined with £1.3million.
www.muscular–dystrophy.org also scored a high MEIA score of 26. Website Manager Sam
Butler was interviewed and asked whether Muscular Dystrophy had a strategy for their
website. Butler confirmed that there was an annual plan with both ―visitor and project targets
mainly to develop the website‖. Butler also confirmed that as Website Manager in the
Communications Team he was responsible for the maintenance of the website – so the
internal capability exists within the organisation. When asked how involved the SMT was in
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43. the direction of the website, Butler responded ―Not too much‖ because in his role as Website
Manager he knew more about website technology than the SMT. However, it could be argued
that because the role of Website Manager exists at Muscular Dystrophy, the SMT have an
understanding and appreciation of the need for this role, indicating their understanding of the
importance of the website to their organisation. Butler also mentioned that the Muscular
Dystrophy website strategy was signed off by a director; further indicating the importance of
the website to the organisation‘s SMT.
www.retailtrust.org.uk was the fourth highest MEIA scoring website with 25 points. Anahid
Basmajian, Marketing and Communications Manager was interviewed. Basmajian‘s
responses gave the impression that the organisation as a whole was interested in the website.
Although the marketing team is responsible for the day-to-day maintenance of the website,
Basmajian said that the CEO and SMT are ―actively interested‖ in the website and ―like to see
the [website] analytics‖. In addition, the CEO blogs every day. Basmajian was asked if there
was a strategy and responded ―Yes, but we are looking at a new strategy; the new website is
to become a portal and also take on some of the workload of the helpline‖. This statement
illustrates that the Retail Trust is so advanced in its online thinking that the website is to take
on some of the tasks from offline areas.
Another interview was conducted with one of the low scoring organisations; a MEIA score of
just 11 out of a possible 39. This organisation wished to remain anonymous and will be
referred to as Organisation X10. A director at Organisation X, like other respondents, was
asked about whether there was a department responsible for the maintenance of the website.
The response was ―There is no PR/publicity post so it [the website] sits with different
departments; no one is responsible as we cannot afford a post‖. Organisation X also indicated
that there was no dedicated website strategy: ―No [there is no website strategy]. There is a
marketing strategy, of which the website is part of. This is an area that we are working on‖.
Some of the responses from Organisation X add weight to the argument that in order to have a
website that adopts technology and new features, the knowledge and capability must exist
internally.
10
Details available upon request for dissertation assessment purposes only.
36

44. Organisation Y11 gained a MEIA score of 16 of a possible 39. The interview was conducted
with two members of staff. They too stated that as a small organisation – just 5–6 members of
staff in the UK – that there was ―No dedicated team to maintain [the] website‖. They also
confirmed that there was no ongoing website strategy but only a ―calendar to review content
and content guide for consistency‖. However they did indicate that the SMT had created the
overall website strategy as part of the planning process 6 to12 months before the website was
relaunched.
The Fire Fighters Charity helps thousands of injured charities every year. They have an
annual income of over £7.5million. The website‘s MEIA score was a relatively low 17. Beth
Cornish, Marketing Officer was interviewed. When asked whether there was a website
strategy and what the website should be achieving, Cornish‘s response was: ―Not at present
although we are have just started the process to develop a new website and one of the things
we will do as part of this is put a strategy in place‖. Cornish confirmed that the SMT did not
have much involvement with the direction of the website: ―At present, minimal input. They
will be involved with the development of the new site‖.
Despite the lack of strategi planning, Cornish did confirm that the marketing department was
responsible for the website and there was the understanding of the significance of interactivity
and website stickiness: ―...it‘s vital to the success of a site. If a site isn‘t engaging, fresh or
relevant then users won‘t keep coming back‖. This indicates that there is an understanding of
the importance of these factors to stakeholder engagement. This does not however confirm
that the required capabilities are available to the organisation.
Technology also appears to have played a significant part in the Fire Fighters Charity website
receiving a low MEIA score. In answering two questions, Cornish stated that the website had
―limitations‖ and that the fact that it was old, limited the ability to make it engaging.
Lee and Kim‘s (2007) paper summarises some of the results found in this paper. They state
that ―innovativeness is facilitated by a diversity of expertise‖. They go on to explain that
organisations with less expertise ―...have less technical knowledge and less technical potential
and...have difficulty in experimenting with and diffusing the use of the new technology.‖
11
Details available upon request for dissertation assessment purposes only.
37

45. A lack of internal expertise as McNutt (2008) suggested appears to be playing a part in reality
as illustrated by these brief but candid interviews.
Another interesting point to highlight here is that the majority of the papers examined in the
literature review were based on companies. What this dissertation may show is that NPOs
appear to act in a similar way to the companies that some of the authors including Doherty et
al. (2003), Lee and Kim (2007) and O‘Keefe et al. (1998) investigated.
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46. Chapter 6 Conclusions
This chapter concludes the study putting forward the main contributions and implications of
the findings. The limitations of the research and areas of further research are also considered.
6.1 Conclusions
This exploratory study provided insight into the type of website features that medium–sized
fundraising NPOs have on their websites. In examining specific stakeholder engagement
features it was found that there was no significant relationship between the MEIA features of
a website and the income of the organisation. What are thought to be the deciding factors of a
website‘s innovation are the internal expertise or ability of the organisation. This supports
what several authors have suggested: without internal capabilities online innovation can be
inhibited. Organisational culture is also likely to play a major role although this was not
examined here.
6.2 Thesis Contributions
What this unique study has succeeded in doing is provide insight on the content of medium-
sized fundraising websites in England and Wales. Readers will have an understanding of how
some NPO websites engage with their stakeholders and the types of online platforms,
software and tools they use.
Research such as Waters (2007) and Kang and Norton (2004) provided information about
NPOs in the US. This study has added to their findings and furthermore, to the extant
knowledge of fundraising NPO websites in the UK, of which relatively little is known.
The study clearly shows that the sample websites‘ stakeholder engagement or MEIA features
bore little relation to the overall annual income of the organisation. In fact the most
‗engaging‘ website had one of the lowest annual incomes supporting other bodies of research
that posit internal capabilities determine website activity. Through analysing the content of
fundraising NPO websites, knowledge on the diffusion of innovation and the adoption of
online technologies in the not–for–profit sector was gained.
In addition to determining the stakeholder engagement features of NPOs, the findings provide
other organisations in the NPO sector with a practical guide with which to benchmark their
websites against. The MEIA score and coding form created as part of this study is a simple
and efficient template NPOs can use to score their website‘s stakeholder engagement features.
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47. The coding rationale could also be used as a document with which to brief fundraising NPO
website designers.
By investigating NPO websites and reviewing the existing research, this study has reinforced
problem areas that exist. A lack of knowledge and resources may be inhibiting some NPOs
from having websites that engage stakeholders as much as they could. For many NPOs, their
primary concern is to support beneficiaries. Moving resources and funds away from front-line
services to marketing tools such as websites could, for the NPO, feel as though the
beneficiary is being compromised. As the beneficiary is the reason an NPO exists, this could
become a difficult, complex, emotive decision the organisation would need to assess
carefully. This is not an issue for–profit organisations need to consider. It could be argued
therefore that return on web investment is even more important for NPOs than for-profit
organisations. Demonstrating this return on investment creates an additional factor for
fundraising NPOs and their online strategy.
6.3 Managerial Implications
Resources, Management, Strategy and Plans – The research illustrates the stakeholder
engagement features on NPO websites. It also indicated that organisations can have websites
that are innovative and engaging irrespective of their income. What marketing managers or
website decision–makers need to do is decide what they want their website to achieve and
dedicate the necessary time and resources to achieve it.
Lee and Kim (2007) stated that ―top management support has been considered important in
the adoption of strategic systems to ensure a long–term business vision, top–level interaction
among users‖. What this research appears to indicate is that either having some senior
management interest and/or strategic planning for a website can help progress the use of a
website in engaging stakeholders. Websites should be viewed as strategic tools as Lee and
Kim (2007) indicate above. Websites have the ability – when implemented correctly – to
actively engage stakeholders whether through raising awareness, generating income or
communicating news. It is because websites are strategic that they cannot be used in isolation
but must be fully integrated into the systems of the NPO with buy–in at all levels. Gilbert
(1999) in early research on NPO online activity described some NPO communication systems
as ―the pet project of a single volunteer‖. Although this comment is now dated it may still be
applicable for some organisations.
40