Enhancing non-profit engagement: the extended model of webpage engagement and adoption for strategic management.

Abstract

This paper examines the study of Non-Profit Organization’s (NPOs’) webpages through the Strategic Online Communication Approach (SOCA) context to underpin public engagement. Although it can be argued that social networking sites such as Facebook or Twitter have a significant role in interactive online engagement, it is often webpages that have the critical role in creating engagement in the initial (and arguably most important) stage of opening dialog. In the SOCA context NPOs’ webpages need to be strategically planned and aligned with the NPOs goals and targeted to various stakeholders such as the general public, volunteers and donors. In general terms, this research resulted in a sequential model called EMEA (Extended Model of Webpages Engagement and Adoption) with three levels (information, interaction, and action). The EMEA model shows the efficiency and maturity of the webpages, indicating the level of engagement that should be possible, to therefore improve relationships with the public and obtain better results. Results show that the more ‘ways to help’ an NPO presents on its webpage, the greater the level of potential engagement (as different options to collaborate, convey trustworthy information, and control content are evident). Finally, this research showed that the greater engagement achieved by NPOs, the better the likely results and therefore the effective application of EMEA can explain and even predict success for NPOs. This paper only addresses web pages, and therefore further research is needed to clarify the role of Social Networking Sites (SNS) for high interactivity. Secondly, although EMEA is able to explain and even predict the levels of engagement, it is not evident that it necessarily occurs. Finally, although EMEA is applied correctly, it does not guarantee that NPOs are managing communication in the context of SOCA, since a multi-channel online strategy is required.