Interactive communication features on nonprofit organizations' webpages for the practice of excellence in public relations

The main aims of this study were: (1) to examine how nonprofit organizations utilize their websites as a public relations tool, especially for media relations, donor relations, volunteer relations and their interactive communication features and (2) to ascertain whether non-profit organizations' revenues are positively correlated with the presence and prominence of their media relations, donor relations, and volunteer-relations efforts online. To accomplish this, a content analysis of 98 websites was conducted from the list of the NPT Top 100. Statistical analysis revealed that there were no significant relationships between revenues and usage of the web by nonprofit organizations for media relations, donor relations and volunteer relations. This study found that although most of the top 100 nonprofit organizations have website content for online media relations, the majority had yet to furnish journalist-friendly web content because clearly labeled online press rooms dedicated to journalists were infrequent. We also found that donors are treated as the most important stakeholders given the frequency of inter-active features and prominence of content dedicated on the websites to donors in comparison with journalists and volunteers. Finally, the conceptual and practical implications of the investigation are discussed.