Abstract
The study investigates the affordances of email newsletters as perceived by the general public subscribers of non-profit organizations’ e-newsletters, through analyzing over 17,000 survey responses. An affordance lens acknowledges the possibility of multiple courses of action and forms of engagement in relation to the technology. Findings reveal that email newsletters may be more useful in terms of relationship cultivation than has been generally recognized, but also that perceptions of email affordances varied considerably between segments of the non-profit sector. While finding no strong links between e-newsletter receipt and volunteering or donation activity, the usefulness of email newsletters in terms of building connection between organization and recipient was confirmed at a moderate level. While illuminating the range of affordances offered by email, which has been largely overlooked in the literature, this study also suggests a number of implications for organizations in the non-profit sector.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Aufreiter, N., Boudet, J. and Weng, V. (2014). Why marketers should keep sending you e-mails. McKinsey & Company. Available at: www.mckinsey.com/insights/marketing_sales/why_marketers_should_keep_sending_you_e-mails
Ayyadurai, S. (2013). The email revolution: How to build brands and create real connections. Allworth Press.
Bortree, D., & Seltzer, T. (2009). Dialogic strategies and outcomes: An analysis of environmental advocacy groups’ Facebook profiles. Public Relations Review, 35, 317–319.
Bradshaw, J., & Nolan, R. (2010). Digital fundraising and marketing—The great digital divide. Fundraising and Philanthropy Australasia, 26, 12–18.
Branston, K., & Bush, L. (2010). The nature of online social good networks and their impact on non-profit organisations and users. PRism 7(2), 1–14. Retrieved from www.prismjournal.org/fileadmin/Praxis/Files/Journal_Files/Branston_Bush.pdf
Bridges, N., Howell, G., and Schmied, V. (2019). Creating online communities to build positive relationships and increase engagement in not-for-profit organisations. Asia Pacific Public Relations Journal, 20. Retrieved from https://www.pria.com.au/public/38/files/Asia%20Pacific%20PR%20Journal/Volume%2020/Bridges_volume20_v2.pdf
Briones, R. L., Kuch, B., Liu, B., & Jin, Y. (2011). Keeping up with the digital age: How the American Red Cross uses social media to build relationships. Public Relations Review, 37(1), 37–43.
Carboni, J. L., & Maxwell, S. P. (2015). Effective social media engagement for nonprofits: What matters? Journal of Public and NonProfit Affairs, 1(1), 18–28.
Chan, M. (2010). The impact of email on collective action: A field application of the SIDE model. New Media & Society, 12(8), 1313–1330.
Clark, H., & Brennan, S. (1991). Grounding in communication. In L. B. Resnick, Jm M. Levine, & S. D. Teasley (Eds.), Perspectives on socially shared cognition (pp. 127–149). Washington DC: American Psychological Association.
Curtis, L., Edwards, C., Fraser, K. L., Gudelsky, S., Holmquist, J., Thornton, K., & Sweetser, K. D. (2010). Adoption of social media for public relations by non-profit organizations. Public Relations Review, 36, 90–92.
Erhardt, N., & Gibbs, J. L. (2014). The dialectical nature of impression management in knowledge work. Management Communication Quarterly, 28(2), 155–186.
Faraj, S., & Azad, B. (2012). The materiality of technology: An affordance perspective. In P. Leonardi, B. Nardi, & J. Kallinikos (Eds.), Materiality and organizing: Social interaction in a technological world (pp. 237–258). Oxford University Press.
Farrow, H., & Yuan, Y. C. (2011). Building stronger ties with alumni through Facebook to increase volunteerism and charitable giving. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 16, 445–464.
Feng, Y., Du, L., & Ling, Q. (2017). How social media strategies of nonprofit organizations affect consumer donation intention and word-of-mouth. Social Behavior and Personality: An international Journal, 45(11), 1775–1786. https://doiorg.ezproxy.massey.ac.nz/10.2224/sbp.4412 .
Fu, J. S., Cooper, K. R., & Shumate, M. (2019). Use and affordances of ICTs in interorganizational collaboration: An exploratory study of ICTs in nonprofit partnerships. Management Communication Quarterly, 33(2), 219–237.
Ge J., Gretzel, U., & Clarke R. J. (2013) Strategic use of social media affordances for marketing: A case study of Chinese DMOs. In Z. Xiang, & I. Tussyadiah I (Eds.), Information and communication technologies in tourism 2014. Springer.
Gibbs, J., Rozaidi, N. A., & Eisenberg, J. (2013). Overcoming the ideology of openness: Probing the affordances of social media for organizational knowledge and sharing. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 19, 102–120.
Gibson, J. J. (1979). The ecological approach to visual perception. Houghton Mifflin.
Gray, F. E., & Hopkins, K. (2014). Non-profit organizations and relationship cultivation: Do electronic newsletters have a role to play? PRism 11(1). Retrieved from http://www.prismjournal.org/vol11.html
Gray, F. E., & Hopkins, K. (2018). Transported: New Zealand non-profit organizations, digital platforms, and the limitations of metaphor. New Media & Society, 21(3), 750–769.
Guo, C., & Saxton, G. D. (2014). Tweeting social change: How social media are changing nonprofit advocacy. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 43(1), 57–79.
Guo, C., & Saxton, G. D. (2018). Speaking and being heard: How non-profit advocacy organizations gain attention on social media. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 47(1), 5–26.
Hackler, D., & Saxton, G. D. (2007). The strategic use of information technology by non-profit organizations: Increasing capacity and untapped potential. Public Administration Review, 67, 474–487.
Han, G., & Zhang, J. (2015). New communication platform, message valence, and health risk: Does social networking media matter in understanding painkiller use? Journal of Health Communication on the Internet, 19, 161–183.
Hancock, J., Toma, C., & Ellison, N. (2007). The truth about lying in online dating profiles. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 449–452). New York: ACM.
Hart, T. R. (2002). ePhilanthropy: Using the Internet to build support. International Journal of Non-Profit and Voluntary Sector Marketing, 7(4), 353–360.
Hartemo, M. (2016). Email marketing in the era of the empowered consumer. Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing, 10(3), 212–230.
Hou, Y., & Lampe, C. (2015). Social media effectiveness for public engagement: Examples of small nonprofits. CHI2015, 1–10 (Researchgate).
Hutchby, I. (2001). Technologies, texts and affordances. Sociology, 35(2), 441–456.
Ihm, J. (2017). Classifying and relating different types of online and offline volunteering. VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, 28(1), 400–419.
Jackson, N., & Lilleker, D. (2007). Seeking unmediated political information in a mediated environment: The uses and gratifications of political parties' e-newsletters. Information, Communication & Society, 10(2), 242–264. https://doi.org/10.1080/13691180701307495.
Jake-Schoffman, D. E., Wilcox, S., Kaczynski, A. T., Turner-McGrievy, G., Friedman, D. B., & West, D. S. (2018). E-Media use and preferences for physical activity and public health information: Results of a web-based survey. Journal of Public Health Management and Practice, 24(4), 385–391.
Kenix, L. J. (2008). Non-profit organizations’ perceptions and uses of the Internet. Television and New Media, 9(5), 407–428.
Kent, M., & Taylor, M. (1998). Building dialogic relationships through the World Wide Web. Public Relations Review, 24(3), 321–334.
Kietzmann, J. H., Hermkens, K., McCarthy, I. P., & Silvestre, B. S. (2011). Social media? Get serious! Understanding the functional building blocks of social media. Business Horizons, 54, 241–251.
Kitchenham, B. A., & Pfleeger, S. L. (2008). Personal opinion surveys. In F. Shull, J. Singer, & D. I. Sjoberg (Eds.), Guide to advanced empirical software engineering (pp. 63–92). Springer-Verlag.
Leonardi, P. (2009). Crossing the implementation line: The mutual constitution of technology and organizing across development and use activities. Communication Theory, 19, 277–309. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2885.2009.01344.x.
Leonardi, P. M., & Barley, S. R. (2010). What’s under construction here? Social action, materiality, and power in constructivist studies of technology and organizing. Academy of Management Annals, 4, 1–51.
Lethbridge, T. C. (2000). What knowledge is important to a software professional? Computer, 33(5), 44–50.
Levine, H., & Zahradnik, A. G. (2012). Online media, market orientation, and financial performance in nonprofits. Journal of Nonprofit and Public Sector Marketing, 24(1), 26–42.
Lovejoy, K., & Saxton, G. (2012). Information, community, and action: How nonprofit organizations use social media. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 17, 337–353.
Mahmoud, A. B., Grigoriou, N., Fuxman, L., Hack-Polay, D., Mahmoud, F. B., Yafi, E., & Tehseen, S. (2019). Email is evil! Behavioural responses towards permission-based direct email marketing and gender differences. Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing, 13(2), 227–248.
Majchrzak, A., Faraj, S., Kane, G. C., & Azad, B. (2013). The contradictory influence of social media affordances on online knowledge sharing. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 19(1), 38–55.
McCaskill, J. R., & Harrington, J. R. (2017). Revenue sources and social media engagement among environmentally focused nonprofits. Journal of Public and Nonprofit Affairs, 3(3), 309–319.
McLeod, J. (2017). The New Zealand cause report: Shape of the charity sector. JBWere. Available at https://www.jbwere.co.nz/assets/Uploads/The-JBWere-NZ-Cause-Report.pdf
Nah, S., & Saxton, G. D. (2012). Modeling the adoption and use of social media by nonprofit organizations. New Media & Society, 15(2), 294–313.
New Zealand Charities Register. (2020). https://register.charities.govt.nz/CharitiesRegister
O’Neil, J. (2007). The link between strong public relationships and donor support. Public Relations Review, 33(1), 99–102.
O’Neil, J., & Schieffer, B. (2014). An examination of Fortune 500 companies’ and Philanthropy 200 nonprofit organizations’ relationship cultivation strategies on Facebook. Public Relations Journal, 8(10), 1–27. Retrieved from www.prsa.org/Intelligence/PRJournal/Documents/201402JulieONeil.pdf
Okada, A., Ishida, Y., & Yamauchi, N. (2017). Effectiveness of social media in disaster fundraising: Mobilizing the public towards voluntary actions. International Journal of Public Administration in the Digital Age, 4(1), 49–68.
Olivier, N., O’Neil, J., & Lambiase, J. (2013). Engendering relationship outcomes through stakeholder involvement: A case study of a non-profit organization. Retrieved from http://swmcjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/oneil-olivier-lambiase.pdf
Park, H., & Rhee, Y. (2010). Associations among relationship maintenance strategies, organization-public relationships, and support for organizations: An exploratory study of the non-profit sector. PRism 7(2). Retrieved from www.prismjournal.org/fileadmin/Praxis/Files/Journal_Files/Park_Rhee.pdf
Podsakoff, P. M., MacKenzie, S. B., Lee, J. Y., & Podsakoff, N. P. (2003). Common method biases in behavioural research: A critical review of the literature and recommended remedies. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88(5), 879–903.
Reddick, C. G., & Ponomariov, B. (2013). The Effect of Individuals’ Organization Affiliation on Their Internet Donations. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 42(6), 1197–1223. https://doi.org/10.1177/0899764012452670.
Rice, R., Evans, S., Pearce, K., Sivunen, A., Vitak, J., & Treem, J. (2017). Organizational media affordances: Operationalization and associations with media use. Journal of Communication, 67, 106–130.
Rybalko, S., & Seltzer, T. (2010). Dialogic community in 140 characters or less: How Fortune 500 companies engage stakeholders using Twitter. Public Relations Review, 36(4), 336–341.
Saxton, G. D., & Wang, L. (2014). The social network effect: The determinants of giving through social media. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 43(5), 850–868.
Schiff, A. (2012). DMA: Direct mail response rates beat digital. Direct Marketing News. Available at: www.dmnews.com/dma-direct-mail-response-rates-beat-digital/article/245780/
Schneider, T., Eli, K., McLennan, A., Dolan, C., Lezaun, J., & Ulijaszek, S. (2017). Governance by campaign: The co-constitution of food issues, publics and expertise through new information and communication technologies. Information Communication and Society, 22(2), 172–192.
Seshadri, S., & Carstenson, L. (2007). The perils of e-mail communications in nonprofits. Nonprofit Management and Leadership, 18(1), 77–99.
Shafrir, S. M., & Yuan, Y. C. (2012). Getting the feel: Email usage in a nonprofit community organization in a low-income community. Communication Quarterly, 60(1), 103–121.
Smith, J. N. (2018). The social network?: Nonprofit constituent engagement through social media. Journal of Nonprofit and Public Sector Marketing, 30(3), 294–316.
Smith, M. M. (2007). Nonprofit religious organization web sites: Underutilized avenue of communicating with group members. Journal of Media and Religion, 6(4), 273–290.
StatisticsNZ. (2017). Retrieved from http://www.stats.govt.nz/browse_for_stats/economic_indicators/NationalAccounts/non-profit-2013-mr.aspx
Sutherland, K. E., & Mak, A. K. Y. (2017). Blending dialogic and relationship management theories—Developing an integrated social media communication model for the non-profit sector. In S. Duhe (Ed.), New media and public relations (3rd ed., pp. 129–140). Peter Lang.
Svensson, P. G., Mahoney, T. Q., & Hambrick, M. E. (2015). Twitter as a Communication Tool for Nonprofits: A Study of Sport-for-Development Organizations. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 44(6), 1086–1106. https://doi.org/10.1177/0899764014553639.
Taylor, M., & Kent, M. L. (2014). Dialogic engagement: Clarifying foundational concepts. Journal of Public Relations Research, 26(5), 384–398.
Taylor, M., Kent, M. L., & White, W. (2001). How activist organizations are using the Internet to build relationships. Public Relations Review, 27(3), 263–284.
Treem, J. W., & Leonardi, P. M. (2012). Social media use in organizations: Exploring the affordances of visibility, editability, persistence, and association. Communication Yearbook, 36, 143–189.
Umit, R. (2017). With happiness and glory, from your MP: The use of e-newsletters in the UK Parliaments. Parliamentary Affairs, 70(4), 759–779.
Vaast, E., & Kaganer, E. (2013). Social media affordances and governance in the workplace: An examination of organizational policies. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 19, 78–101.
Waters, R. D., Burnett, E., Lamm, A., & Lucas, J. (2009). Engaging stakeholders through social networking: How nonprofit organizations are using Facebook. Public Relations Review, 35, 102–106.
Waters, R. W., & Jamal, J. Y. (2011). Tweet, tweet, tweet: A content analysis of non-profit organizations’ Twitter updates. Public Relations Review, 37(3), 321–324.
Whittaker, S. (2003). Theories and methods in mediated communication. In A.C. Grasesser, M. A. Gernsbacher & S. R. Goldman (Eds.), Handbook of discourse processes (pp. 243–286). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Worldometers. (2020). http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/new-zealand-population/
Wrench, J. S., Thomas-Maddox, C., Richmond, V. P., & McCroskey, J. C. (2008). Quantitative research methods for communication: A hands-on approach. Oxford University Press.
Young, W., Russell, S. V., Robinson, C. A., & Barkemeyer, R. (2017). Can social media be a tool for reducing consumers’ food waste? A behaviour change experiment by a UK retailer. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 117, 195–203.
Zorn, T., Flanagin, A., & Shoham, M. (2011). Institutional and noninstitutional influences on information and communication technology adoption and use among nonprofit organizations. Human Communication Research, 37, 1–33. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2958.2010.01387.x.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Appendix 1: New Zealand Standard Classification of Non-Profit Organizations
Appendix 1: New Zealand Standard Classification of Non-Profit Organizations
1. Culture, sport and recreation Culture and arts Sports Other recreation and social clubs Culture and recreation support and ancillary services 2. Education and research Early childhood education Primary and Secondary education Higher education Other education Research Education and research support and ancillary services 3. Health Hospitals and rehabilitation Nursing homes Mental health and crisis intervention Other health services Health support and ancillary services 4. Social Services Social services Emergency and relief Income support and maintenance Social services support and ancillary services 5. Environment Environment Animal protection Environment support and ancillary services 6. Development and housing Economic, social and community development Tangata Whenua governance organizations Housing Employment and training Development and housing support and ancillary services 7. Law, advocacy and politics Civic and advocacy organizations Law and legal services Political organizations Law, advocacy and politics support and ancillary services 8. Grant making, fundraising and voluntarism promotion Grant making foundations Fundraising Voluntarism promotion Grant making, fundraising and voluntarism promotion support and ancillary services 9. International International activities International support and ancillary services 10. Religion Religious congregations and associations Religion support and ancillary services 11. Business and professional associations, unions Business associations Professional associations Labor unions Business and professional associations, unions support and services 12. Not elsewhere classified (residual category) Other Don't know Refused to answer Response unidentifiable Response outside scope Not stated |
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Gray, F.E., Murray, N. & Hopkins, K. Affordances of e-Newsletters for NPO General-Public Stakeholders. Voluntas 32, 1165–1181 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11266-021-00374-2
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11266-021-00374-2