U.S. community foundations: building a generous society in challenging times

Community foundations are nonprofit organizations promoting philanthropy for projects useful in a defined geographic area. This paper aims to highlight how U.S. community foundations are building a generous society with the engagement of multiple stakeholders. Our study analyses the marketing strategies of a sample of 100 of the largest U.S. community foundations in 2010 and 2013. A cluster analysis examines financial performance, aver- age number of recipients, and related organizations to discover the level of philanthropic activities and relationships, revenue diversi- fication, and the level of competition on the fundraising side

Charity brand personality: The relationship with giving behavior

Charity brands have been found to assist income generation by enhancing donor understanding of an organization and what it stands for. Despite an increasing interest in this topic, few studies have addressed the dimensions of such brands and sought to explore the link (if any) with donor behavior. The authors report the results of a large-scale postal survey of donors to nine national nonprofits and conclude that traits associated with benevolence, progression, and conservatism are incapable of distinguishing between the study's participating brands. Traits associated with emotional engagement, service, voice, and tradition are capable of serving as the basis for differentiation and are also linked to facets of individual giving behavior. © 2008 Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action

Competition or collaboration? The effect of non-profit brand image on volunteer recruitment strategy

With increasing numbers of non-profit organizations and higher demand for a wider range of social services, the need for volunteers has never been greater. There is general agreement that competition within the sector is increasing, and this has led to organizations placing greater emphasis on building strong brand images to differentiate themselves from competitors. However, there are also many instances where non-profits have successfully collaborated with each other to achieve efficiencies and meet objectives. The purpose of this exploratory study is to examine, which of these approaches - competition or collaboration - is more appropriate for the challenge of volunteer recruitment. We use data from an empirical study of 1415 Australians to investigate whether, based on perceived organizational brand images, volunteering organizations compete with each other for volunteers or are seen as complimentary. Results indicate that while consideration of organizations with certain brand images - especially the Heroes image - means that donation of time to other volunteering organizations is unlikely, other organizational brand images, such as that of being a local volunteering organization or one that provides support to people experiencing difficulty are likely to be compatible, opening up valuable opportunities for collaborative marketing for the purpose of volunteer recruitment