An Exploratory Study into the Nonprofit Communication Profession - A Job Description Content Analysis

Abstract

Nonprofit public relations and role theory have both been studied in-depth, but this study seeks to employ an innovative method that will not only answer research questions on nonprofit public relations but also has the potential to change the way researchers study public relations and nonprofit public relations role theories (Dozier & Broom, 2006; Dyer, Harrison, & Weber, 2002; Grunig, 2006). A content analysis of job descriptions from nonprofit organizations for communications positions was conducted to study the responsibilities and tasks the organizations want to emphasize. Specifically, this study illuminates the tasks that are common within nonprofit public relations roles and examine tasks that are unique to public relations like fundraising and marketing. This content analysis also focused on the how the positions fit within the management-technician dichotomy. The management roles were further dissected into four management categories (Fieseler et al., 2015). The results of this study confirm that marketing and fundraising are both prominent factors in nonprofit public relations practitioners’ roles. The results also show that the coaching and liaison management types are by far the most-frequent, encompassing advising management, coaching employees, media relations, and donor relations. This research impacts nonprofits, practitioners, educators, and academia. Furthermore, this exploratory study provides the opportunity for much more research of this variety.Master of Art