ABSTRACT

Nonprofit organizations increasingly communicate with their stakeholders using a diverse range of communication channels, some of which involve social media. Although previous studies have found benefits to using social media for nonprofits, little is known empirically about nonprofits’ entire usage of communication channels. It is particularly unclear when nonprofit organizations become capable of investing in their communication channels and what revenue sources affect organizational communication use. To investigate these questions this study examines the impacts of revenue source indicators on museum communication, including usage of traditional channels and social media. By collecting museum data from multiple sources, including official websites and their social media profiles, this study finds that Revenue Diversification (RD) has a positive impact on the number of communication channels utilized as well as on the number of Facebook posts and engagements. The government grants ratio and donations ratio do not have such relationships. The results suggest that financially stable nonprofit organizations may be more capable of adopting new communication media and proactively utilizing them.

摘要

非营利组织越来越多地使用各种沟通渠道与其利益相关者进行沟通，其中一些渠道涉及社交媒体。尽管以前的研究发现了为非营利组织使用社交媒体的好处，但从经验上对非营利组织对沟通渠道的整体使用知之甚少。非营利组织何时能够投资于他们的沟通渠道以及哪些收入来源会影响组织的沟通使用，这一点尤其不清楚。为了调查这些问题，本研究考察了收入来源指标对博物馆传播的影响，包括传统渠道和社交媒体的使用。通过从多个来源收集博物馆数据，包括官方网站及其社交媒体资料，本研究发现，收入多元化 (RD) 对使用的沟通渠道数量以及 Facebook 帖子和参与的数量有积极影响。政府补助比例和捐赠比例不存在这种关系。结果表明，财务稳定的非营利组织可能更有能力采用新的传播媒体并积极利用它们。