Success in an Online Giving Day: The Role of Social Media in Fundraising

This research developed a machine learning classifier that reliably automates the coding process using the National Taxonomy of Exempt Entities as a schema and remapped the U.S. nonprofit sector. I achieved 90% overall accuracy for classifying the nonprofits into nine broad categories and 88% for classifying them into 25 major groups. The intercoder reliabilities between algorithms and human coders measured by kappa statistics are in the “almost perfect” range of .80 to 1.00. The results suggest that a state-of-the-art machine learning algorithm can approximate human coders and substantially improve researchers’ productivity. I also reassigned multiple category codes to more than 439,000 nonprofits and discovered a considerable amount of organizational activities that were previously ignored. The classifier is an essential methodological prerequisite for large-N and Big Data analyses, and the remapped U.S. nonprofit sector can serve as an important instrument for asking or reexamining fundamental questions of nonprofit studies. The working directory with all data sets, source codes, and historical versions are available on GitHub ( https://github.com/ma-ji/npo_classifier ).

Section: A Short History Of the Ntee Classification Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Automated Coding Using Machine Learning and Remapping the U.S. Nonprofit Sector: A Guide and Benchmark

2020

“…As a result, they are more likely to view a crowdfunding campaign as a temporary addition to the organization’s regular fundraising efforts, perhaps to fund a special project or event, and are less likely to perceive a decrease in organizational need based on a successful campaign. Furthermore, the size and engagement of an organization’s social media network plays a significant role in fundraising success (Bhati & McDonnell, 2020), and the network effects associated with more sharing activity should accrue disproportionately to older organizations with larger and more established online communities.…”

Section: Crowdfunding’s Relationship With Future Fundraising Successmentioning

confidence: 99%

Crowdfunding Acts as a Funding Substitute and a Legitimating Signal for Nonprofit Performing Arts Organizations

Alexiou

Wiggins

Preece

2020

This research examines the relationship between crowdfunding campaigns by nonprofit performing arts organizations and their overall fundraising portfolio. Using a dataset compiled from the CrowdBerkeley Initiative and the Cultural Data Project, we find an important link between campaign success and organization age. For young organizations, crowdfunding success attracts funding in the subsequent year, while a failed campaign significantly hampers the organization’s ability to raise funds, suggesting that crowdfunding acts as a legitimating signal. In contrast, older organizations appear to be insulated from the negative effects of a failed campaign. In addition, higher amounts raised in the campaign are associated with a substitution or “crowding out” effect for other types of funding for young organizations, but this effect reverses for older organizations. This suggests that crowdfunding should not only be considered a tool for younger organizations, but also holds promise for established organizations.

“…Social media offers a vast array of opportunities for nonprofits to communicate, mobilize, and engage the public quickly, efficiently, and at low costs (Bhati & McDonnell, 2020; Xu & Saxton, 2019). However, how and why nonprofits are utilizing different digital platforms remain an understudied area in academic research (Briones et al, 2011; Guo & Saxton, 2014).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transnational Nonprofits’ Social Media Use: A Survey of Communications Professionals and an Analysis of Organizational Characteristics

Seo

2020

In response to rapid changes in the communication environment, nonprofits are increasingly relying on digital technologies to achieve their communication goals. We examine factors influencing nonprofits’ digital-based external communication based on a survey of communications directors at transnational nonprofits, with an analysis of each organization’s characteristics as described on its Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Form 990 and website. Our results show that, at the organizational level, nonprofits with stronger leadership support concerning social media activities were more likely to use different digital platforms and value more various functions of social media for external communication as compared with those lacking such support. At the individual level, communications directors’ perceived ease of social media use and time in their current position significantly influenced their emphasis on different functions of social media. This research fills a gap in the literature by analyzing both organizational characteristics and individual communications director’s attributes in assessing nonprofits’ social media use.