Relationship Marketing and Communication as a Driver of Fundraising Loyalty and Success in Non-Profit Organizations: A Theoretical Perspective

Relationship Marketing and Communication as a Driver of Fundraising Loyalty and Success in Non-Profit Organizations: A Theoretical Perspective

Joana Macedo, Márcia Gonçalves, Bruno Barbosa Sousa
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-6799-9.ch004
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Abstract

Competitiveness is becoming a growing phenomenon. The quality and innovation in the art of doing business is becoming increasingly evident, showing to the need for organizations to create mechanisms capable of adding value to consumers and occupying a better positioning in their minds. Therefore, fundraising policy planning becomes a priority for non-profit organizations (NGO). This chapter aims to prove the contribution of fundraising to the sustainability of NGO and the impact of relationship marketing in establishing lasting relationships between NGO and all its stakeholders. The data collection of the latter is achieved through the application of the interview technique, to which content analysis will be applied as a method of analyzing the results. The main results of the research demonstrate the need for NGO to rethink how they interact with their audiences, especially business patrons, in order to build their loyalty and be more successful in their fundraising activities.
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Introduction

Competitiveness assumes as a growing phenomenon and quality and innovation are a priority in the business world. Consequently, organizations express the need to create mechanisms capable of providing added value to consumers and occupying a better position in their minds. It is in this perspective that relationship marketing emerges as a strategy of loyalty and creation of strong links between organizations and their consumers. At first, marketing was seen only as a tool to sell a product and the strategies used were mainly above the line, based on massification (Kotler, 1999). The changes brought by globalization and opening up markets on a global scale, not only increased demand, but also boosted supply growth. People now have a wider range of options to choose from when buying a service or product, that contradicts the idea that the foundation of marketing is simply selling to a mass audience. Therefore, at the end of the 1950s, the concept of market segmentation emerged, becoming a priority in the planning of the marketing strategies of organizations. In this context, the below the line strategies are adopted, which promote a more targeted and integrated communication with the target audiences. The appearance of the concept of relationship marketing is proof that the scientific researchers of marketing is attentive to all these developments, having relationship marketing come to fill an existing gap in marketing and giving it a more humane character (Marques, 2014).

People are no longer only concerned with monetary issues, becoming more demanding and valuing more the emotional essence of the brands and of the organizations with whom they are in contact. The search for emotion, social experiences, affective bonds and interpersonal relationships has also resulted in the significant growth of relevance given to the third sector of society, composed of non-profit organizations that do not intend to conceive profit, but also cannot generate injury, whence the importance of fundraising (Jorge, 2017). Finally, the chapter will be developed using a qualitative methodology, through in-depth interviews (structured and semi-structured) to a non-profit organization and three her partners. This chapter focuses on relationship marketing, communication and fundraising (e.g., a Portuguese context). The authors also consider some implications for management, as well as give suggestions for future lines of research.

Key Terms in this Chapter

Loyalty: Consideration of the precepts that concern honor, decency, and honesty.

Non-Profit Organization: They are organizations of a legal nature with no purpose of accumulating capital for the profit of their directors.

Third Sector: The third sector is made up of non-profit and non-governmental organizations, whose objective is to generate public services.

Communication: Communication is a process that involves the exchange of information between two or more interlocutors.

Fundraising: Fundraising translates into a set of strategies and procedures developed to raise financial resources from different target audiences, in order to increase the organization's sustainability.

Relationship Marketing: Relationship marketing corresponds to marketing work focused on the relationship with customers and suppliers.

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