Advancing Relationsship Management Theory

Scandals in the charitable nonprofit sector have §resulted in decreasing levels of public confidence §in nonprofit organizations. Given the importance of §donors to the sector, it is vital to understand how §these organizations cultivate relationships with §donors to survive sector-wide controversies. The §organization-public relationship framework allows §the current study to assess the health of the §nonprofit-donor relationship while challenging the §traditional research design of organization-public §relationship studies. Through 1,830 surveys §administered to donors and fundraising team members §at three United States nonprofit hospitals, this §study breaks new ground in public relations §scholarship by refining previous relationship §dimensions, adding new cultivation strategies, §measuring both sides of the organization-public §relationship using coorientation methodology, and §measuring the organization-public relationship §across multiple organizations. The results indicate §that the nonprofit-donor relationship is healthy in §terms of the relationship evaluation; however, the §impact of cultivation strategies suggested by public §relations literature varies significantly.