Charitable Businesses

By Brenna Ruiz-Gordon

This morning brought five young minds together to discuss the theorization of nonprofit communication, an area that organizational communication has yet to recognized as a unique and specific theoretical field.

The panel allowed participants to present their empirical research papers related to nonprofit organizational communication. It was also an opportunity for them to receive feedback from expert Laurie Lewis from Rutgers University.

Matthew Sanders, Shiv Ganesh, Matthew Koschmann, Joel Iverson, and Beth Eschenfelder shared a broad variety of ideas and concepts that further contribute to develop  the limited theoretical perspectives on nonprofit organizational communication.

Sanders presented the concept of an existing dialectic discourse within nonprofit communication. Such relationship sprouts from the business-like and charitable-like nature of modern nonprofit organizations. "They have to maintain their mission of service and be profitable at the same time," he explained.

The author further expressed that although contradictory in essence, both goals (service and profit) are always interconnected within the organizational communication of a nonprofit. 

On the other hand, Shiv Ganesh from University of Waikato New Zealand, shared his thoughts on "accountability" within the nonprofit sector and how it correlates to organizational legitimacy.

Such empirical research appears to be the base of a slow but growing trend to view nonprofit organizational communication as a specific and unique field of study. It is without a doubt a topic to be discussed in future NCA conventions.