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A master's thesis from Aalborg University
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Nonprofit Marketing - effective communication : A case study of nonprofit organizations in Slovakia

Translated title

Term

10. term

Publication year

2012

Submitted on

Abstract

This thesis explores the attributes of nonprofit marketing, discusses external communication as represented by three campaign case studies, and analyzes the nature of messages that the selected fundraising campaigns communicate in the Slovak market. This qualitative research study is both analytical and comparative. A design of case studies is employed to address the problem formulation. The research is focused on a case of external marketing communication in the Slovak nonprofit environment. Thus, two domestic and one international nonprofit organization create a basis for a comparative study as the specific cases of the Slovak NPOs’ campaigns are analyzed both individually (each case) and across the cases. Dealing with the topic of external communication, a discourse analysis approach is applied to examine the visual elements of the campaigns. Analysis focuses on the ways the objects are depicted, and also takes elements of language into consideration. Thus, the thesis deals with both graphic and textual parts of the NPO’s external communications and contributes to comprehensive findings. The theory chapter merges key theories (both traditional and nonprofit approaches) on principles of marketing activities characteristic for a nonprofit environment, and discusses elements of various communication processes. Furthermore, the theories on creating a communications campaign with a focus on message design are expanded with principles and elements of psychology present in the campaigns. The combination of several theories and methods helps to dig deeper into the aspects of nonprofit external communication.