A157. Fuller,
R. P., & Rice, R. E. (2022). Nonprofit
organization communication, crisis planning, and strategic responses to
the
COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of
Philanthropy and Marketing, 27(3), e1750. Open access: https://doi.org/10.1002/nvsm.1750
Nonprofit
organizations
have somewhat different foci,
contexts, and resources than typical for-profit organizations, so may
have
experienced and responded to COVID-19 in ways not covered in
traditional
corporate research. We investigate the influence of nonprofit
organizations'
communication support and use, crisis experience and preparation, and
extent
and impacts of COVID-19 on their strategic responses to the crisis
(from
retrenchment to perseverance to innovation). Our study is a
longitudinal panel
survey conducted with 578 U.S. public charities, once before the
pandemic and
the other 6 months into it. Data were analyzed using descriptive
statistics to characterize the sample, and hierarchical regressions to
assess
the influences on strategic responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. A major
finding
is that communication with external stakeholders predicted
organizations'
abilities to maintain core activities (perseverance) during a crisis
and to
pivot (innovating) on mission delivery. Practical applications for
nonprofit
organizations are addressed, with particular attention to COVID-19.