The Relationship-building Role of Non-profit Organizations’ Communication on Social Media during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

This article examines how non-profit organizations communicate through social media to build relationships with stakeholders during one of the major fundraising events of the COVID-19 pandemic period. In order to achieve the research objective, we used mixed methods, such as a content analysis of selected non-profit organizations’ Facebook profiles, in-depth interviews, and research notes. We divided the collected research material following the facet classification proposed by Herring (2007). Therefore, we described user activity on selected Facebook official profiles which we found to coincide in character with affective publics, namely a group of stakeholders mobilized and united or divided through expressions of sentiments (Papacharissi, 2014). Our research results add to the literature on methods of enhancing organizations’ two-way communication with stakeholders.