New Dimensions of Nonprofit Responsiveness : The Application and Promise of Internet-Based Technologies

The incredible diffusion of the Internet is ushering in a new era of possibilities for nonprofit organizations to engage with and be responsive to their core stakeholders, yet little is known of the range and extent of such practices. To enhance our understanding of these increasingly important yet understudied phenomena, we conduct a comprehensive study of 117 community foundations’ Web-based stakeholder responsiveness practices. Our examination of four key dimensions of online responsiveness revealed a number of best practices and areas of untapped potential. We argue that online stakeholder responsiveness is increasingly a strategic concern; to successfully fulfill their mission, organizations thus need to seriously consider the amount and interactivity of the content they target at each of their core constituents