U.S. Nonprofit Organizations Respond to the Covid-19 Crisis

The Influence of Communication, Crisis Experiences, Crisis Management, and Organizational Characteristics

Bibliographic Data

ID8220515
AuthorsRyan P Fuller (College of Business, California State University, Sacramento, CA, USA), Ryan Fuller (0000-0002-4867-7067, California State University, Sacramento, corresponding author), R E Rice (0000-0002-6374-7860, University of California, Santa Barbara), Andrew Pyle (Clemson University), Andrew S Pyle (0000-0003-2932-3375, Clemson University)
Year2024
Volume68
Issue9
Pages1108-1138
Publication date2024-08-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Behavioral Scientist (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0002-7642 • E-ISSN: 1552-3381
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/00027642231155380
OpenAlexW4322496396
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited43

Nonprofit organizations (NPOs) are significant contributors culturally, socially, and economically, but little research has focused on their response to organizational crises. Research has been quickly documenting impacts of the COVID-19 crisis on different sectors, but again less so for NPOs. This is significant because research and recommendations developed in one sector (such as for-profit corporations) may not translate to others (such as NPOs). NPOs are particularly vulnerable, due to their dependence on public financial support and demands on their resources during crises. We report on a unique and unfortunate opportunity to assess response dynamics from a half year before (2019) and a half year after (2020) the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. We draw on a unique dataset combining surveys at two points in time, Twitter use data, and financial information, from 578 NPOs to develop a general model (grounded in the discourse of renewal theory) of five sources of influence (communication, organizational resources, crisis experience, crisis management, crisis impacts) on three types of strategic responses by nonprofits (retrenchment, persevering, and innovating) to COVID-19. Higher levels of communication, crisis experience, and crisis management all predicted greater tendencies for persevering and innovating in response to COVID-19. The implications for research and practice include extending crisis communication research to the nonprofit sector and demonstrating how NPOs can strengthen themselves to recover from COVID-19 or the next crisis

Business · Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) · Crisis communication · Crisis management · Crisis response · Economics · Financial crisis · Management · Nonprofit Sector · Political science · Public relations · Retrenchment · Disaster Management and Resilience · Nonprofit Sector and Volunteering · Public Administration · Public Relations and Crisis Communication

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