Gonçalves, G., & Oliveira, E. (Eds.). (2023). The Routledge
Handbook of Nonprofit Communication. Routledge.
https://doi.org/10.14195/2183-5462_42_10
Samuel Mateus
Madeira University, Portugal
samuelmateus@uma.pt
Despite the importance of communication to the Non-Governmental Organizations
(NGO) and, particularly, to the nonprofit sector, this field has, until recently, left unexaminedits specific features including social capital, accountability and governance,
as well as effectiveness, civil engagement, and reputation from a communicative
standpoint. Fortunately, recent years brought a growing scientific literature on multiple dimensions of Nonprofit Organizations (NPO) offering a thorough account of the
theories, concepts and challenges that NPOs deal with in a changing, complex digital world. That’s exactly what the reader will find in the latest Routledge Handbook.
The Routledge Handbook of Nonprofit Communication is a much-needed, compact
but comprehensive ready reference, designed to be easily consulted and provide a
broad and clear picture of the state-of-the-art research on nonprofit communication.
Although it is certainly not the first to address nonprofit organizations, it is one of the
few books specifically focused on the Non-Governmental Organizations’ different
types of communication processes, stakeholder relationships, evolving discourses
and communication campaigns. It does so from multidisciplinary and internationally
diverse authors coming from communication, political science, marketing, economics, sociology and management domains.
Despite management being the dominant field of the five major journals related
to the nonprofit sector, this Handbook clearly intends to go beyond it and address
NPO from a communicative perspective. In “Introducing nonprofit communication
and mapping the research filed”, the editors Gisela Gonçalves and Evandro Oliveira
remark that the keywords “communication” and “nonprofit” have suffered a 50% increase in published articles (p.3). In addition, Public Relations Review is the first of
the top five journals publishing research on nonprofit communication testifying the
growing interest of studying it from a communicative standpoint. It is quite revealing- and appropriate- that both editors research on public relations and communication fields: Gisela Gonçalves is a professor and director of the Masters in Strategic
Communication program at the University of Beira Interior, in Portugal while Evandro
Oliveira is a public relations professor at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, in
Spain. This is meaningful because a NPO is a social actor (formal organization, social
movement, collective entity) in which its goals, purposes and mission are undoubtedly fulfilled through active communicative processes.
The book gathers a staggering number of 48 contributions structured in four
parts: beginning with metatheoretical and multidisciplinary approaches to the nonprofit sector, where two chapters are about the NGO-ization of civil society (Lang)
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and of solidarity in the digital age (Saéz). This first part stands out by stressing the
importance of civil society to fully understand NGOs (Oliveira) and how NGOs and
NPOs must be seen according to public interest communication since communication is an indispensable aspect in the coordination of practical activities (Jonhston).
The second part focuses on the organizational approaches to communication,
where one can learn about a constitutive approach to nonprofit communication
(Koshmann and Isbell), fundraising and relationship cultivation (Waters) or organizational change communication (Lewis), just to give a few examples. Third part deals
with strategic discourse, including appraisals about lobbying (Almansa-Martinez
and Castillo-Esparcia), internal branding (Liu) and positive communication on NPO
(Muñiz-Velázquez and Frade). Lastly, the fourth part adds a sense of equilibrium to
the Handbook by complementing the theoretical edifice previously built, providing
the reader with actual nonprofit communication case studies coming from different
social causes and geographies. Therefore, the reader will find case analysis of communicative practices of Farming Communities in Netherlands (Vuuren-Verkerk, Aarts
and van der Stoep), the PSSS nongovernmental organization struggling to reduce
vulnerability in drought-affected areas, in India (Yadav and Malik), or the 8M feminist
strikes in Spain and Portugal (Farné, Cerqueira and Nos-Áldas), among many others.
The Routledge Handbook of Nonprofit Communication is a key contribution to
ponder strategic communication in NPOs. But it is also noteworthy because it does
not neglect the problem of addressing the full range of conceptual and definitional
delimitations around NGOs and NPOs. Although this is not an easy task, editors do
help us to better understand both nomenclatures. Even if NGOs and NPOs possibly
apply the same organizational forms- and both are deeply entwined with civil societyNGOs can be considered a subset of the larger category of NPOs (p.2). The distinction between both- as underscored by Gonçalves and Oliveira in the opening chapter
of the Handbook- is that NGOs advocate public interest issues even if NPOs are “the
fabric of civil society” contributing to the public good (p.2). As we see, it is not easy
to clearly separate them. Maybe that’s why editors feel the need to suggest a working definition based on the literature on strategic communication, PR, organizational
communication, and communication management: “Nonprofit communication is all
the communicative processes enacted by an actor on behalf of a communicative entity in the public sphere and inside the collective, framed and governed polyphonically
and according to formal and informal strategies” (p.6).
The Routledge Handbook of Nonprofit Communication presents us with very strong
points: first, it offers extremely diverse perspectives and theories at micro, meso and
macro levels. By analyzing communicative processes, it enables us to better apprehend NPOs. Second, it covers new theoretical and empirical developments having a
dual comprehension of NPOs that stresses actual organizations while contrasting
them with key and state-of-the art theoretical concepts. Third, it does not forget to
include social media and digital communication on the challenges that NPOs deal
with today. Fourth, by including researchers from all around the world, the Handbook
does provide an eclectic perspective on the field that sums up different academic
cultures including the German, Indian, Portuguese, Spanish, North-American, SouthAmerican and British ones. Also, editors also stress this academic openness when,
for instance mentioning the French-speaking academia (p.6).
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Even though it is an important contribution to the field, The Routledge Handbook
of Nonprofit Communication has some minor issues. If, on one hand, 34 chapters
signal the richness and complexity of nonprofit communication research, on the other hand, it demands a serious commitment which the reader cannot always afford
because of the fast-paced society we live in. On other hand, the handbook could be
closer to a prescriptive or normative approach to nonprofit communication. Even if
it is plainly stated that the objective is “to mirror the diversity that exists in nonprofit
communication research and to include visions from distinct academic traditions.
Nonprofit communication is a field situated at the crossroads of communication, management, marketing, organizational, and public relations studies.”(p. 2), one may feel
that a more normative orientation would be useful. Before such an interdisciplinary
approach and the categorization of NGOs and NPOs, a kind of overarching conceptual order could be much appreciated to establish nonprofit communication across
different scientific domains.
Overall, The Routledge Handbook of Nonprofit Communication is a significant
book that not only brings attention to a much-needed communicative perspective
on NPOs, but also helps to inspire both the junior researcher searching for theoretical foundations, as the senior researcher looking for the ultimate explorations and
nonprofit communication case studies. Whatever the need the reader may want to
accomplish, this well-written book with top selected authors will certainly inspire us
all to pursue the task of acknowledging the important tasks of NPOs to better communicate their practical responses to the social problems in which the corporate,
profit-centered, organizations have failed.
Biographical note
Samuel Mateus, PhD, teaches Public Relations at Madeira University. He is the author of
Manual Prático de Assessoria de Imprensa e Discurso Mediático ebooks.
ORCID iD: 0000-0002-1034-6449
Ciência ID: 7510-B725-7BE3
Scopus Author ID: 57188589802
Address: Universidade da Madeira, Faculdade de Artes e Humanidades, Departamento de
Línguas, Literaturas e Culturas, Campus Universitário da Penteada, 9000-390 Funchal
How to cite
Mateus, S. (2023). Gonçalves, G., & Oliveira, E. (Ed.). (2023). The Routledge Handbook of Nonprofit Communication. Routledge. Revista Media & Jornalismo, 23(42), 171-173.
https://doi.org/10.14195/2183-5462_42_10
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
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