Assessing Nonprofit Websites: Developing an Evaluation Model
| dc.contributor.author | Kirk, Kristin Cherish | en |
| dc.contributor.committeechair | Stephenson, Max O. Jr. | en |
| dc.contributor.committeemember | Abrahams, Alan Samuel | en |
| dc.contributor.committeemember | Sanchez, Thomas W. | en |
| dc.contributor.committeemember | Kelly, Jason P. | en |
| dc.contributor.committeemember | Zobel, Christopher W. | en |
| dc.contributor.department | Public Administration/Public Affairs | en |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2019-10-16T06:00:27Z | en |
| dc.date.available | 2019-10-16T06:00:27Z | en |
| dc.date.issued | 2018-04-23 | en |
| dc.description.abstract | Nonprofit organizations are pivotal actors in society, and their websites can play important roles in aiding organizations in their socially-beneficial missions by serving as a platform to present information, to interact with stakeholders and to perform online transactions. This dissertation analyzed nonprofit websites in the United States (U.S.) and in Thailand in a series of three articles. The first developed a website evaluative instrument, based on an e-commerce model, and applied it to nonprofit websites through a manual decoding process. That article's findings suggested that Thai websites are not considerably different than U.S. nonprofit websites, except more American websites offer online transactions. The second article analyzed two different types of nonprofits in Thailand using the same model to assess website development in an emerging market. That analysis suggested local Thai nonprofits' websites lagged significantly behind those of internationally connected nonprofit organizations in the country in the features they offered. The third article compared the adapted model employed in the second analysis, which used manual decoding for website examination, to a commercially available, automated evaluation service. That analysis highlighted the differences between the two assessment tools and found them to be complementary, but independently insufficient to ensure robust nonprofit website evaluation. | en |
| dc.description.abstractgeneral | Nonprofit organizations, such as public charities, are integral in our society. With increased Internet access, members of the general public often visit nonprofit websites to learn about such institutions. Nonprofits, however, lack a systematic tool to analyze how well their websites are developing and whether they are successful in securing their aims. This dissertation developed and applied an evaluative model to examine nonprofit entity website features and efficacy in the United States and in Thailand. The analysis found U.S. and international nonprofits websites were better developed than local Thai organizations, but still evidenced significant design challenges. Comparing the results of the developed evaluation model to those produced by a commercial automated assessment tool, the author found neither to be sufficient alone for measuring the quality of nonprofit websites. | en |
| dc.description.degree | Ph. D. | en |
| dc.format.medium | ETD | en |
| dc.identifier.other | vt_gsexam:15358 | en |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/10919/94581 | en |
| dc.publisher | Virginia Tech | en |
| dc.rights | In Copyright | en |
| dc.rights.uri | http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ | en |
| dc.subject | nonprofit | en |
| dc.subject | charity | en |
| dc.subject | website | en |
| dc.subject | evaluation | en |
| dc.subject | assessment | en |
| dc.subject | stage model | en |
| dc.subject | adoption | en |
| dc.title | Assessing Nonprofit Websites: Developing an Evaluation Model | en |
| dc.type | Dissertation | en |
| thesis.degree.discipline | Planning, Governance, and Globalization | en |
| thesis.degree.grantor | Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University | en |
| thesis.degree.level | doctoral | en |
| thesis.degree.name | Ph. D. | en |