Marketing and performance evaluations in nonprofit services

• Published in: International journal of productivity and performance management 2010-07, Vol.59 (6), p.555-570
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Israel; Marketing strategy; Nonprofit organizations; Performance measurement quality
• ISSN: 1741-0401
• DOI: 10.1108/17410401011063948

Purpose The paper aims to examine how not communicating stakeholders' expectations through marketing results in mistargeting. It also aims to suggest that, when nonprofit managers do not succeed in capturing stakeholders' definitions of performance, marketing is ineffective and may even result in decreased support for organisational goals. Designmethodologyapproach Surveys were administered to managers from a sample of 135 nonprofits in Israel with a 63 per cent return rate. Findings The findings suggest that marketing practices have a differential effect on publicprivate stakeholders and the effect of marketing on performance increases when targeting public stakeholders, but negatively affects performance when targeting private stakeholders. These results suggest that not properly communicating funders' expectations is the cause for the ineffective use of marketing in nonprofit organisations NPOs. Research limitationsimplications Marketing may have both positive and negative effects on performance but attention should be addressed to the differences of marketing targets in order to fit between marketing techniques and marketing targets. Practical implications The results highlight the importance of a professional approach to marketing practices in NPOs that consider the diversity of stakeholders in expectations and definitions of performance. Originalityvalue This is the first paper that examines the reasons why marketing has not been a successful means to increase performance in nonprofit settings.