“The charity sector includes all organizations which meet the strict requirements for charity registration. The voluntary sector includes charities and many other organizations with social and political aims that have not registered as charities or do not meet the criteria” (Hudson, 2003: p. 08). So, charities are value led organizations with social, philosophical, moral and religious values. These organizations aim to bring change through proper campaigning and provide appropriate services to solve problems. They offer social services that bring different benefits and satisfaction to deserving people (Hudson, 1995). However, charity organizations are facing a lot of competition for resources and volunteers’ time (Balabanis et al. 1997; Carlson et al., 2011). They are looking for cost efficient ways to retain volunteers and relationships with prospective volunteers.
Yavas et al. (1993) mentioned in the context of charity organizations that donors’/volunteers’ behaviour seems to be very challenging to understand. It is necessary for long term success and survival of charities to carry out marketing and consumer behaviour application, especially in times of economic pressures and competition. Currently these organizations are facing a challenge of integrating multi public relationships by going beyond the communication and public relations function (Mokwa, 1990).
Kotler explained the relationships between volunteers/donors and charities as transitive. Kotler (1972) defined a transaction as an exchange of values and this definition can be easily applied to the transactions taking place among
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volunteers/donors and their organizations. According to Kotler and Andreasen (1991) this exchange between the charity and its volunteers includes social and psychological benefits on the one hand but sacrifice of time, money and sometimes economic cost on the other. The two parties involved in this exchange are volunteers or donors who provide resources on the charity’s behalf and beneficiaries to whom resources are allocated. Charities need to attract and retain the potential volunteers for their operations, which is why Kotler (1979) advocated introducing marketing for non-profit organizations. Marketing is mainly involved in creating, increasing and maintaining these exchanges. He concluded that marketing really plays its role in strengthening the contribution, growth and survival of charity organizations.
However, Kotler and Andreasen (1991) concluded that it is not easy to apply the marketing concept in charity organization as there are many factors to consider; not least that effective marketing is expensive. On the other hand, they feared it would cause pressure on other charity organizations to pursue it. Still, many researchers (Jaworski and Kohli, 1993; Balabanis et al., 1997) have supported the assumption that marketing in charities could improve their performance. Balabanis et al. (1997) explored how marketing concepts have been adopted as a management philosophy in certain charity organizations. Marketing has become as acceptable function in charities due to its performance contributions.
2.2.1 Charities’ Problems
In today’s scenario volunteering is more important because charities need to manage their costs due to the recession and the reduction of government support. Hence, in Mitchell and Donald’s (1996) point of view, recruitment and retention of volunteers is a big challenge for non-profit and charity organizations. Charity organizations have to invest a lot of money for recruitment and training of volunteers. High
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turnover creates problems to charities and their beneficiaries especially when long term commitment and special skills for volunteering are required (Miller et al., 1990;
Fisher and Ackerman 1998; Chawla and Sondhi, 2011). In the present time of economic recession, it is even harder for charity organizations to recruit new volunteers and train them.
Another main issue is the effective application of communication with volunteers because charity organizations are much concerned with their clientele as compared to the volunteers. It is necessary to pay attention to those people who are contributing and utilizing their energies, time and resources for social wellbeing (Ramrayka, 2001). Therefore donors, campaigners and volunteers should be a part of the charity’s communication to boost participation with charities. It is time to think about why people do volunteering and how organizations can promote volunteerism. To address this issue, this research is looking at social identity implications for marketing in charity organizations.
Bennett and Savani (2004) argued that marketing is not well recognized in charities for its contribution. The reason might be that charities are held accountable for their expenditures, and particularly for marketing expenditures. Bennett and Savani (2004) stated that many large UK charities are facing problems regarding their marketing practices as their managers believe that all money and resources should be utilised purely for philanthropic activities rather than in marketing activities. They noticed that marketing cost is higher than management so charities need those strategies which are helpful to manage their expenses (Bennett and Savani, 2004). It is not easy to measure the effectiveness of a marketing programme and how it creates awareness and its contribution to attract new volunteers and retain existing volunteers. That is why this research is focusing on internal marketing, which can
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help charity organizations to understand volunteers’ attitude and design of quality communication with volunteers. In a few cases volunteers’ do not want to withdraw but the desire and energy to serve the charity’s beneficiaries may be reduced (Adams and Shepherd, 1996), which is why charities should motivate volunteers by boosting their morale.
Analysis of the some facts and figures highlights the importance of volunteering that must be considered by charities. According to the Third Sector Research Centre, 1%
of the population accounts for 9% of unpaid help recorded in the Citizenship Survey.
Further, 66% of unpaid help is given by 7% of the population; 87% is given by 31%
of the population (http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/joepublic/2010/aug/24/). In another survey, the Guardian found that 88% of the voluntary and community sector’s resources in the North East of the UK come from the public and about 62%
of these have already decreased; therefore 33% of the sector has already reduced their staff. There is an increase demand for services, yet 64% of organisations are expected to close their services in the coming years. It is also expected that 26% will close soon and the other 50% are thinking about reducing the number of beneficiaries due to lack of resources (http://www.guardian.co.uk/
society/2010/dec/31). Therefore, in such conditions there is a need to evaluate policies and strategies to deal with social issues including increasing volunteerism.