Community Attachment, Communication Mediation, and Nonprofit Participation: An Integrated Community Communication Approa
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RESEARCH PAPERS
Community Attachment, Communication Mediation, and Nonprofit Participation: An Integrated Community Communication Approach Wenlin Liu1 • Seungahn Nah2
Accepted: 12 September 2020 International Society for Third-Sector Research 2020
Abstract Nonprofit participation in the form of giving and volunteering has long been viewed as the building blocks of participatory democracy. Yet, prior research has rarely treated nonprofit participation as a distinctive form from the general construct of civic participation. Extending Communication Mediation Model, we examine nonprofit participation behaviors within community-based communication possesses. We use structural equation modeling to investigate the paths of influence among community attachment variables, nonprofit-specific media use and discussion, and individuals’ volunteering and giving behaviors. Results highlight the importance of nonprofitspecific discussion in (1) directly promoting giving and volunteering behaviors (2) mediating the influence of nonprofit-specific traditional media use, and (3) translating community attachment into greater giving and volunteering activities. Different community and communication mechanisms are identified to predict nonprofit giving versus volunteering. Keywords Nonprofit giving Volunteering Community attachment Communication mediation model Nonprofitspecific media use Nonprofit-specific discussion
& Wenlin Liu [email protected]; [email protected] 1
Jack J. Valenti School of Communication, University of Houston, 3347 Cullen Blvd, Houston, TX 77004, USA
2
School of Journalism and Communication, University of Oregon, Allen Hall, 1275, Eugene, OR 97403, USA
Introduction As part of a society’s civic infrastructure, nonprofit and voluntary organizations play a vital role in sustaining social capital and solving problems beyond the scope of public and private sectors (Putnam 1995). However, recent years have witnessed a decline of nonprofit participation in the United States. As an important pillar of civic participation, nonprofit participation refers to citizens’ pro-social behaviors in the forms of volunteering and giving (Cnaan and Park 2016). A recent survey from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2016) shows that the average volunteering rates for almost all age groups declined between 2011 and 2015 (Patterson 2018), a finding consistent with the claim made by Robert Putnam (1995) more than a decade ago. Thus, promoting nonprofit participation is more important than ever. The level of nonprofit participation is not only a benchmark of a society’s civic vitality but matters substantially when it comes to nonprofit performance and organizational survival (Van Slyke and Brooks 2005). While existing research has examined individual-level factors associated with nonprofit participation, such as socio-demographic background or psychological traits (e.g., Bekkers and Wiepking 2011a, b; Smith et al. 2016; Wiepking and Bekkers 2012), there lacks a theoretical approach that situates everyday nonprofit par
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