A Relationship with benefits:
Relationship Marketing in Non-‐profit
Organisations in South Africa
Akademin för hållbar samhälls-‐ och teknikutveckling
Mälardalens Högskola
Master Thesis
Författare:
Johanna Feuk
Personnummer: 820408
Handledare:
Marie Mörndal
Examinator:
Cecilia Lindh
Kurskod:
FÖA400
Slutseminarium: 2011-‐05-‐16
A Relationship with benefits:
Relationship Marketing in Non-‐profit
Organisations in South Africa
School of Sustainable Development of Society and
Technology, Mälardalen University
Masters Thesis
Author: Johanna Feuk
820408
Advisor: Marie Mörndal
Examiner: Cecilia Lindh
Final Seminar: 2011-‐05-‐16
Abstract
Date May 23, 2011
Course Masters Thesis in Business Administration, FÖA400
Author Johanna Feuk
Advisor Marie Mörndal
Title A Relationship with benefits: Relationship Marketing in Non-‐profit Organisations in South Africa
Purpose The purpose of this article was to see how NPO’s can use relationship marketing in their activities to secure donors and funding for their causes and projects.
Methodology Unstructured interviews were held with
representatives from different hospices as well as with representatives from the umbrella organisation, the
HPCA.
Findings The findings showed that the concerned hospices all had similar issues and suffered with the same problems, both economical and communicative. Successful relations were built on personal contacts and projects where donors took an active part. The higher the grade of involvement the higher
commitment and loyalty towards the
hospice/organisation. The factors that were salient in the successful cases are also factors that are salient in the theory of successful relationship marketing (e.g. loyalty, commitment, interaction) .
Value The article highlights the complexity of the market of NPO’s in South Africa and some of the issues they are
faced with.
Key words Non-‐profit organisation, market orientation, donors,
South Africa
A Relationship with benefits: Relationship Marketing in
Non-‐profit Organisations in South Africa
Johanna Feuk
School of Sustainable Development of Society and Technology, Mälardalen University, Sweden
The market of non-‐profit organisations is constantly growing, leading to tougher competition between organisations in the struggle of finding and keeping donors. In 1994 South Africa had approximately 2000 registered NPO’s (Non-‐profit organisations, also known as NGO’s (Non-‐Governmental Organisations) or charities), in 2011, the number had increased to 100 000 (Nigel Unwin, 2011). Collection tills in shops are just not enough these days, organisations need to be proactive in order to find and keep donors as well as to make sure that they remain loyal to their organisation and cause. (Marlise Booyens, 2011)
NPO's are bound to find new ways to be noticed by donors and relationship marketing could very well be one of them. According to Gummesson (1990) is "Relationship marketing [is] marketing seen as relationships, networks and interaction" (p.1). However, the conditions change when it comes to the non-‐commercial sector as "marketing is primarily about the commercial part of our economy" (Gummesson, 1999, p.95). Traditional marketing theories are based on commercial markets such as the industrial or FMCG-‐markets and are thus not adapted to a non-‐profit driven market. Though, in the last few years, research has been done on NPO’s and theoreticians, such as Gummesson, have started to include the non-‐commercial sector in their work. ( Gummesson, 1999, Takala & Uusitalo, 1996)
In this article focus is directed on how NPO’s can use relationship marketing to improve relations with donors. First, the background to the study, relevant previous research and theory in the field of relationship marketing that is related to NPO’s is reviewed. This article looks at a specific case: the Hospice Palliative Care Association of South Africa (hereafter HPCA). A brief introduction to the market of NPO’s is also given. Then, the method used is described and finally the results and analysis are presented.
Purpose
The purpose of this article is to see how NPO’s can use relationship marketing in their activities to secure donors and funding for their causes and projects., so, the question to be answered is:
Can NPO's use relationship marketing to secure donors and funding for their causes and projects?
The Non-‐profit Organisation
There is no general definition of the meaning and content of what a Non-‐profit organisation is, thus there are several agreements of what it is not. There are characteristics which have been agreed on to distinguish the market of NPO’s from other markets (Macedo & Pinho, 2004). One of these characteristics or requirements is that NPO’s cannot distribute any profit to anyone, may they be staff, members or others. All profit should go into the organisation itself for further development. NPO’s are organisations working for peace, human rights, education and development to give a few examples. Most NPO's and charity organisations have one or two causes that they work for or a special field in which they specialize and provide services. NPO's are often depending on volunteers to perform their work. (ETU, HPCA, 2011)
Market orientation or not?
Anheier, Sokolowski and Toepler (1997) discuss the implications of governmental involvement in the work of NPO’s. Many NPO’s, including the HPCA, receives funding from governmental departments, a matter that could eventually change the structure and purpose of the NPO as they could become more bureaucratic. They found that NPO’s dependent on public funds were “indeed more likely to be state oriented than organizations which rely for more than 50 per cent of their revenue on donative or other forms of private income” (p.212). Organisations that were less dependant on state funding were more market oriented in their approach to potential donors. Álvarez, Santos and Vázquez (2001) state that the market oriented NPO has to be constantly updated on changes on the market as well as to constantly gather information on activities that are of importance for the NPO. If the competition in the area is high, then competitors and their activities have to be evaluated on a regular basis (p.1040). They mean that “the consequences derived from the market orientation strategy appear to be so highly relevant that the foundation as a whole should be interested in undertaking as many transformations as necessary..” (p.1041). Bennett (2005) continues “The existence of market orientation within an organisation is evidenced by its development of a customer orientation, a competitor orientation, and the presence of interfunctional co-‐ordination of marketing activities” (p. 465).
Bennett (2005) looked at UK charities that had started to invest in other markets, such as package holidays and household insurance (p. 255) to raise funds. This is a good example of market orientation where the NPO has started to use new ways to raise attention to their organisation. The example suggests that NPO’s have to find new ways to attract donors and that the donors would like something in exchange. The risk however is that the NPO chooses the wrong company to collaborate with and then looses their credibility as an honest organisation. (Bennet, 2005)
HPCA and the Non-‐profit Organisation Market in South Africa
To understand the results of this article it is important to understand the charity organisation climate in South Africa. Firstly, South Africa is regarded as a development country (SIDA, 2011), suffering from high numbers of AIDS victims as well as unemployment and poverty. At the same time, South Africa is in the forefront of African development and economic growth. Nonetheless, due to the country’s history and widespread poverty, corporations (as well as private individuals) have CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) plans and the fund-‐raising sector is huge in South Africa. The gap between rich and poor is vast and it is not unusual for private individuals to be involved in charity projects or fund-‐raisings. In poorer areas there are often community based projects where the residents help out with whatever they can. Another factor is that there is no governmental palliative care, thus the need of the voluntary hospice care through the HPCA. (HPCA, 2011, Jenny Handley, 20101, SIDA 2011, Taryn Smith 2011)
It can be read on the website of HPCA that “Hospice Palliative Care Association of South Africa relies on donations to further its mission of caring for ALL patients suffering from a life-‐threatening illness, regardless of age, disease or ability to pay” (HPCA, 2011). This can be read out as a service offer which immediately facilitates the understanding of the market in which HPCA acts. The difference from a ”normal” service market is that in this case the beneficiary and the paying party are not the same person. Hence, the person who pays, the donor, has to accept that he/she/it receives ”nothing” for their money, except the feeling of goodwill. However, many NPO’s offer other things to their donors, these will be executed further later. HPCA itself is the umbrella organisation which gathers hospices around South Africa under its name and organisation. They had 189 member and affiliated hospices as per May 2011. The fact that the organisation is national and speaks for all hospices makes it easier to attract foreign investors and donors. HPCA has close relations with the Anglo American, Cohsasa and the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund to just mention a few (HPCA, 2011).
The HPCA’s main task is to spread information about hospice and palliative care but the funds they receive do also reach the local hospices. A part from that, local hospices have to apply for donations and fund their work on their own. There are great differences between the hospices, often dependent on the area they’re based in. South Africa s still a very diverse country, with strong cultural divisions. Generally speaking, hospices in poorer areas handle mainly AIDS patients while hospices in richer areas tend to look after cancer patients. The cultural aspect has a great impact on how hospices approach potential donors as well as who they approach. (HPCA, 2011, Liz Gwyther 2011)
What is relationship marketing?
"[...] relationship marketing is first and foremost a perspective of how the firm can relate to its customers and other parties, which has an impact on how the business is developed and customers are managed" (Grönroos, 2007, p. 42). NPO's as well as other organisations can choose how they want to relate to their donors and collaborators suggesting that they can create lasting relations.
Relationship marketing emerged in the 1970's as scholars saw the need of a new framework within marketing, the 4 P's were just not enough any longer. Traditionally, the exchange of products was at the core of marketing; in relationship marketing the interaction between the parties involved plays a major role, and the exchange is not seen as a must in every encounter (Grönroos, 2006). Gummesson presents a few factors that can be seen as the cornerstones of relationship marketing, namely collaboration, trust, power balance, loyalty and commitment. (Gummesson, 1999)
Not all situations are ideal for creating relationships and not all donors are interested in maintaining relationships with the NPO. Dagger and Ward (2007) looked at relationship marketing within the service sector and found that not all situations profited from relationship marketing, suggesting that certain customers are not worth the investment. How can one then know in who to invest time and money? Dagger and Ward continue by referring to high and low involvement services stating that relationships cannot be expected to strengthen only because they have lasted over a longer period of time. The market of NPO’s is complex because it gives the donor the choice of how actively they want to get involved, thus the market can be regarded as everything from low involvement to very high involvement, a fact that makes it harder to decide how to approach potential donors (Ibid.)
Bennett and Barkensjo (2004) point out that relationship marketing towards beneficiaries is very effective as these are more than likely to become involved in the organisation after they have benefited from its services. They pointed out relationship quality as well as service quality as two key factors (Ibid.)
What defines a relationship?
In order to understand relationship marketing we have to define the relationship. A relationship is a mutual agreement, where all parties feel involved (Bonniers Svenska Ordbok, 2006). Translated to relationship marketing this means that relationship marketing only happens when both the buyer and seller, or as in the case of NPO’s, the organisation and the donor, agree that there is a relationship. A relationship does not exist on its own through member’s cards and loyalty clubs, it has to be a mutual agreement and effort (Grönroos, 2007). There are, however, many ways of measuring whether there is a relationship or not. A relationship is “by and large related to an attitude” (Grönroos, 2007, p.35).
For instance, the corporate group A has given donations to NPO X over the last five years. NPO X sees this a relationship because the donations are recurring and they believe that corporate group A does this because they have a special relation to NPO X. However, corporate group A has chosen NPO X randomly and supports them because it is easy. They give donations due to CSR guidelines and the effort of finding new NPO’s each year is time consuming. This is an example of a situation where there is no relation, even if the exchange (=donation) is recurring. The example demonstrates the complexity of relationship marketing as it involves more factors than just the exchange itself.
Collaboration and competition
Gummesson mentions collaboration as one of the cornerstones of the relationship. The higher the degree of collaboration and the lower the degree of competition, the greater the chance of a long lasting relationship between the parties. It has to be emphasized that competition will always be there, even in the non-‐commercial sector, as all parties, whether NPO’s or global corporations, will always seek to expand in one way or another (Gummesson, 1999) .
Trust
A certain amount of trust has to exist between the parties in order to create long lasting relationships. The trust however, can be affected by many factors. Takala and Uusitalo (1996) mean that “ In relationship marketing operations the equal treatment of the partner is an essential feature of action principles. The notion of fairness is widely recognized as essential for mutually satisfying exchange” (p.56). There will always exist contingency between the parties due to competition and changing rules on the market and this will doubtlessly affect how business are conducted. RM is much based on interaction, something that should increase the trust if being successful. Grönroos states that “ giving promises may attract new customers and initially build relationships. However, if promises are not kept, the evolving relationship cannot be maintained and enhanced (1993, p.12). He continues “Keeping promises is equally important as a means of achieving customer satisfaction, retention of the customer base, and long-‐term profitability” (Grönroos, 2007, p. 277).
It is important to remember that all parties have to keep the promises given, e.g. in the NPO -‐ donor relationship that the donor take the part promised, may it be as a volunteer or through financial funding, and that the NPO lives up to what they have promised to do with the given funds. NPO’s often compile yearly reports where all projects and progresses are presented. This is one way of “giving back” to donors and create a feeling of participation even if the donors have never been in physical contact with the NPO and what they do. “Stability presupposes trust, and only mutual trust can be the cornerstone of successful relationship marketing activities” (Takala and Uusitalo, 1996, p.57) .
Power balance
One key point to a successful business relationship is the power balance, e.g. that both (all) parties involved feel that they are treated honestly and equally. If a party realizes that they would pay half the price for better products with a competitor, then they will feel deceived by their supplier. The power balance does also concern the economical relation between the parties. It is very likely that a NPO feels inferior to a major donor as they are dependent on them, which diminishes their chances of raising demands. The power balance is strongly connected to the trust factor. Many relations are built on unequal grounds, e.g. one party is dependent on the other for their survival. However, these relations can still be successful if the parties are honest and committed to one another. Unequal relationships occur more often than equal (Gummesson, 1999).
Loyalty and Commitment
If the donor is committed to the NPO then he is most probably loyal to them. If the relationship is of importance, then it is likely that we commit to it and the tasks that come with it (Gummesson, 1999). Not all donors are interested in getting involved (see example above) and it may therefore be difficult for the NPO to get them committed. The commitment may also refer to those working within the organisation, such as volunteers, members and leaders. Catano, Kelloway, and Pond point out that leaders more than others are willing to exert effort thereby willing to give more of their time than others. As a leader your commitment is stronger and it is therefore harder to withdraw. The loyalty grows with the degree of commitment. Further, some individuals may join NPO's for other reasons such as social pressure and their commitment will reflect this as they have not chosen the cause for the right reasons (Catano et al. 2001, p. 257-‐258).
Another problem that NPO's can meet is donors who are willing to donate, but only if the money goes to a certain project or cause. This creates a moral dilemma for the NPO. Do they reject money or funds because the request is not in line with their work or in favour of some? Or do they accept it because "all donations are good"? One of the hospice representatives mentioned that donors sometimes have requests on how the hospice uses the donations “A problem that we sometimes face is that donors are driven by a passion which is not always in line with what we are doing. They offer to donate money but want a certain percentage to go toward a project which is not within the palliative care. We need to say no to donors if the cause is wrong. “ (Nigel Unwin, 2011).
Takala and Uusitalo (1996) mentions the ethical dilemma of “white lies” (p.56), a dilemma in close connection to commitment. Is it likely that receiving organisations tell white lies to keep donors satisfied? It is not unlikely that situations are told to be better or worse to activate feelings of sympathy or to make sure that donations will be given next year as well (Takala & Uusitalo, 1996).
According to previous studies are individuals the biggest contributors to charities and NPO’s, bare in mind that contributions can be time and items as well as financial contributions. Hibbert and Horne claim that charities ”spend the main part of their marketing budgets on fundraising..” (p. 4). This can be discussed in the case of the HPCA as these act on a different market from those charities in Hibbert and Hornes study. Further, they mean that the decision to donate comes with the social rules around us, that is, we donate because we feel that it is the right thing to do (Hibbert & Horne, 1996).
Love and Schlegelmilch suggest in their study on different donor characteristics that smaller charities could use less costly means to market themselves and “pursue niche strategies” (p. 548) to acquire donors. They looked at different ways of raising funds such as collections, evens and advertisements and found that factors such as gender, level of education and income have an impact on how we donate. The perception of the charity was also an important factor, was the charity perceived to be efficient were the donors more likely to donate. This reflects the arguments about commitment and trust (Love & Schlegelmilch, 1997)
Method
The research context for this study comprised representatives from five different hospices in Gauteng and the Western Cape provinces, the HPCA, as well as representatives from the marketing agency working for HPCA.
Interviews
The chosen method was unstructured interviews. This method was chosen as I wanted the respondents to explain and talk about their marketing and work with their own words. Unstructured interviews makes the process flexible and focus is on the perceptions of the respondent (Bryman, 2009) Not all respondents had English as their first language and most of the respondents had little or no training in marketing. Two of the interviews were held with the marketing agency working for HPCA. All interviews lasted no shorter than 25 minutes and no longer than 50 minutes. Minutes were taken in the cases where the interviews were not recorded. In total, ten longer unstructured interviews were held.
The interviews comprised of open questions, asking the respondents to tell about the work of the hospice in their community, their budgets, budgets for marketing, which marketing methods they believed to use, contact with donors, maintaining contact with donors etc. Not all questions were asked in all of the interviews -‐ some respondents shared more information, others less. This can be expected in unstructured interviews as the respondent often directs the course of the interview (Bryman, 2009).
Respondents
The hospices were chosen by a HPCA representative to give me the opportunity to visit hospices with different star ratings (HPCA, 2011) All interviews were preceded or followed by observations at the hospices, including informal chats to staff and patients. The respondents were chosen by each hospice as a representative with knowledge in the field of or responsibility of marketing. Each hospice had been informed in advance of the objective of the study. This is according to Bryman a selection of convenience, meaning that the respondents were chosen as they were available at the time requested (Bryman, 2009, p. 114). This affects the reliability as the respondents can be seen as non representative for the entity (Ibid).
Observations
The purpose of the observations held at the hospices was to get a deeper understanding of the work conducted at the hospices. All hospices had different star ratings according to the HPCA system and their demographic situation had a great impact of the structure and needs of the different hospices. One day was dedicated to follow a nurse visiting patients in their homes. These visits have been classified as observations as no interviews were held. The purpose of the home visits was rather to get a broader understanding of what hospice work includes. Observations are hard to analyse and examine as the perceptions are subjective and depending on the occasion (Bryman, 2009) Another issue is that respondents and others might be suspicious and worried about the information they share (Ibid).
It would have been preferred to accomplish more interviews with hospice staff as well as interview patients and donors. This was not possible as the time was limited. Interviews with donors could have given answers to some of the questions asked in the article as the article looks onto how the NPO can improve their relationship with the donors. The role of the donor is here played by the literature and previous studies.
Results
The respondents
The hospices that took part in the study can be categorized from cultural and demographic criteria. Three hospices were located in black communities and two in white/mixed areas. The chosen hospices were:
Bophelong in Pretoria (Gauteng) Centurion in Centurion (Gauteng) Foot Prints in Soweto (Gauteng)
St Lukes Hospice in Cape Town (Western Province) Soweto Hospice in Soweto (Gauteng)
The most outstanding difference between the demographic groups was that the three hospices in black communities were all part of community projects where schools, orphanages and retirement homes were also part of the organisation. One of the hospices (or the proprietorial organisation) had a centre for drug addicts as well as trauma counselling. They spoke of “Community outreach programmes” and the hospice was one of its services (Titus Sithole, 2011)
Outlook
The two hospices located in white/mixed areas were solely focusing on hospice and palliative care. Even though both hospices were relatively large did neither of the two have in patient units worth mentioning. Their services were mainly based on home visits and day care centres where patients could come and meet other patients. ( Pat Gelderbloem, 2011, Marlise Booyens, 2011) The three hospices in black areas did all have extensive in patient units. The philosophies behind these units varied between the hospices -‐ two of them regarded them [the hospice itself] as an opportunity for the family to get some time off from looking after the ill person, and had a time limit o how long patients were allowed to stay (Nigel Unwin, 2011, Patricia Nogxina, 2011). The third hospice had no time limit and patients could stay for months if they wanted to (David Ratebe, 2011).
Budgets
All hospices were on relatively tight budgets and neither of them had a separate budget for marketing. HPCA itself works hard on getting advertisement for free in different medias such as TV and radio (Taryn Smith, 2011). JHP, the marketing agency that works with HPCA stated that they do not pay for advertisement as “when you market a NGO you have a minimal or zero budget [...] you have to be a bit more creative with that”(Jenny Handley, 2011). They also believed that the media “feel that there are enormous rewards” working with NPO’s (Ibid). Many people in South Africa do not have access to internet and TV and the ways of spreading information are therefore limited. Several of the respondents said that they were happy with anything they could get in terms of publicity; "there is no bad publicity" and "when you have a zero budget, you take what you get" are statements that mark out a distinctive difference from commercial markets where the actors themselves choose how, where and when they want to be seen. (Taryn Smith, 2011, Marlise Booyens 2011)
Cultural issues
Another issue is that there are 11 official languages in South Africa, English and Afrikaans being the major languages for the white community and IsiXhosa, IsiZulu and Sesotho sa Leboa most common in the black communities(South Africa Info, 2011). This makes it hard to create national campaigns as there is often the need
of translators. Several of the respondents mentioned this as a hinder in their work. The fact that there are also vast cultural differences between the groups make the work even harder. This is one of the reasons why the hospices are looking after themselves: what is accepted in one cultural environment may not be accepted in another. One of the respondents said that the way we talk about death and dying varies heavily, in certain communities you do not talk about death as this is believed to “invite” death rather than keep it away (St Lukes Hospice, 2011).
Donors
Several of the hospices were dependent on foreign donations for their survival. Some of them were working very close with American churches where the members would donate both money and time into the projects of the hospices in South Africa (Bophelong Hospice, 2011, Soweto Hospice, 2011) Most hospices would receive donations from South African corporations through the HPCA. The HPCA has relationships with both national and international corporations and foundations, and HPCA then distributes the money to the different hospices (HPCA, 2011). Some hospices had charity shops while others created events throughout the year to raise funds. All hospices received donations from the public, either in money or time as volunteers. Some of the respondents did though mention that finding donors was difficult. Working on a local basis using mainly traditional means such as telephones and e-‐mail to get in touch with corporations is not only time consuming but also inefficient (Marlise Booyens, 2011, HPCA, 2011).
Many hospices had close collaborations with international organisations, such as above mentioned churches and most of these relationships were sprung out of personal encounters. “I am a pastor so I travel a lot and preach in other churches, this is how I have made these contacts. We are not successful in finding donors in SA. Here we have to partner with other organizations. We do send lots of applications but it is very difficult” (Titus Sithole, 2011). Several of the respondents told similar stories. Some of the respondents mentioned that families and friends of previous patients often took part in hospice work, either as volunteers or through donations. All respondents said that as the services provided were well appreciated people often wanted to give back.
Struggles
All hospices mentioned that they struggle with finding funds for their activities. No hospice in the study had a separate budget for marketing purposes. All respondents relied heavily on Word of Mouth (WoM) as a marketing strategy. The hospices in Gauteng had a strong connection to their communities, communities where a vast majority is poor and modern technology is absent. All respondents mentioned relatives and patients as very important for “spreading the word”.
meaning of palliative care. “And how can you ask for funds when they don’t even know what we are doing?” (Marlise Booyens, 2011) They all mentioned “educating the masses about palliative care” as one of their causes and all of the respondents from the hospices would mention radio as one of the most important channels for communication with the community (Zodwa Sithole, 2011).
The value of personal connections
Those hospices that had personal connections within the corporations that supported them felt that they had relationships with these as both parties got involved (Titus Sithole, 2011, Nigel Unwin, 2011). For instance, did several hospices receive visits from American churches on a regular basis and they would also send pictures and letters to each other to share progresses in the hospices and community projects. These relationships showed impressions of mutual commitment and loyalty. There was believed mutual trust as the organisations (churches) kept donating time and money and the hospices kept giving positive results in terms of reports and expansion (Ibid).
Power balance
The power balance between the donor and the NPO will always remain unequal as the donor is free to leave whenever he wants (unless there is a binding
contract). Several respondents mentioned this as one of the biggest struggles: the constant contingency and not being able to plan ahead. Progress happens slowly as it is not possible to make budgets for years to come. Respondents also
mentioned that even if there was a relationship between their hospice and a corporation/donor did they still have to go through the process of applying for funds (in most cases). A relationship was not a guarantee for funds, a fact that further raises the contingency (Zodwa Sithole, 2011, Liz Gwyther, 2011).
Conclusions
It is clear that there are advantages of adapting to a market orientation, even though it offers many obstacles. One challenge is to make sure that the entire organisation understands the shift of objectives and how to transfer these into everyday activities. As Álvarez et al. (2001) showed in their study were those hospices with a market orientation in their approach to donors more successful than those that relied on traditional charity [marketing] methods. Traditional means of raising money would be collection tills in shops, flea markets and charity shops. Market orientated means were activities that engaged the community and the donors, such as events and information on services.
Can then NPO’s implement relationship marketing to keep donors with their organisation? The answer will have to be both yes and no. The hospices that have succeeded in creating personal relationships with donors and managed to get them involved in their activities seem to be in positions that are more alike those of businesses in relations. A good example is that of the churches that come out every year to help out with work at one of the hospices. These relationships are
not dependent on one individual but are built on the values within the organisations. It seems to be harder with the relationship between the NPO and a corporation. The corporations are most and foremost just that -‐ corporations with the aim of making profits. The CSR is something on the side, not their main task. As their profits vary from year to year so do their donations. There are situations where someone within a corporation has been affected by hospice care and therefore chooses to support hospice, but it appears that many corporations choose NPO’s randomly. It would be interesting to look at the matter from the perspective of the donor, especially the corporate donor as their view is purely market oriented.
Even though many representatives talk about relationships does it seem as if they are mainly dependent on traditional marketing tools such as advertisements and fund-‐raising events. Potential donors are forced to make an effort themselves if they want to get involved in voluntary work or other activities through the hospice. Already existing donors may well be given reports via e-‐mail but are also expected to take an active part. The conclusion drawn from this is that even though it is possible to create and maintain relationships with donors is it still likely that the donor will end the relationship without warning. Hospices need to be more proactive and create tools for donors that will allow them to be more involved in the hospice, thus become more loyal to the organisation. Higher involvement -‐-‐> higher loyalty (commitment) -‐-‐> higher security for the hospice.
Further studies could successfully look at the issue from a donors perspective and compare findings to see whether the perceptions of the relationship are the same.
Discussion
It appears that several of the hospices have built and retained relationships with foreign organisations and corporations, often through personal meetings and contacts, something that is crucial for all NPO’s survival. It can be assumed that donors choose organisations that they have a relation to, either personal or through contacts rather than an previously unknown NPO. Nonetheless, the relationships seem to have low degrees of commitment and in some cases rather be perceptions of relationships than actual relationships. The fact that the power balance is very unequal in many of the cases, especially those where the donor is a corporate, makes it hard to believe that long-‐term relationships can be built with these donors. The insecurity is to high to be worth the investment. This, again, shows the complexity of the market -‐ the NPO wants to create relationships because they would like to engage more people and corporations in their work as this would lead to more publicity and in the long run, hopefully to more donations. On a local level all hospices seem to have a strong connection with their respective communities, strongly due to WoM. The fact that the government doesn’t offer palliative care is another factor that raises the support from the community.
relationship and again makes it difficult to know how to approach them. With zero budgets for marketing and complete dependence on the donors the NPO stands in no position to negotiate.
The complexity of the South African market and its diversity is another hinder in the evolution of the market for NPO’s. Language and cultural barriers make process slow as there evidently will be misunderstandings and misperceptions. In certain cultural groups it is also expected of family members to look after the ill person and there can therefore exist a certain degree of resistance. Hospices in South Africa have well adapted to these cultural differences: each hospice looks after itself and is responsible for its own community/area which means that they are most probably members of the community in which they work therefore hopefully more successful in their work.
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Websites (All websites were visited and reconfirmed on the 23rd of May 2011)
ETU http://www.etu.org.za/toolbox/docs/building/const.html HPCA http://www.hospicepalliativecaresa.co.za/ SIDA http://www.sida.se/English/Countries-‐and-‐regions/Africa/South-‐Africa/Our-‐work-‐in-‐ South-‐Africa/
South Africa Info http://www.southafrica.info/about/people/language.htm
Other
David Ratebe, Foot Prints Hospice, February 8th, 2011
Jenny Handley, Jenny Handley Performance, January 26th, 2011 Liz Gwyther, CEO HPCA, February 16th, 2011
Marlise Boyens, Centurion Hospice, February 7th, 2011 Nigel Unwin, CEO Soweto Hospice, February 8th, 2011 Nikiwe Dube, Advocacy Officer, HPCA, February 8th, 2011 Pat Gelderbloem, St Lukes Hospice, February, 27th, 2011 Taryn Smith, Jenny Handley Performance, February 4th, 2011 Titus Sithole, Bophelong, February 7th, 2011
