A Review of Research on Nonprofit Communications from Mission Statements to Annual Reports

This review surveys the state of research on nonprofit communication and collects and summarizes the resulting advice for nonprofit communication practice. The citations of research papers since 2000 were collected from standard bibliographic databases and selected bibliographies. The resulting collection of papers was summarized and synthesized into relevant themes and organized into five broad categories: (1) strategic planning, (2) management, (3) development, (4) outreach, and (5) accountability. From these broad themes, comparisons and contrasts arise between the research and current practice of nonprofit communications.