Using Websites to Cultivate Online Relationships: The Application of the Stewardship Concept in Public Benefit Organizations

ABSTRACT This article tries to identify how well nonprofit organizations incorporate the four stewardship strategies into their websites. Previous literature describing the concept of stewardship in nonprofit organizations omits online context or it is focused on large organizations. Moreover, the research area has primarily centered upon American nonprofit organizations. Research results have shown that the size of the organization, (measured by the level of annual revenue and receiving 1% of personal income tax) affects the implementation of stewardship strategies. For organizations that allow donations to be made from the level of their own website, the use of strategies that improve cultivating positive relationships with stakeholders should be particularly important. The stewardship concept seems to be particularly useful for this purpose. However, the research results indicate that the level of using the stewardship concept in the WWW environment of Polish public benefit organizations is at most moderate. In addition, the research showed that the stewardship concept in the analyzed organizations is also discontinuous.