Social media in Russian non-profit organizations: Factors of use

Abstract

The article explores the use of social media in Russian non-governmental non-profit organizations. The role of social media as a PR and promotion tool and as a tool for attracting financial resources is considered. Based on the secondary data of the All-Russian representative survey of NGO leaders conducted by the Centre for Studies of Civil Society and the Nonprofit Sector, HSE (sample consists of 850 NGOs, face-to-face interviews were conducted in year 2021), hypotheses about the influence of organizational characteristics on the use of social media are tested using binary logistic regression. According to the results of the analysis, social media is the most popular online communication channel of NGOs in Russia, although a relatively small proportion of organizations practice fundraising on social networks, despite the fact that NGO leaders highly evaluate the effectiveness of this tool for raising funds. The use of social media is positively associated with the organizational pursuit of the information openness and accountability; troubled access to traditional media; social orientation; participation in government grants; and the size of the organization. The positive relationship between the size of the organization and the use of social media suggests that resource factors, such as the lack of qualified personnel to manage the accounts of the organization, may be a barrier to the use of social media. Overall, there is no obvious connection with the need to attract financial resources, neither the focus on private donations, nor the tendence to diversify sources of funding.