Mimetic marketing in environmental volunteering organisations

Abstract

The last decade has seen increased competition amongst voluntary organisations. This has resulted in a number of changes to the nonprofit sector, such as increased levels of scrutiny and accountability for business practices. Voluntary organisations compete not only for limited numbers of volunteers but also for limited grant funding made available at local, state and federal government levels. Increased competition has placed pressure on organisations to take a more commercial approach to the management of their organisations and to adopt what have been previously considered ‘for profit’ business practices such as marketing. This empirical study uses neo-institutional theory as the basis for investigating the marketing of nonprofit organisations, focusing on the ‘Bushcare’ program in NSW. It uses the neo-institutional concept of "mimetic isomorphism" to examine the extent to which competitive pressures are forcing nonprofit environmental volunteering organisations to copy each other and grow more homogenous in terms of their marketing strategies. The managerial implications are apparent when organisations are faced with the challenge of attracting new volunteers, since from an institutional perspective, the most commonly accepted practices are not necessarily the most efficient.