Research

CSIC monitors and analyzes how communication is used to create social impact across the nonprofit, corporate and government sectors.

We identify and analyze campaigns, trends and best practices from a wide range of communication disciplines including nonprofit communications, social marketing, fundraising, cause marketing, CSR communications and sustainability communications.  We seek answers to questions like:

• What does it mean to be transparent?
• How is technology changing the way stakeholders engage with causes and organizations?
• How can organizations better collaborate across sectors to broaden impact?

Our goal is to identify what’s working so that we can better articulate the positive role communicators can play and support their work in advancing the field.

Ongoing Research

Dynamics of Cause Engagement
In partnership with Ogilvy PR's Social Marketing group, the center conducted a survey of 2,000 Americans adults in late 2010.  The results showcase trends in cause involvement and evaluate the role of on- and off-line activities to foster engagement in causes today.

Transparency in Cause Marketing
This study focuses on how consumer-facing corporations and partner nonprofits communicate the impact of their cause marketing campaigns. Are they in open dialogue with their customers? Do they tell consumers how much money is ultimately donated at the end of the campaign and how many lives are changed? Whose responsibility is it to communicate the campaign’s impact? The research will look at rational versus emotional impact, the 'cause supply chain' and communicating situational context. Over a period of three months, CSIC will study 30 cause marketing campaigns and the way corporations and nonprofits communicate campaign impact, in order to develop a framework for communicating impact.

Communicating CSR in SMEs
While much has been debated and written about corporate social responsibility (CSR) among large companies, the question of how and why small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) engage in socially responsible practices is not well-documented. This study will highlight the issue of how SMEs communicate their CSR efforts. Are they telling their own stories? What channels are they using? How well are the messages reaching targeted audiences and what difference have they made, either for the bottom line or on relationships with the community?

The Role of Imagery in Nonprofit Communications Planning
Images can play a vital role in how effectively messages can reach various audiences. When images accompany text or a story, which element makes the difference in engaging the reader or viewer? Which motivates one to act? Using images strategically in external and internal communications planning and execution can be a vital component of success for an organization. Disparate pieces of advice can be found online and in publications urging organizations to utilize photos for different reasons and in an amalgam of ways; however, a consolidated handbook of how to incorporate photography into communications planning does not exist. The primary objective of CSIC's Nonprofit Imagery Fellow is to develop a framework that will walk nonprofit organizations through the process of communications planning with photography as an integral element.

Completed Research

Using Social Media Platforms to Amplify Public Health Messages
In partnership with Ogilvy PR, CSIC Social Marketing fellow Alexandra Hughes researched and developed a white paper that examines how to leverage the opportunities social media provides by identifying tenets and best practices for public health-driven social media, as well as provides insights into how to reach and engage key consumer and provider audiences.

Communicating CSR: Whose job is it, and do the leaders excel?
CSIC graduate student Sherie Winston examined the types of jobs available in communicating a company’s corporate social responsibility, and also studied patterns and trends across the ways in which a select group of corporations communicate their social responsibility.