The master thesis focuses on effective ways of fundraising for non-profit organizations. Its aim is to design the aforementioned methods, because fundraising has become a critical discipline for non-profit organizations in the pursuit of sustainable funding. Mastering appropriate fundraising methods and establishing relationships with donors, organizations ensure not only peace but also the freedom to make decisions and can fulfill its mission. With an effective attracting funding also related communication outwards With an effective attracting funding also related communication outwards because with no promotion is difficult to obtain an individual or corporate donors. The research is based on a combination of quantitative and qualitative approaches. The quantitative part is based on a survey, which deals with non-profit organizations and their fundraising. Further investigation is focused on the money that is spent on fundraising and the success of fund-raising projects. The qualitative part consists of semi-structured interviews that help to understand the deeper areas detected. From the survey results and interviews is compiled vivid picture of contemporary fundraising in the Czech environment and proposing effective methods of funding. Fundraising is seen as a vital discipline for the sustainability of organizations, but a minimum of them makes it to the professional level. It was also found that the Czech non-profit environment due to their delayed development offers great scope for practicing new fundraising methods, which are commonly used abroad.

This dissertation investigated the influence of legitimacy and social media on organizational image management (IM) in North American professional sport. The author used a social theory approach to public relations in which legitimization is a core function, stakeholders influence the organization’s identity, and communicating identity is a legitimacy-seeking action that co-creationally drives organizational IM. This study examined the Ottawa Sport and Entertainment Group (OSEG), a conglomerate sport organization, using a qualitative embedded exploratory case study, which allowed analysis at different organizational levels, online and offline, using thematic and content analysis. The first two research questions explored the relationships between identity, image, and legitimacy in a social media world. The second two explored the explicit effects of social media on identity, legitimacy, image, and how these constructs manifest through social media. The first phase of the study used interview (N-52) and document (N-4) analyses to explore how identity, image, and legitimacy interact. Results showed that organizations’ legitimacy-seeking behaviour drives IM. The impetuous to change image comes from the outward facing legitimacy-seeking negotiation of image with external stakeholders. In phase two, using the legitimacy framework developed by Lock, Filo, Kunkel, and Skinner (2015), 5,668 tweets and retweets were coded, revealing 10 communicated image themes that sought technical, managerial, personal, and linkage legitimacy. These types of legitimacy were present in 99.5% of tweets and retweets. They sought to build trust, reinforce an image and identity of community involvement, and create conformity pressure. Such activities indirectly encouraged or legitimized expressions of fan support while inhibiting dissenting opinions. Previous research noted that identity and its expression through image are no longer defined solely by organizations. This study sought to extend image and identity research by suggesting legitimacy judgments drive co-creational identity and image change. The research extended Gioia, Hamilton, and Patvardhan’s (2014) process model of identity-image interdependence, creating a new framework for Twitter IM. The research explored how social media technology develops organizational identity, image, and legitimacy to provide insights necessary for fostering the effective use of IM and sport PR’s role within it.

This study examines the relevance of an established public relations theory, relationship management, to investor relations. Having emerged during the 1950s, investor relations is a relatively new field that integrates the disciplines of communication, marketing, finance, and securities laws compliance. Through qualitative interviews focused on six publicly traded companies on the West Coast, the study provides insight into the relationship management function of investor relations from the perspectives of those whom investors ultimately hold accountable for a public company's performance - CEOs. The dominant theme emerging from the study is the constant challenge CEOs of public companies face as they engage in relationships with investors, primarily due to the constraining effects of regulatory requirements. While the study confirmed that the interviewees value L. C. Hon and J. E. Grunig's qualities of trust, satisfaction, control mutuality and commitment in relationships with investors, CEOs' most frequently discussed relationship quality that they work to achieve is trust.

This study examines how LGBT activists and LGBT youth make meaning of a strategic advocacy campaign. By examining activist and advocacy efforts aimed at youth, this research brings to light how LGBT organizations use campaigns to articulate identity and, conversely, how LGBT youth articulate notions of identity. Through the lens of the It Gets Better Project, a nonprofit activist organization, this dissertation uses in-depth interviews with organizational members and chat-based interviews with LGBT youth to study the meanings participants brought to the campaign. Strategic communication has been instrumental in construction of LGBT as a cohesive collective identity and has played a vital role in the early stages of the gay rights movement. This research demonstrates how contemporary LGBT advocacy, through strategic communication, works to shape understandings of LGBT youth. Instead of focusing on the Internet as a democratic space that equalizes power differentials between an organization and its publics, this study shows that the construction of identity is the result of a dynamic process between producers and consumers in which power is localized and does not simply belong to an organization or its public. This research challenges the Internet as a democratic space and demonstrates that identity is a discursive struggle over meaning that is bound up in the intimate dance between producers and consumers of a campaign. In contrast to functionalist understandings of public relations that privileges the organization, this dissertation contends that a cultural-economic approach focuses on the processes of communication. A cultural-economic approach gives voice to the diverse audiences of a communication campaign and addresses the role communication plays as a discursive force that influences the construction of identities.

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Thesis (MTech (Public Relations Management))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2010 / Main objectives The purpose of this study is to investigate the dual perceptions of a selected group of public relations practitioners and journalists, who interact at Media24 (the print media business section of Naspers, a leading multinational media group) in CapeTown. These perceptions, by public relations practitioners and journalists, are of self and each other's professional objectives, skills and ability, function, and their relationships. The research aims to determine whether it is possible, through perception definition of each category from two points of view (perception of self and perception of other), to find sufficient common grounds first to understand and then to optimise the relationship between public relations practitioners and journalists. Research design and methodology An accidental quota, non-random sample of 15 (fifteen) journalists and 15 (fifteen) public relations practitioners was selected based on their interaction at Media24 in CapeTown. A single self administered questionnaire distributed to the combined sample group was used to gather data. The results obtained from the questionnaire were analysed in three parts; a) the combined group of journalists and public relations practitioners; b) public relations practitioners only and c) journalists only. Analysis, conclusions and recommendations included a comparison of the differences and similarities between the two groups. Keyfindings Keyfindings include: The majority of public relations practitioners interacting with Media24 on a corporate communication level do not belong to a professional body. The majority of public relations practitioners interacting with Media24 on a corporate communication level lacked clarity in defining their own professional objectives and functional role. The self-perception of the majority of public relations practitioners interacting with Media 24 on a corporate communication level was less positive than the perceptions of the journalists of public relations practitioners.

Dissertation submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Master of Technology: PUBLIC RELATIONS MANAGEMENT in the Faculty of Informatics and Design at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology / This study investigates ethical communication practice in the professional practice of Public Relations in South Africa. Using Public Relations professional bodies (PRISA and IABC) and Public Relations firms based in Cape Town, the study sought to understand how ethical communication is conceptualised and practised by public relations practitioners. Literature reveals that ethical communication in Public Relations has been shaped by two dominant views. The early, simplistic paradigm conceptualised ethical communication as dialogic and symmterical communication. It views ethical communication as counter-argument. This paradigm has been critiqued in favour of a more contemporary paradigm that regards ethical communication in terms of dialogic values such as honesty, openness, loyalty, fair-mindedness, respect, integrity and forthright communication. Using dialogic, symmetrical communication and a reflective paradigm of public relations as its theoretical framework, this study analyses how Public Relations practitioners and professional bodies conceptualise ethical communication. Results from the study reveal that ethical communication as a phenomenon is still subject to various interpretations. The study reveals that fostering ethical communication by professional bodies is often hampered by the existence of untrained Public Relations personnel. This study seeks to make a theoretical contribution towards the understanding of ethical communication amongst Public Relations and professional bodies. It shows that there is need for Public Relations professionals to develop a more holistic understanding of ethical communication in order to raise the quality of Public Relations practitioners’ ethical behaviour and increase the legitimacy and value of public relations studies to society.

Thesis (MTech (Public Relations Management))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2016. / This research reports on the findings from a study that explores how the principles of corporate communication strategies outlined in public relations theory align to public relations practice. Using the theoretical framework of strategic public relations within corporate communication strategies, this qualitative research seeks to understand what theoretical principles inform corporate communication strategies and how public relations practitioners develop and implement these strategies. The findings suggest that public relations practitioners have a more practical approach than a theoretical approach to public relations practice. This study identifies the importance of increasing the credibility of the discipline as public relations practitioners are able to constantly improve and adjust their strategies according to what works and what does not. Measurement and evaluation in application of corporate communication strategies increases research in public relations practice which will in due course influence public relations theory. Further study is recommended in increasing the knowledge of public relations practitioners regarding the theory of communication strategies which will assist in improving the status of public relations and the perceived value of the profession.