Use ‘Em or Lose ‘Em: Implementing Online Design Techniques to Reach Emerging Adults for Nonprofits (2008)

Undergraduate: Margaret (Meg) Wright

Faculty Advisor: Jane Brown
Department: Journalism & Mass Communication

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With literally millions of nonprofits in the United States, it becomes increasingly important to attract supporters and communicate effectively. This research project analyzes nonprofits’ online communications to assess their effectiveness in changing attitudes and generating response from the emerging adult age group (ages 18-25). The focus is on static design principles implemented on a website’s homepage. This study manipulates and tests the effect of two design principles, color and organizational structure, on a prototype Save the Children website homepage to test whether changes in these two factors affect viewers’ information recognition, attitudes and behavioral intention. The analysis draws on color and design theories and persuasion theories such as the Elaboration Likelihood Model. Some inferences and suggestions are made concerning the most effective nonprofit communication strategies for reaching emerging adults.