Communication in the public sphere as well as within organizational contexts has attracted the interest of researchers over the past century. Current forms of citizen engagement and community development, partly enabled through digital communication, have further enhanced the visibility and relevance of non-profit communication. These are performed by the civil society, which is 'the organized expression of the values and interests of society' (Castells, 2008) in the public sphere. Non-profit communication feeds the public sphere as 'the discursive processes in a complex network of persons, institutionalized associations and organizations, ' whereas those 'discourses are a civilized way of disagreeing openly about essential matters of common concern' (Jensen, 2002).
Despite the relevance in the public sphere, non-profit communication was never properly defined within communication research. The aim of the present book is to offer an overview and report on Strategic Communication for Non-Profit-Organisations and the Challenges and Alternative Approaches. Considering the assumption that key principle of strategic communication is the achievement of organisational goals, the majority of research developed in the field has used business environments to develop theories, models, empirical insights and case studies. Here, we make a step on the proposal of new approaches that are centred on the concept of non-profit in various dimensions and from various perspectives, showing the diversity and complexity around this subject and at the same time the need of further theoretical and empirical work that provide frameworks and also tools for further understanding of the phenomena.
Evandro Samuel Ribeiro dos Santos Oliveira, Dipl-Journ, M.A, MSc Strategic Communication and Drs. in Philosophy and Strategic Communication Management, is a Researcher at the University of Leipzig and at the Communication and Society Research Centre - from the University of Minho, in Portugal. Evandro Oliveira has been a guest speaker and lecturer at various Universities and Institutions in Europe and South America, produced more than 30 scientific articles and presentations. His main research interests are: Strategic Communication management, NGO Communication Management, Social Media and Communication and Political Communication. Since 2014 he is Chair of the German Young Researchers of Communication network (naprok).
Ana Duarte Melo is a teacher of the Department of Communication Sciences and a researcher at the CECS - Communication and Society Research Centre at the University of Minho. Chair of the Organisational and Strategic Communication Section of the ECREA - European Communication Research and Education Association and an active member of the Advertising Working Group of the SOPCOM - Portuguese Communication Society, PhD in Communication Sciences with a thesis on "Consumer-Citizen Participation in Advertising" (University of Minho), Ana Duarte Melo graduated in Social Communication (Nova University of Lisbon) and holds a Master in Arts in Sound and Image, specialised in Scriptwriting (Catholic University of Portugal). Before she was a journalist and copywriter and creative director in advertising.
Gisela Gonçalves has a master's Degree and a PhD in Communication Sciences, and she is Professor and Head of the Department of Communication and Arts of the University of Beira Interior (UBI, Covilhã, Portugal). She develops her research activity at LabCom.IFP - a Communication, Philosophy and Humanities research centre. In 2014 she was elected vice-chair of the Organizational and Strategic Communication section of ECREA. Her current research interests are Public Relations Theories, Communication Ethics and Government Communication. Her work has been published in a wide range of public relations and communication management journals and in various edited collections. She authored the books "Introduction to the theory of public relations" (2010); "The Dialogue Imperative" (2012) and "Public Relations Ethics" (2013).
