| Nonprofit leaders often do not fully grasp the potential of their websites and thus have websites that are not effective in attracting donations, volunteers, clients, and employees. Using the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) as the model of effectiveness, this quantitative study sought to measure user perceptions of website effectiveness on four general BSC measures: attracting donations, volunteers, clients, and employees. User-Centered Design theory and Exposure Effect play a role in users' perceptions of websites' effectiveness, specifically, in terms of whether users' perceptions of the websites' effectiveness were affected by whether they worked for the nonprofit (Internal Stakeholders), whether they were familiar with a nonprofit, and whether they had experiences with the nonprofit sector (Potential External Stakeholders). Data were gathered using a new web-based, split-screen survey interface I designed for this study with the 30 employees of three small Pittsburgh, PA based nonprofits, and 201 college students, who are indeed Potential External Stakeholders. Internal Stakeholders rated their website less effective on the four BSC measures than Potential External Stakeholders in two of the three nonprofits. Those Potential External Stakeholders who were more familiar with the nonprofit tended to rate the website higher than those who were less familiar. Those with more overall experience with nonprofits rated the websites higher in only four of 36 specific BSC ratings. The Balanced Scorecard served as a useful model to measure users' perceptions of website effectiveness and the web-based, split-screen survey interface provided a functional and efficient method of obtaining participants' responses. |
