Teaching Note—Nonprofit Websites and the Engagement Competency of Social Work Education

ABSTRACT

Nonprofits’ engagement with stakeholders ensures their existence since engagement guarantees support for the organization. Social work researchers, leaders, and educators must consider engagement within the context of geographic and online communities. Indeed, learning how to engage with individuals and communities is a core competency within social work education. We believe that it is important to interpret this competency as a mandate for educators who are preparing social work students for nonprofit leadership roles in an online society. After introducing this perspective, we segue into a discussion of our findings from a study of 145 nonprofits’ websites. Findings suggest that there are opportunities for nonprofit leaders to enhance stakeholder engagement through their website designs; we discuss implications for social work education.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mary K. Twis

Dr. Mary K. Twis is an assistant professor in the Department of Social Work at Texas Christian University. Her research focuses on human trafficking and service provision for survivors in a nonprofit context.

Richard Hoefer

Dr. Richard Hoefer is the Roy E. Dulak Professor for Community Practice Research at the University of Texas at Arlington School of Social Work. He teaches and conducts research in the areas of nonprofit administration, social policy, advocacy and program evaluation.