Sixth International Conference on Communication & Media Studies

Abstract

New media is an aspect of the public sphere that boosts participatory communication, which helps non-profits to disseminate information to achieve developmental goals. With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, marginalised people have been hard-hit. Many Indian non-profits embraced social media to communicate with the stakeholders and mobilise the donors to raise awareness and funds. These non-profit organisations raised funds using crowdfunding to serve the marginalised and underprivileged communities. This research paper considers social media efficacy in raising funds during the pandemic by two of the selected Indian non-profits - The Akshaya Patra Foundation and Give India – as they actively used social media to raise funds. The paper analyses online content posted by the select non-profits on Facebook. The research uses content analysis method to understand how social media content attracted and communicated with its stakeholders during the pandemic that helped them raise funds for the target beneficiaries and communities. The paper substantiates the explanatory case study method to define and find explanations for the events and justify the hypothesis – ‘Social media content is aiding the non-profit sector in India to raise donations during the pandemic.’ The purpose of the paper is to provide a model for the non-profit sector to engage, inform and sensitise their key stakeholders, and help them raise funds by effectively deploying social media strategies in their campaigns on the basis of this research.