Using third‐party services to reduce the development cost and improve the effectiveness of charity websites

作     者：Philip Hooper Simon Stobart 

作者机构：University of Sunderland School of Computing and Technology The Informatics Centre St Peter's Campus St Peter's Way Sunderland SR6 0DD UK 

出 版 物：《International Journal of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Marketing》 

年 卷 期：2006年第8卷第4期

学科分类：12[管理学] 120202[管理学-企业管理（含：财务管理、市场营销、人力资源管理）] 0202[经济学-应用经济学] 02[经济学] 1202[管理学-工商管理] 1201[管理学-管理科学与工程(可授管理学、工学学位)] 

摘      要：The growth of the internet has provided a new medium for charities to reach out to potential supporters. The development of a website requires time, money and expertise that may not be available to many charities. A novel approach is presented to allow these charities to maximise the effectiveness of their websites by using freely available features that have been developed by third parties. It is suggested that use of these services will allow charities to deliver extensive and advanced functionality quickly at reduced cost and with limited in‐house skills. A wide range of services is identified and these appear to allow charities to: increase the content of their sites and foster a sense of community to encourage repeat visits; raise funds by processing online donations or hosting charity auctions; extend their trading activities to the internet; manage and monitor the use of their websites; and improve a range of other activities such as recruitment and advocacy. Some of the services have an associated cost but seem to offer a cheaper and quicker route to implementation for most charities. Although the use of these pre‐built services may provide cost savings, several risks associated with the suggested approach are also considered. By relying on third parties to provide these services, charities have to surrender some degree of control and risk damaging their reputation if the selected services are inappropriate or unreliable. The need to attract visitors to the site initially is also not addressed by this approach. It is concluded that the use of third‐party services does offer an opportunity for charities to enhance the websites but that these services need to be chosen very carefully. There is a need for further research to evaluate the suggested approach and to identify the effectiveness of the various services. Copyright © 2003 Henry Stewart Publications