Let’s Talk Good: How do Third Sector organisations communicate social responsibility internally? An exploratory study into the understanding, development and execution of internal communications regarding social responsibility policies in the Third Sector.

Third Sector organisations, such as voluntary associations, charities, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) etc., are increasingly under pressure to be more transparent in regards to their social responsibility practices, yet there is very little research focusing on non-profit social responsibility communication, with the majority choosing to focus instead of corporate social responsibility (CSR). At the same time, the internal communications of non-profits in academia have also been somewhat neglected despite the Third Sector employing millions of people across the globe. Therefore, this research aims to explore how Third Sector organisations in the Netherlands understand, develop, and execute social responsibility communications internally. In order to investigate this issue, a qualitative approach was utilized whereby 12 semi-structured interviews were conducted with employees, managers, volunteers and/or interns who worked with or around social responsibility within 9 different non-profit organisations of varying size and sector. The research showed that understandings of social responsibility, and its communication thereof, vary with factors including personal perception and size of operation playing a part. It was also found that among the barriers facing non-profits, lack of professionalization, time, and lack of organisational structure were the most common regardless of size of industry. Finally, organisations with an understanding of social responsibility as being intrinsic and therefore engrained in their organisation found internal communications of the subject far easier to implement than those who perceive it as external task.