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Learning Reflection
Organizational Website Implementation for Building Fundraising Capacity

by
Monica Knuckles
# A00575405
monica.knuckles@Waldenu.edu

Program: PhD in Education

Educational Technology
EDUC 8112: Social Change in Education
Dr. Carol Watson
carol.watson@waldenu.edu

Walden University
08/13/2016

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Learning Reflection
Poverty and other marginalizing issues of war are in part cause for total population
literacy rates reported as 47% in Liberia, far behind the U.S. at 99% and the overall world rate of
89% (CIA, 2015) This organizational capacity building project assists a small grassroots NGO
that serves this population. The organization needs to bridge the gap between its capacity to
sustain delivery of educational goods and services to its beneficiaries and the rapidly expanding
needs base. At the Mega level this social change project facilitates the broadening of access to
educational goods and services to marginalized individuals, educational systems and the global
community. Macro objectives include ensuring sustained delivery of educational goods and
services to the organizations targeted expansion of beneficiaries in Liberias 15 counties. Micro
initiatives seek access to, and use of technological tools and strategies for contributing to
organizational capacity building and promotion of the organizations social change mission.
I began my literature search keeping in mind the theoretical frameworks I felt were
applicable to the proposal and the contexts of I desired to explore. I used the keywords:
organizational theory, critical theory, social change, educational technology, non-profits,
innovative strategies, capacity building, charitable giving, branding, Internet, promoting
awareness, and advocacy. I organized my selection around the topics, Organization Capacity
Building and Digital Advocacy as the emerging concepts had implications for informing my
proposal were recurring. I utilized databases through Walden University including Google
Scholar, ERIC and Education Research Complete Simultaneous Search, Thoreau Multi-Database
Search, SAGE Research Methods Online, and ScienceDirect. Journals most instrumental in
providing the scope of needed for my article selections include: Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector

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Quarterly, Evaluation and Program Planning, Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences Journal,
Journal of Business Research. and the Journal of Information Policy.
The articles reviewed informed the projects design, evaluation strategy, evidenced-based
data and like-demographic examples for persuading the stakeholders of the projects merit for
meeting our identified needs. Guo and Saxton, (2014) explored the unique features of social
media-based advocacy and identified new organizational best practices applicable to my
organizations needs for innovative methods of advocacy for its mission of social change through
ensuring equity of access to quality educational goods and services. Another source of best
practice data in the digital advocy literature was Scott and Merymans (2016) study which
examined the use of digital tools to enhance traditional organizational strategies. It provided
strategies for project design and empirical data for evidence-based arguments. Considerations for
how to evaluate how much social capacity my project generates was addressed by Merino and
Carmenado (2016) who developed an evaluation framework to this end. The influence of
nonprofit brand image on charitable giving behaviors was explored by Michel and Rieunier
(2012) which is the crux of the organizations fundraising capacity building needs.
Obar, Zube, and Lampes (2012) online survey of 169 advocacy groups operating in the
United States was particularly relevant to the proposal with its results showing social media as
cost-effective tools that enable advocacy organizations to get more bang for the buck. Kapucua,
Healy, and Arslanc (2011) conducted a case study of a small non-profit organization to gauge
participants perceptions of the capacity building trainings and their perceived impact on the
effectiveness of an intervention. The study results informed my proposal as our organization has
similar objectives of providing social and human services to the community. Kingston and Stam
(2013). Finally, understanding how young adults use social media networks like Facebook and

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Twitter to become involved in social movements was the focus of the study conducted by Meyer
and Bray (2013). It provided some differentiations between activism and awareness that assisted
in defining the objectives and desired outcome terminology of my proposal.
One of the theories that underpins and informs my social change proposal is critical
theory which comes from the Western European Marxist tradition known as the Frankfurt School
that see a theory as critical to the extent that it seeks human emancipation from slavery, acts
as a liberating influence, and works to create a world which satisfies the needs and
powers of human beings (Horkheimer 1972, 246 in Bohman, 2005). focuses on political,
cultural, economic, and social issues within a culture, particularly as they are related to which
groups have power and which do not (Chen, n.d). The proposals education technology related
social change initiative can be informed by critical theories of equity regarding groups having
equitable access to, and use of technology. Some examples of areas of inequity are, rich or poor
schools, individuals or communities subject to disabilities, at-risk students, the impoverished,
and populations with political unrest. The theorys implications for social change are exampled
in the literature on digital advocacy which entails strategies and concepts for using technology
and the Internet for accomplishing the goals of groups and organizations promoting social causes
such my organization (Obar, Zube, and Lampe, 2012, Guo and Saxton, 2014, Scott, and
Maryman, 2016).
Organizational theory is my second theoretical framework that studies the patterns and
structures organizations use to solve problems, maximize efficiency and productivity, and meet
the expectations of stakeholders (Boundless, 2016, para. 1). Organizational capacity building
literature informed the proposals design of a strategy to build its fundraising capacity and
subsequent capacity to sustainably deliver goods and services to its beneficiaries. Understanding

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and applying the strategies and processes for running an organization successfully is my rationale
for choosing the capacity building literature for this review.
Infusing knowledge of the best ways to run organizations like ours so that they become
statistically more likely to be successful is the overarching goal for both Macro and Micro levels
within this organization. More specifically, Mega societal implications include the facilitation of
broadened access to educational goods and services to marginalized individuals, educational
systems and the global community. Macro goals include the expansion and sustainability of
delivery of educational goods and services to the organizations targeted expansion of
beneficiaries. They include. enrolled and non-enrolled Liberian students and their parents or
guardians, K-12 schools, students. teachers, administration and educational facilitators in
Liberias 15 counties.
A Micro level goal to implement technological tools and strategies for contributing to
organizational capacity building, promotion of awareness of the organizations mission, and the
exchange of communications within the organization and the global community. The literature
within this social change proposal indicates that improvement in these strategic areas will
buttress the organizations capacity to reach its goals. Using the strategic thinking approach of
Kaufman et al. (2003), we identified our internal stakeholders as our sponsors, administration,
staff, and volunteers. Research in organizational theory informs us that at this level we need to
mobile and inform our members, engage and involve our stakeholders, and develop community
ties by inspiring them (Boeder, 2002) in order to ensure the success of our initiatives.
Assessment and reassessment of the gaps between the needs of our beneficiaries and our
capacity to fill them is one way we will know if the proposed change is right for our

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organization. Measuring the gap through the change process between what is and what should
be (Kaufman, et. al.) will be crucial in determining the appropriateness of our choice. In my
opinion, both the effort and cost of implementing this change is well warranted with a probability
of high return on investment in human, financial and social capital for organizational capacity
building, sustainability and social advocacy.
This course has been a wonderfully fruitful learning experience for me. The opportunity
to see the development of such worthy social change ideas was like being a kid in a candy shop.
This was an amazingly skilled, gifted, talented, thoughtful and committed group of educators and
instructional professionals including Dr. Carol Watson, that opened by eyes to so many
interesting issues and real-time experiences of what is happening across the country
educationally. I always benefit from the discourse and sharing that goes on in the boards. I hope
a few if not all actually come to fruition.
My biggest take away from this course was the intellectual capacity I developed for really
flushing an idea out into a feasible social change project. I am so grateful for this as I am
passionate about access to education anywhere, anytime and about developing the grass roots
NGOs in Liberia that strive to fulfill that mission. This course gave me validation that attaining
my Ph.D in Education from Walden with a specialization in Educational Technology is going to
equip me with the tools and credentials to assist in making organizational change that ultimately
will result in positive social change in the lives and future of the children of Liberia and other
populations that may benefit from the efforts of this initiative.

References
Boeder, P. (2002). Non-profits one: How non-profit organizations are using the internet for
communication, fundraising, and community. First Monday, Vol. 7 (7).
DOI:10.5210/fm.v7i7.969.
Bohman, J. (2005). Critical Theory. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2016
Edition), Edward N. Zal,ta (ed.) Retrieved from http://plato.stanford.edu/cgibin/encyclopedia/archinfo.cgi?entry=critical-theory.
Boundless Management (2016, May, 31). Why study organizational theory? [Electronic
textbook]. Retrieved from https://www.boundless.com/management/textbooks/boundlessmanagement-textbook/organizational-theory-3/why-study-organizational-theory-28/whystudy-organizational-theory-163-7564/.
Chen, I. (n.d`). Critical Theory. An electronic textbook on instructional technology [Electronic
textbook]. Retrieved from http://viking.coe.uh.edu/~ichen/ebook/et-it/critical.htm.
CIA (2015), The world fact book: Literacy [Electronic book]. Retrieved from
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2103.html#download.
Guo, C., & Saxton, G.D. (2014). Tweeting social change: How social media are changing
nonprofit advocacy. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly Vol. 43: 57-79, February.
first published on January 8, 2013 doi:10.1177/0899764012471585. [Symposium:
Nonprofit Advocacy and Engagement in Public Policy Making]. Retrieved from
http://online.sagepub.com. ezp.waldenulibrary.org/search/results.

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Kapucua, N., Healy, B. F., & Arslanc. T. (2011). Survival of the fittest: Capacity building for
small nonprofit organizations. Evaluation and Program Planning. Volume 34, Issue 3,
August 2011, pp. 236245 Retrieved from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article
/pii/S0149718911000292.
Kingston, L.N., & Stam, K. R. (2013, Jan. 23). Online advocacy: Analysis of human rights NGO
websites. Journal of Human Rights Practice Vol. 5 (1): 75-95.DOI:1-.1093/jhuman/
hus036.
Merino, S.S., & Carmenado, I. (2012). Capacity building in development projects. Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences, Volume 46, pp.960-967. Retrieved from
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0149718911000292.
Meyer, M., & Bray, C. W. (2013). Emerging adult usage of social networks as sites of activism:
A critical examination of the TOMS and TWLOHA movements. Ohio Communication
Journal, Vol, 51, pp. 5377. Retrieved from http://cnu.edu/communication/
profiles/meyer/pdf/04_2014.pdf.
Michel, G., & Rieunier (2012, May). Nonprofit brand image and typicality influences on
charitable giving. Journal of Business Research, Volume 65, Issue 5, pp. 701-70.
Retrieved from http://bit.ly/290Uhq3.
Obar, J.A., Zube, P., & Lampe, C. (2012). Advocacy 2.0: an analysis of how advocacy groups in
the United States perceive and use social media as tools for facilitating civic engagement
and collective action. Journal of information policy 2, pp. 1-25. Retrieved from
http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/10.5325/jinfopoli.2.2012.0001. pdf?_=1466986366359.