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The purpose of this paper is to tests three hypotheses: non‐profit organizations follow a customer‐centered approach to marketing; marketing is run by marketing‐trained staff; and cross‐continental differences in the adoption of marketing in the UK, the USA, and Australia exist due to differences in the operating environment.

A survey study was conducted with non‐profit managers. The sample contains 136 respondents; 36 from the UK, 33 from the USA and 67 from Australia.

Non‐profit managers indicated that the most important marketing activities are promotional in nature. The importance of market research and strategic marketing was acknowledged only by a small proportion of non‐profits, supporting Andreasen and Kotler's assertion that non‐profit organizations have an “organization‐centered” mindset. Only one fifth of marketing staff are trained in marketing. Non‐profit organizations in the UK, the USA, and Australia did not differ in their use of marketing and marketing operations, suggesting that the similarity of market pressures may be more influential than the differences in operating environments.

Shifting from an “organization‐centered” to a “customer‐centered” approach to marketing represents a key opportunity for non‐profit organizations to increase their competitive advantage and improve their outcomes in terms of the organizational mission. The primary strategy to achieve this aim is to make increased use of formally trained marketing staff.

To the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to assess the state of marketing practise in non‐profit organizations since Kotler, the first to test the organization‐centered hypothesis and the first to test differences across countries.

This paper aims to examine the context and nature of marketing used by nonprofit organizations in the Czech Republic.

A number of senior self‐designated marketing managers in a wide range of non‐profit organizations in Prague were interviewed to generate a descriptive narrative of what these key persons understood marketing to be and how they devised and implemented marketing within organizational strategy.

The findings paralleled that of other research (1995‐2005) on the understanding and role of marketing within the profit sector of the Czech Republic. While marketing was identified as an interesting and powerful concept, non‐profit policy makers generally had a limited understanding of a marketing theory or of the context in which exchange transactions occurred.

This project was designed as an initial survey. The limited number of representatives interviewed and their purposeful selection from a small number of high‐profile non‐profit organizations limit the reliability of the findings and reduce the extent to which they can be generalized.

This paper provides a useful entry point for those interested in the use of marketing in the Czech Republic, a very significant transformative economy in the centre of Europe. Since one of the authors is a native Czech speaker, the paper reviews relevant marketing and non‐profit literature in Czech as well as English.

While there has been some interest in the understanding and practice of marketing in the profit sector, it is believed that this is the first paper to address the non‐profit sector – a sector that plays a very significant role within transformative economies.

Examines marketing techniques used by British non‐profit organisations. Defines public sector and voluntary sector non‐profit organisation. Outlines the difficulties encountered in defining the marketing process in non‐profit organisations compared with normal business operations. Highlights four main areas of marketing for non‐profit organisations – research, promotion, pricing and distribution. Concludes that the non‐profit sector includes a number of organisations where ownership, structure and objectives do not correspond to the traditional model of business organisations. Affirms that British authors should view these dissimilarities as an opportunity to develop the marketing concept, marketing and marketing management in a much wider context than that of business marketing.

This article sets out to examine the market orientation construct within the context of the non‐profit sector. Given the specificity of non‐profit organisations and the increasingly demanding resource environments in which these organisations operate, the adoption of the concept of marketing is viewed as an adaptive strategy for ensuring that organisations receive the necessary resources for accomplishing their missions and carrying out their activities. In line with this, the present article aims to investigate the extent to which the type of revenue strategy is related to the organisation's market orientation, towards donors and/or users.

Drawing from a resource dependence conceptual framework, the article reports findings from a quantitative study of a representative sample of Portuguese non‐profit organisations (NPOs). This approach was complemented by qualitative research methods. Combining these two approaches has given access to different levels of reality and provided a more holistic understanding of the phenomena under study.

The results from the present study demonstrate that Portuguese NPOs favour a market orientation towards users/beneficiaries, revealing a less proactive behaviour in relation to their donors. In the present study, the resource dependence theory has proved to be an important theoretical tool for understanding market orientation strategies within the non‐profit sector. The link between the type of resource strategy and the organisation's market orientation stands out as an important finding derived from the present study and is particularly visible in relation to donor market orientation. In addition, empirical data partially support the conclusion that diversification of revenue sources is likely to favour a higher degree of market orientation. Further refinement of the adequacy of the MARKOR scale within the context of the non‐profit sector stands out as an avenue for further research.

As the sample used for analysis was drawn from Portugal, the generalisability of the results to other countries remains to be tested.

The findings of the present study may assist public policy‐makers in the design of more adequate policies in the allocation of resources to non‐profit organisations.

The study contributes to a better understanding of market orientation in the specific context of the non‐profit sector. Moreover, this is done through applying the market orientation scale to two different stakeholders (i.e. donors and users/beneficiaries) in the evaluation of market orientation and in its relationship with resource strategies.

Examines the reasons why administrators of non‐profit organizations are reluctant to embrace marketing ideas. Gives the most frequent answer, which is that marketing itself has a tarnished image which is often associated with wasteful expenditure, particularly in the areas of advertising and promotion, where things are very difficult. Differences are shown in background and training, and therefore language and concepts of markets and the administrators of non‐profit organisations. States that administrators in non‐profit organizations are not surprisingly reluctant to adopt a language, which they can often see as merely offering a rather poor translation of their own concepts. Sums up that marketing practitioners may feel uncomfortable about explicitly acknowledging the existence of such activity.

Direct marketing is seeing growing acceptance among non‐profit services as a means to reach audiences, raise revenues, and foster long‐term relationships with customers. However, academic research has lagged in investigating the influences on the extent to which these organizations implement direct marketing, and subsequent effects on performance outcomes associated with such marketing activities. This research investigates the case of non‐profit arts organizations. The results show that organizational formalization, external integration, total marketing effort, and managerial self‐confidence influence the direct marketing techniques implemented by the firm. The model also shows that sales and fund‐raising revenues are driven primarily by total marketing effort, while the percentage of total revenue derived from season‐ticket subscriptions is driven by the breadth and uniqueness of the direct marketing techniques implemented by the organization.

Libraries are facing serious competition from the ‘profit’ information industry which has seen the potential of an ever‐increasing information service sector. Sophisticated information retrieval systems, and management information systems are finding their way into research organisations and business corporations, areas traditionally served by libraries. Until recently the concept of marketing non‐profit organisations has been considered inappropriate, centred around the underlying theory that such organisations are not involved in an exchange process. With the extension of the exchange concept, marketing as a tool has been applied in the non‐profit sector with a degree of success. Marketing requires analysis and planning and the view that promotion is marketing is misleading. The components of a good marketing strategy include not only a promotional campaign but also product analysis, the development of appropriate outlets for the products, and an effective pricing structure. These mix components are reviewed with an emphasis on the most neglected area, product analysis. Libraries' core products are examined and the appropriateness of the product life‐cycle concept is discussed. In conclusion, the article suggests that a change in attitude to marketing may help libraries to improve their image and to attract users. Through careful analysis, planning and implementation of marketing the survival of libraries may be less doubtful in a rapidly changing technological world.

This article begins by examining the nature of marketing as applicable to charitable organisations. It goes on to discuss how charitable organisations are extending their use of marketing practices. A survey of market research agencies is presented, which indicates the extent to which charitable organisations seek professional support for marketing decisions, and the main types of problem for which help is sought. The final contention is that even with extensive constraints on the operations of charitable organisations, there is great potential to improve marketing performance by the development of an appropriate marketing information system.

Briefly considers the concept of marketing and outlines the characteristics of marketing management. Discusses marketing for non‐profit organizations and indicates the use of marketing techniques for libraries and information centres. Also indicates methods of applying marketing techniques to library and information centres.

The paper aims to examine how not communicating stakeholders' expectations through marketing results in mis‐targeting. It also aims to suggest that, when non‐profit managers do not succeed in capturing stakeholders' definitions of performance, marketing is ineffective and may even result in decreased support for organisational goals.

Surveys were administered to managers from a sample of 135 non‐profits in Israel with a 63 per cent return rate.

The findings suggest that marketing practices have a differential effect on public/private stakeholders; and the effect of marketing on performance increases when targeting public stakeholders, but negatively affects performance when targeting private stakeholders. These results suggest that not properly communicating funders' expectations is the cause for the ineffective use of marketing in non‐profit organisations (NPOs).

Marketing may have both positive and negative effects on performance but attention should be addressed to the differences of marketing targets in order to fit between marketing techniques and marketing targets.

The results highlight the importance of a professional approach to marketing practices in NPOs that consider the diversity of stakeholders in expectations and definitions of performance.

This is the first paper that examines the reasons why marketing has not been a successful means to increase performance in non‐profit settings.