In order to understand how research is used by public relations professionals of nonprofit organizations, one first must understand their target publics: clients and donors, along with media and town/city officials. Nonprofits use research for a multitude of reasons, but a prominent motive for their studies is to understand how they can best adapt their programming to meet the needs and availability of their publics. “Real research is a systematic process to seek answers to questions and understanding phenomena. Ultimately, research is a way to achieve certainty” (Zhou & Sloan). Marketing research is essentially the research process used to acquire information regarding problems a nonprofit organization is facing - it is implemented to correct
