PUBLIC RELATIONS AND ADVOCACY EFFECTIVENESS: THE ROLE OF STAKEHOLDER TRUST IN NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION IN EDO STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between public relations (PR) strategies and advocacy effectiveness among selected nonprofit organizations in Edo State, Nigeria, with particular attention to the mediating role of stakeholder trust. The study was situated within nonprofit sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) advocacy and focused on BraveHeart Initiative for Youth and Women, Pathfinders Justice Initiative, and SOTHAWACA. A quantitative cross-sectional survey was used to obtain responses from 300 adult stakeholders who had encountered advocacy communication from the selected organizations, with 100 respondents allocated to each organizational context. Data were analyzed using frequencies, percentages, means, standard deviations, correlation analysis and mediation analysis. The findings showed generally favourable perceptions of PR strategies and stakeholder trust. Public relations strategies were significantly associated with stakeholder trust (β = .705, p < .001), while stakeholder trust was significantly associated with advocacy effectiveness (β = .700, p < .001). PR strategies also showed a significant direct relationship with advocacy effectiveness (β = .810, p < .001). The reported indirect effect of PR strategies on advocacy effectiveness through stakeholder trust was .493, with a 95% confidence interval of (.413, .578). The findings suggest that nonprofit advocacy effectiveness is closely connected not only to communication activities but also to the trust established between advocacy organizations and their stakeholders. The study contributes to nonprofit public relations scholarship by positioning stakeholder trust as a relational mechanism linking PR strategies with advocacy outcomes in an under-researched Nigerian context. The reported mediation statistics should, however, be verified against the underlying statistical output before journal submission.