Talking about the poor: a critical discourse analysis of nonprofit website messaging on poverty

Human services nonprofits operate as intermediaries between the donors and institutions that fund them and the communities they serve. Donors, policymakers, and funders often reside outside these communities but exert significant influence over policy and investment decisions within them, relying on mediated representations to understand the causes of and solutions to poverty. Nonprofits therefore function not only as service providers, but also as communicative and institutional actors shaping how deprivation is interpreted and addressed. At the same time, they operate within a tension between maintaining financial support and pursuing their stated social missions.This study analyzes how nonprofits represent poverty through a critical discourse analysis of 50 Midwestern nonprofit websites located in formerly redlined communities. Combining quantitative content analysis with qualitative discourse analysis, the study examines how different theories of poverty are incorporated into organizational narratives and how these framings relate to the interventions nonprofits propose. The findings indicate that while most nonprofits incorporate elements of systemic explanations of poverty, these references are often generalized and lack specificity. In contrast, programmatic responses overwhelmingly emphasize individualized interventions, including behavioral development, service provision, and efforts to promote self-sufficiency. This pattern suggests that structural conditions are acknowledged discursively while responses remain focused on individual-level change. These findings highlight how nonprofit discourse mediates between structural inequality and programmatic intervention within the constraints of a marketized funding environment. In doing so, the study contributes to scholarship on nonprofit communication, poverty discourse, and the political economy of social provision by demonstrating how institutional context shapes both the representation of inequality and the range of responses considered viable. JEL Codes: Z10 Economic Sociology, L31 Non-Profit Institutions, P16 Capitalist Institutions; Welfare State, and B52 Current Heterodox Approaches: Historical; Institutional; Evolutionary; Modern Monetary Theory.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D. (Doctor of Philosophy)

Level thesis:degree_level

Doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Economics (UMKC)

Grantor

University of Missouri--Kansas City

Year dc:date.issued

2026

Author dc:creator

• Matlock, Brian Edward

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Tauheed, Linwood F.

Language dc:language.iso

en_US

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/10355/112355

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:mospace.umsystem.edu:10355/112355