Abstract
Ethnographic methodologies traditionally rely on direct engagement with people and cultures. This paper argues that texts serve as an alternative ethnographic site, providing access to institutional processes and practices that would otherwise remain obscured. We explore how texts, particularly press releases, function as a source of ethnographic knowledge, positioning them not simply as textual records but rather as active sites of meaning-making. Drawing on a dataset of 361 press releases issued by higher education institutions in the US following major philanthropic donations, this paper advances the methodological potential of text-based ethnography by demonstrating how these documents construct, negotiate, and legitimize donor-institution relationships. By engaging with texts ethnographically, we contribute to ongoing methodological debates in business and management research and advance a type of ethnography based on texts as a methodological tool for studying organizations in restricted-access environments.