The Communications Collaborative

Earlier this month, I took a deep breath and decided to quietly launch a new offering that’s been gestating for well over a year. The framework described below reflects the desire–expressed by a wide array of communications practitioners I’ve collaborated with over the past decade–for a space dedicated to professional development and information exchange.

Establishing a community of practice

The Communications Collaborative will create a space for learning, peer support, and professional development for nonprofit professionals tasked with communications responsibilities. Its first cohort will convene in early-November 2018, run for six months, and be limited to no more than ten participants. Instead of a series of training workshops, it’s been designed to establish a Community of Practice for folks doing this work independently or in small teams who could benefit from the opportunity to test ideas, explore best practices, hone their skills, and have access to a supportive space to tackle their biggest communications challenges. Additional details are available here.

‘Community-benefit’ orientation

The Communications Collaborative was created with nonprofit professionals in mind. That said–both government agency staff members who work closely with local communities, as well as communicators from private enterprises whose work and mission intersects with the nonprofit sector, can benefit from participation. Thus, this program is really for anyone working in the realm of ‘community benefit’–which until recently has been largely synonymous with nonprofit. With the emergence of social purpose corporations, B Corp certifications, low-profit limited liability companies, flexible purpose corporations, and other hybrid approaches that don’t clearly fall into our old buckets of ‘for-profit’ and ‘not-for-profit’ these lines will continue to blur.

Looking ahead to 2019

While the inaugural cohort is limited to O‘ahu-based participants, the possibility of a ‘virtual’ convening of a neighbor-island–or even a global–cohort is percolating based on conversations sparked by early outreach within the local community.

If there’s anyone who comes to mind who would benefit from this opportunity, I’d be SO grateful if you’d share this post with them (they’ll thank you, too)!