The Wilder Nonprofit Field Guide to Conducting Community Forums: Engaging Citizens, Mobilizing Communities

The step-by-step guide to successful forums

Community forums are powerful tools for educating the public, building consensus, focusing action, and influencing policy. Since 1993, the Wilder Foundation has sponsored over 70 community forums on a wide variety of topics. Based on the authors’ experience with the Foundation’s Community Forums Project and other organizations, this book can help you

• Clarify your goals and decide whether a forum is the best way to achieve them
• Select the best type of forum to meet your goals
• Develop a timeline, create a budget, and recruit sponsors
• Manage the logistics of event planning and execution
• Sustain the results and bring about lasting, desired changes

Sample documents, detailed worksheets, and a comprehensive checklist lead you through the process. “Forums on a Shoestring” sidebars suggest ways to get big results with little time or money. A detailed resource section points you toward helpful books, articles, organizations, and web sites.

Recommended for all kinds of community groups, meant to be used in many situations, The Wilder Nonprofit Field Guide to Conducting Community Forums gives you quick-and-easy access to the information, models, advice, and best practices you need to make the most of your next forum.

CAROL LUKAS is director of National Services for the Wilder Center for Communities (WCC) at the Amherst H. Wilder Foundation. She led the Wilder Foundation’s Community Forums program for six years. Carol has more than twenty-five years of consulting and training experience with nonprofit, government, community, and private sector organizations. 

LINDA HOSKINS has designed, planned, and managed forums and events for more than twenty years. She is a consultant with the Wilder Center for Communities who assists community groups and organizations to strengthen and improve their work within the community.