CommsCast

Keynote: 2025 Clarence B. Jones Impact Award Winner El Tímpano, a civic media organization created with and for immigrants who face systemic barriers to information, civic participation, and representation. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In 2025, The Communications Network annual conference took place in Denver, Colorado. Relive t...

Keynote: Future Caucus and Diane Yentel, President and CEO of National Council of Nonprofit by The Communications Network

Keynote: Jonathan Capehart, Pulitzer Prize-Winning Journalist and Author Discussion moderated by Anusha Alikhan, Wikimedia Foundation -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In 2025, The Communications Network annual conference took place in Denver, Colorado. Relive the energy of ComNet25! ComNet — the annual conference of The Communicatio...

Keynote: Meeting the Moment Join us for two TED-style talks that will explore perceptions, misconceptions, and how we build shared moments in today’s seemingly divisive times. You’ll hear from Stephen Hawkins, More in Common and Ashlin Malouf, Othering & Belonging Institute Kristen Mack, MacArthur Foundation, will kick things off. -------------------------------------------------------------------...

The California Endowment is the 2024 Clarence B. Jones Impact Award winner. Learn from their case study keynote. Sarah Reyes and Marisol Aviña present on The California Endowment’s #Health4All campaign, which created an inclusive health system that did not discriminate or exclude Californians based on immigration status.

Sree is an award-winning expert and scholar in digital communications and the CEO of Digimentors. He is the former Chief Digital Officer for New York City, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Columbia University. He explores the importance of attention, your digital and physical footprint, and the future of comms.

Ebony Reed is the Chief Strategy Officer of The Marshall Project, and coauthor of Fifteen Cents on the Dollar: How Americans Made the Black-White Wealth Gap. She joins us to explore the power of unexpected connections, generosity, and gratitude. Lightning Leadership Speakers: Anusha Alikhan, Wikimedia Foundation Daphne Moore, Walton Family Foundation Latia Henderson, RootED Denver Eric Brown, Brow...

Jonah Berger is a Wharton School professor and internationally bestselling author of Magic Words, Contagious, Invisible Influence, and The Catalyst. He shares the power of language to influence and engage, the brain science behind understanding, and how communications and network building can help you achieve durable change.

LaTosha Brown, visionary thought leader, cultural activist and artist, connector and co-founder of Black Voters Matter, will share the value of organizing and communicating through relationships, the power of community building, the impact of deep listening, and strategies for bringing people together to deliver change.

Whistleblower Aid has been named the sixth winner of the Clarence B. Jones Impact Award, an honor from The Communications Network that recognizes and celebrates the impact of transformative communications campaigns in the social sector. They join Truth Initiative, Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, A Step Ahead Chattanooga, United We Dream, and Innocence Project as #JonesAward recipients for th...

Judy Belk and Richard Tate, the former and current CEOs of the California Wellness Foundation, are communicators whose careers have led them to the corner office. Each will make the case for communications as a leadership task and an indispensable tool for transformation. They will offer best practices for how to follow your values, integrate communications inside your organization, and describe w...

Aimee Rinehart of the Associated Press and Mikhael Simmonds, Executive Director at the Center for Community Media at CUNY will lead a discussion on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Comms4Good.

Join us for a keynote conversation focused on communications lessons learned from the US Women’s National Soccer team’s landmark effort to achieve equal pay. The team’s work made clear how plain communications can be a powerful tool to create impact by building broad alliances and reshaping culture — and consequently, policy; as well as the need for patience and persistence — because communication...

Join two dynamic rabble rousers as they engage in a conversation about the challenges and potential for foundations and nonprofits. They’ll talk about the role of comms when tackling today’s big issues, the value of uniting the sector, the importance of leading from the middle, and how to embrace change and challenge the status quo.

Join leading social sector CEOs as they discuss the evolving role of their work as “communicator in chief” of their organizations. They'll reflect on lessons from the last two years of disruption and the power and need for effective communications. Panelists: William C. Bell of Casey Family Programs, Carmen Rojas of the Marguerite Casey Foundation, and Caryl Stern of The Walton Family Foundation....

Homelessness and lack of affordable housing are the biggest issues facing Seattle. Homelessness is a symptom of cracks in our housing, health, and economic policies, and changing the narrative to focus on systems instead of on individuals continues to be a challenge. Join prominent local government and nonprofit leaders for a dynamic conversation on the current state of homelessness, root causes,...

We are thrilled to announce our Jones Award judging panel has selected Innocence Project as the 2022 The Clarence B. Jones Impact Award winner. For thirty years, the Innocence Project has worked to restore the freedom of the staggering number of people who have been wrongfully convicted and to transform the systems that allow injustice to occur. In that time, the Innocence Project has freed or exo...

Wednesday, October 6 at 12pm EST Bruna Sollod, Communications Director, United We Dream Bruna moved from Brazil to the United States when she was eight years old. She received her DACA protections while studying at the University of Florida. Now, Bruna serves as the Communications Director at United We Dream, where she has been a strategist for multiple immigration campaigns including Clean Dream...

Wednesday, October 6 at 2pm EST Stefanie Lyn Kaufman-Mthimkhulu (she/they), Founding Director, Project LETS Stefanie is a Disability Justice cultural worker, educator, organizer, parent, somatic and ancestral healing practitioner, consultant, writer, and the Executive Director of Project LETS. Their work specializes in building peer support collectives and community mental health care structures o...

Friday, October 8 at 12pm EST john a. powell In Conversation with Carmen Rojas: Building Bridges and Belonging Through Comms Dr. john a. powell is an internationally recognized expert in the areas of civil rights and civil liberties and a wide range of issues including race, structural racism, ethnicity, housing, poverty, and democracy. He is the Director of the Othering & Belonging Institute (for...

Friday, October 8 at 2pm EST Dr. Katharine Hayhoe, Climate Scientist and Chief Scientist, The Nature Conservancy Katharine is an atmospheric scientist. She studies climate change, one of the most pressing issues we face today. “We need to make climate change personal.” Saving Us: A Climate Scientist's Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World - https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Saving-Us/K...

How do you develop your moral leadership? Dr. Carmen Rojas, President & CEO of the Marguerite Casey Foundation, and Rickke Mananzala, Executive Director of New York Foundation, will share how they’ve developed their voice and moral leadership, the evolving public role of philanthropy and nonprofit organizations in civic life, as well as how each of us can ultimately challenge ourselves to do more...

Building a Digital Movement by The Communications Network

What is Narrative Organizing? And why is it essential for communicators to understand? In this session you’ll learn about narratives: what they are, why they matter, and how to use “landscaping” and “narrative network organizing” to advance the work of your foundation or nonprofit.

This workshop will explore how design thinking can foster a deep and genuine connection with the communities and audiences you aim to serve. We will share insights and methods for enhancing your communications, messaging, and campaign strategies in order to create holistic solutions that connect the dots between product, service, business, and entire systems in an effort to tackle problems from mu...