ComNet is the annual conference for leaders working in communications for good. ComNet24 will take place in Kansas City, Missouri October 16-18, 2024 at the Kansas City Loews and features 3 days of ideas, insights, inspiration, and fun!  

The Network will celebrate its 45th anniversary of connecting, gathering, and informing the field of comms for good in 2024. 

ComNet24 attendees will learn about emerging ideas and innovations, winning strategies, and get practical insights on what’s working (and what isn’t) in the field of communications for good while building community with some of the most gifted communicators, thinkers, and leaders in the social sector.

ComNet24 Kansas City

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 outside of the state.

“Access is a practice.”

About Stefanie Lyn Kaufman-Mthimkhulu - https://www.stefaniekaufman.com/about

KEYNOTE: Stefanie Lyn Kaufman-Mthimkhulu: How to Make Your Comms Inclusive and Accessible

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.

Narrative Organizing

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 multiple perspectives.

Better Communications By Design

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 Act Now and the Home is Here campaign, which led to immigrant youth's victory at the Supreme Court on the DACA litigation. Bruna is a growing voice in the progressive movement, and has been featured most recently in CNN, The New York Times, the Guardian and NBC Latino.

"Our work is not just about politics and policy, but about empowering young, undocumented people."

José Muñoz, National Communications Manager, United We Dream

José Muñoz is a DACA recipient who came to the U.S. from Mexico when he was a few months old, and grew up queer and undocumented in Minneapolis. José ensures that the voice and strategy of immigrant youth and families are heard across the country through engaging the media, shaping news stories, developing narrative and message as well as training directly impacted people to express themselves through the media. He’s been a featured voice in publications such as, The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR, Buzzfeed, Newsweek, TeenVogue, MTV News, and on Spanish language programming on both Univision and Telemundo.

“Our power is our stories.”

#HomeisHere Daca Video Series - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTahl_sx9fes99SC7RWKV0DsKRDoCBs7N

KEYNOTE: Jones Impact Award: United We Dream - Home is Here Case Study

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.

ComNet22 Comms For Good: The Power Of Risk

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 communications change work is a long game.

ComNet22 The Comms Long Game: How The USWNT Won Their Fight For Equal Pay

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.

ComNet23 The Story of AI with Aimee Rinehart and Mikhael Simmonds

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 why we must all dedicate ourselves to developing our communications chops to grow and tap into leadership skills.

ComNet23 The Case for Comms Leadership

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 their work to empower whistleblowers and shift public narratives in favor of accountability.

ComNet23 Jones Award Keynote: Whistleblower Aid

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.

ComNet23 LaTosha Brown

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.

ComNet24: Jones Award Winner The California Endowment

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.

ComNet24: Sree Sreenivasan

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, Brownbridge Strategies
NaTika Rowles, Black Community Fund

ComNet24: Lightning Leadership Hosted by Ebony Reed

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.

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