The phrase “community engagement” is everywhere these days. Nonprofits and others aim to employ community engagement practices to ensure input from constituents on everything from grant advising to neighborhood housing to political campaigns.

Nonetheless, it’s no secret that community members in the United States are often not in the driver’s seat when setting nonprofit or public sector priorities. Far too often, those directly affected by decisions are not consulted at all. Using community engagement tools and resources in a well-planned and meaningful way can have a real and lasting impact on communities, decision-making processes, and individual and family wellbeing. But the benefits of community engagement only occur when it is structured in a way that changes power relationships.

While there is no single definition of community engagement, I define it as a process by which the people most impacted on a given issue can decide how a program or policy is envisioned, implemented, and/or addressed. It’s mutual decision-making that directly involves the people and community (or the nonprofit) being targeted or talked about rather than having a removed group make decisions on their behalf.

Prospera Partners, the consulting company I lead, focuses on social impact and systems change through better community engagement. I’ve seen how putting the community first can have real, equitable impact. But despite the ubiquitous use of the phrase “community engagement,” decades of behavior by a nonprofit sector shaped by the nonprofit industrial complex and problematic philanthropy means that those controlling the money often remain the ones expected to provide the solutions.

Changing the status quo requires a fundamental willingness to challenge the relations of power that are implicit in these common top-down practices. As Ellen Shepard, founder of Community Allies, a Chicago-based consulting firm with whom I have partnered, emphasizes, “By empowering communities in decision-making, we not only end up with better solutions; we also disrupt the power structures that have kept inequitable conditions in place.”

How does this work? Here are some key aspects of sound community engagement:

  • Gather input that gets to the root cause of problems that can lead to bigger solutions with longer lasting change
  • Connect community members to the work and decisions
  • Create transparency to provide the opportunity for “buy-in” on projects, decisions, and community development
  • Grow stakeholder engagement by expanding the circle of engagement to incorporate more volunteers, more donors, more meeting attendees, and so on
  • Improve evaluation outcomes by learning directly from stakeholders, partners, and potential partners
  • Develop a more equitable process for input and evaluation (such as by inviting a large group of people to participate rather than a small number of people for a roundtable discussion)

Creating real solutions for the community, with the community, is a strategic process—when done right, it can have a real, lasting impact.

Read the full article about community engagement by Vicki Pozzebon at Nonprofit Quarterly .