Communities of Practice

Communities of Practice: Innovating the ways NPOs build and expand organizational knowledge

A guide on how nonprofit organizations can strengthen and expand their knowledge repository through virtual communities of practice.

Nonprofit organizations (NPOs) provide an expansive range of services for underserved communities. Individuals who work in nonprofits are driven by a great sense of purpose and a deep affinity for helping people. 

American nonprofits often lean on volunteers to perform up to an estimated 80% of their workload since they generally have a small staff (Senses-Ozyurt & Villicana-Reyna, 2016). However, a reliance on an unsteady system of temporary workers can make building volunteer intellectual capital and managing volunteer knowledge challenging (Lettieri, et al., 2004). The knowledge and skills that volunteers bring with them are diverse and valuable; yet volunteer turnover can make it difficult to create systems to formalize these knowledge and skills. This can result in an increase in potential volunteer performance problems. 

An effective strategy that nonprofits can use to ameliorate this issue is to implement virtual communities of practice (VCoPs) into volunteerism. VCoPs can serve as a platform for volunteers to contribute their skills and knowledge as well as provide a way for NPOs to organize volunteer information. NPOs can then create a formal resource system for current and new volunteers to freely input or retrieve information to enhance their work. 

What are CoPs?

Different types of communities of practice (CoP) are not necessarily new and can be observed across different cultures; however, they were not popularized until the 1990s by Jean Lave and Étienne Wenger (Mercieca, 2016).

A CoP is a mutual, group-based approach to learning with three components: domain, community, and practice. 

1. Participating individuals embrace a shared identity that is based on a domain of common interests and goals (Merriam & Bierema, 2013). The domain defines the purpose of the community. 

2. Social interaction energizes the community and cultivates relationship building. An individual’s learning journey becomes richer, and their understanding deepens, as they interact with their peers. 

3. Members or practitioners have diverse backgrounds and varying levels of knowledge and skills. As a multidisciplinary community, they contribute to the knowledge repository through forms of discussions relating to problem-solving, exchanging ideas, and sharing resources. This group learning leads to mastery of skills or knowledge.

Why CoPs are So Effective

There are several reasons why a CoP is the right choice for a NPO. 

CoPs are an adult learning principle with characteristics that help adults successfully learn. These key characteristics include:

• control over what the individual is learning

• perceived benefits and value in the information they are seeking

• ability to make connections between current learning and previous experiences, and the opportunity for real-world applications. 

CoPs leverage the significance and relevance of the social context with regards to one’s learning. Adult learning is supported through peer socialization and collaboration in which they have clear opportunities to participate in active discussions and reflective engagement (Merriam & Bierema, 2013). 

CoPs contain the adult learning characteristics which make them an ideal tool for NPOs to invest in for their adult volunteers. When NPOs draw from these adult learning characteristics to plan and build their CoPs, adult volunteers will thrive and learn successfully. Knowledge from current volunteers will retain within the organization and pass on to future volunteers.

How a CoP Can Help Your NPO

CoPs offer a variety of benefits for NPOs and volunteers: 

• • Increase interaction leads to more engagement among volunteers and volunteer retention (Ilyas, et al., 2000 & Nencini, et al., 2016). Creating strong bonds with other volunteers encourages individuals to continue providing services to NPOs.

  • Instill a sense of worth that makes members feel included and helpful (Mellor, et al., 2008). All participating members are viewed as stewards of knowledge and can contribute to areas they are familiar with while receiving help on areas in which they are less familiar.  

  • Navigate resources to build skills necessary to deliver exemplary performance (Ilyas, et al., 2020).

  • Serve as the NPO’s source of information sharing for current and future volunteers and keep the volunteer information and materials current.  

Setting up your own virtual CoPs

1. Obtain executive support

   • Communicate the value and benefits of CoPs to leadership and gain their support. 

2. Set up a foundation and framework

   • Write the guidelines for community rules and group norms collectively.

   • Identify organizers and volunteer leaders to facilitate the group, direct new employees to the community of practice, and train existing volunteers on how to use the platform.

3. Determine purpose, mission, and goals

   • Work together with community members to determine your group’s purpose and tie it into its mission and goals.

4. Use low-cost or free platforms: Facebook, LinkedIn, or Slack 

   • Select a platform that has an easy registration process and contains features that members can experiment with including live chat and video conferences, resource sharing, and a forum for discussion. 

5. Gain buy-in from employees and volunteers

   • Promote values and benefits to employees and volunteers such as the following: enrichment of the knowledge repository, volunteer retention, increase interaction, communication, and collaboration

6. Moderate and monitor the community

   • Establish moderating roles with representatives from the organization and experienced volunteers to ensure that the VCoPs mission is respected, and the goals are being pursued actively. 

7. Evaluate and refine 

   • Collect data on the effectiveness of the VCoPs and work on reviewing strengths and areas to improve upon.

Ready to create your own community of practice? Download this template to get started. A PDF version is available here.

References

Deluvio, C. (2020). [Photograph of a virtual Zoom call between a cheerful man and a woman with a calm expression]. Unsplash. https://unsplash.com/photos/Y4qzW3AsvqI

Deluvio, C. (2020). [Photograph of a virtual Zoom call between two cheerful woman and man]. Unsplash. https://unsplash.com/photos/ufK-deiLqY8

Go, PJ. (2021). [Photograph of a professional businesswoman in a relaxed sitting posture talking]. Unsplash. https://unsplash.com/photos/arPZr6tqsoA

Ilyas, S., Butt, M., Ashfaq, F., Maran, D.A. (2020). Drivers for non-profits’ success: Volunteer engagement and financial sustainability practices through the resource dependence theory. Economies. 8(101). 1-17. https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7099/8/4/101

Lettieri , E., Borga, F., Savoldelli, A. (2004). Knowledge management in non-profit organizations. Journal of Knowledge Management. 8(6). 16-30. https://doi.org/10.1108/13673270410567602

Mellor, D., Hayashi, Y., Firth, L., Stokes, M., Chambers, S., Cummins, R.  (2008). Volunteering and well-Being: Do self esteem, optimism, and perceived control mediate the relationship?. Journal of Social Service Research. 34(4). 61-70, doi.org/10.1080/01488370802162483

Mercieca, B. (2016). What is a community of practice? Communities of Practice. 3-25. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-2879-3_1

Merriam, S. B., & Bierema, L. L. (2013). Adult learning: Linking theory and practice [electronic book]. Jossey-Bass.

National Council of Nonprofits. (2019). Nonprofit impact matters: how America’s charitable nonprofits strengthen communities and improve lives. https://www.nonprofitimpactmatters.org/site/assets/files/1/nonprofit-impact-matters-sept-2019-1.pdf

Nencini, A., Romaioli, D., & Meneghini, A.M. (2016). Volunteer motivation and organizational climate: factors that promote satisfaction and sustained volunteerism in NPOs. Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations. 27(2). 618-639. https://www.jstor.org/stable/43923196

Senses-Ozyurt, S. & Villicana-Reyna, N. (2016). Leadership characteristics and volunteer retention in nonprofit organizations. Journal of Nonprofit Education and Leadership. 6(4). 350-374. https://doi.org/10.18666/JNEL-2016-V6-I4-6521