Since early 2025, the CommNS has been collaborating with UW-Extension Ashland County on a project titled The New North: Integrating Newcomers and Communities In Northern Wisconsin for Civic Health and Sustainable Rural Futures. Funded by an …
CommNS Knowledge Blog
Building Bridges: The CommNS and Civil Society Capacity-Building in Timor-Leste
How a year-long partnership nurtured connection and exchange, and contributed to capacity-building efforts for civil society organizations and future leaders in one of the world’s youngest democracies A Partnership Across Continents Imagine running a nonprofit …
Meeting the Moment: Defining Civic Health in Wisconsin
A new article by CommNS Executive Director Mary Beth Collins will appear in the March issue of the WISCONSIN COUNTIES ASSOCIATION.
Faith-Based Organizations as Community Anchors: Key Insights from the 2/19/26 CommUniversity Session Panel
Last week, The CommNS kicked off our Spring Semester 2026 CommUniversity sessions with a panel discussion on Faith-Based Organizations as community anchor points, which often offer support to communities which go well beyond worship, and …
By the People and For the People: An Urgent Call to Democratize the Future of AI
The recent, inevitable explosion of the presence of artificial intelligence (“AI”) in our lives has invoked concern and excitement across communities, institutions, and enterprises. The abrupt integration – in just a couple of years – of an entirely new level of technological power most of us don’t really understand is unnerving and yet, already an accepted part of our daily life.
How will recent and anticipated federal policy changes impact Wisconsin communities and the nonprofits that serve them?
This timely project supported by the United Way of Dane County, the Madison Community Foundation, and the UW-Madison Center for Community and Nonprofit Studies collects and distills information for stakeholders …
Beyond Land Acknowledgements: The Importance of Community History in Honoring Native Voices
The guidance from this brief is derived from The Community and Nonprofit Studies Affiliate and Civil Society & Community Studies and American Indian & Indigenous Studies Associate Professor, Kasey Keeler and her project Ȟaȟá Wakpádaŋ …
Creating connections on campus to support Wisconsin communities
Recently published on UniverCity Alliance website: https://univercity.wisc.edu/2025/02/03/creating-connections-on-campus-to-support-wisconsin-communities/ When the City of Madison was interested in evaluating a pop-up shop program, UniverCity Alliance connected the project and city staff with an initiative at the Center for …
Co-Create Reaches 50 Projects!
As we usher in spring, we offer congratulations to our Co-Create team who hit a major milestone toward the end of 2023: their 50th project. It began in 2017 as a small wish by Associate …
CommNS contributes to new book on UW-Madison’s global partnerships
Wisconsin in the World (ed. Elise S. Ahn) is a recently published book exploring the long and ongoing story of internationalization at the University of Wisconsin–Madison (UW). Against that backdrop, each chapter takes a unique …