About Us

Learn more about CivicLab and our Parnters

CivicLab is a nonprofit institute dedicated to advancing the practice of civic collaboration. CivicLab’s approach is to learn what makes community collaboration work at its best, document these discoveries, and teach and share the practices broadly. We teach collaborative community teams how to better approach complex social problems by redesigning the way they work together. Since our founding in 2012, we have partnered with and served more than 375 communities across the country and have trained more than 20,000 leaders and community stakeholders.


It’s important to know that we do not consider ourselves to be consultants. Like many of you, we are practitioners, having formed and led many cross-sector collaboratives and initiatives focused on social challenges at the community, regional, and state levels. The approach we take to our work is both unique and proven. We believe in one guiding idea: When it comes to community collaboration, the process is the product.

2022 Cohort Partners

In 2022, CivicLab selected five partnerships serving rural communities and regions that are leading efforts to improve higher education and workforce outcomes for their residents. Learn more about these partnerships...