Connecting Community Builders
It’s time to support the people who make connection possible.
Everywhere you look, community is quietly being held together by volunteers — the group leaders, event organizers, space-holders, and social glue-makers doing the work of belonging. But most are doing it without support, recognition, or infrastructure.
Community building is civic leadership. But unlike other forms of leadership, it has no training path, no peer network, no system to sustain it.
We are mobilizing and equipping community builders across the country:
Creating Local and National Support Networks
Partnering with employers, cities, and platforms to remove friction and fuel what works
The Decline of Everyday Community
Strong 1:1 relationships matter, but they’re not enough. People also need to feel part of something larger: a group where they belong, contribute, and are seen. Research shows that being part of a group rooted in shared identity or activity strengthens well-being, trust, and civic engagement. These groups, whether it’s a faith circle, running club, or cultural gathering, are where connection becomes community.
That’s why, at the Chamber of Connection, we’ve defined the Six Points of Connection people need to thrive and be part of thriving communities. Two of them rely on group belonging: one organized around shared activity, and one around shared identity. Yet only 17% of Americans belong to a hobby or interest group, and just 16% are part of a parent, faith, or identity-based community. To meet this need nationally (assuming 25 people per group) we’d need over 10 million active groups, and just as many community builders to lead them. Most of these builders today are working without training, support, or recognition. If we want more belonging, we can’t just hope people find community, we need to support the people who create it.
Challenge of Our Time
Disconnection is the defining challenge of our time—and it’s costing us our health, our democracy, and our future.
Loneliness now affects nearly half of U.S. adults and increases the risk of premature death by 26%. The U.S. Surgeon General warns it poses a health risk equivalent to smoking 15 cigarettes a day.
But the damage goes further. Trust is collapsing. Only 19% of Americans trust the federal government, down from 73% in 1958. Just 30% believe most people can be trusted. And that erosion of trust fuels polarization, civic disengagement, and social instability.
Even economic opportunity is tied to connection. Harvard research shows that kids who grow up in high-trust, high-connection neighborhoods have significantly better odds of upward mobility, regardless of income.
Community Builder Needs
Every community group you’ve ever loved started because someone made the first move. They posted the invite. Booked the space. Welcomed the newcomer. Followed up when it would’ve been easier not to. These are the people who make connection possible, and they’re everywhere. They lead running clubs, supper circles, art nights, parent meetups, service teams, spiritual gatherings, and more. But most of them are doing it on their own.
As their communities grow they become more and more of an administrator of the community and less a member of it. Ironically, they built a community but don’t actually have a community for themselves.
They’re almost always under-resourced, spending money without making any money to cover their costs and time. They are brilliant but often have to learn everything from trial and error without training, toolkits or mentors. And while their groups may be successful, they aren’t consistently optimized to actually build sustained connection.
The Opportunity
We’ve created professional networks for founders, artists, executives, and educators. But the people quietly holding our communities together? They’ve been left out. And we’re all paying the price.
Entrepreneurs have EO and YPO. They are networks that offer peer support, coaching, and leadership development. Faith leaders have seminaries. Artists have fellowships. But community builders — the people creating the spaces where belonging happens — have no shared infrastructure. No training path. No peer network.
It’s time we changed that.
Community building is civic entrepreneurship. It needs support from ideation to launch, and systems to sustain it long after the founder steps back. This isn’t about professionalizing something informal — it’s about giving builders what every leader deserves: clarity, tools, and a community of their own.
We also need to raise their visibility: in media, in culture, and in the metrics that matter. When we celebrate community builders, it makes their work easier to sustain, easier to find, and easier to replicate. It sends a message: this work matters, and anyone can be part of it.
Community Builder Support Networks
To help community groups thrive, we need to support the people behind them, not just individually, but through local and national networks that meet their needs and sustain their work.
Builders need peer support. Most do this work in isolation, without anyone who understands the emotional and logistical load. A monthly dinner or small circle of peers can prevent burnout and spark new ideas. Just like EO and YPO support entrepreneurs, community builders deserve that same ecosystem.
They also need practical tools. From volunteer management to sustainable funding, most builders are forced to figure it out alone. Shared toolkits, training, and services, like help with taxes or social media, would save time and increase impact.
And they need visibility and connection. Many great groups operate just blocks apart, but never meet. A network would help them collaborate, access funding, and inspire new leaders to step in.
This isn’t extra. It’s the missing civic infrastructure. When we build it, we make community building easier, more sustainable, and far less lonely.
Collective Voice
We say we want more community, but our culture makes it hard to build. Community builders are expected to organize events, hold space, and create connection — for free. There’s no funding, no recognition, and often no physical space to meet. We’ve normalized the idea that community should cost nothing, forgetting that free doesn’t mean effortless. As one organizer said, asking someone to lead a community without support is like walking out of a restaurant before the bill comes.
We need a reset. Employers should count community building, inside and outside the workplace, as real volunteering, and offer time and space to support it. Cities should stop charging fees and permits that make volunteer-led work unsustainable. We have to remove liability risk requiring insurance. And we must raise up builders across race, income, and identity to create ecosystems that truly bridge divides.
Most of all, we need a collective voice — an advocacy body that brings builders together to change the conditions they work in. Because if we want more community, we have to start acting like it matters.
Become a Member
Do you want to join other people working to address connection and division in our communities?
As a member, you gain access to courses, support, and a growing network of leaders like you.
Your membership also fuels a national movement to build connection, trust, and community.
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