Community Relations

Historical Development of Community Relations Concept

Community relations developed as a result of dissatisfactions and tensions between organizations and their near publics. Originally, strategic philanthropy in terms of support for the arts, sponsorship of community activities, or jobs was considered to be sufficient to generate goodwill for an organization. Community relations became a matter of serious research as activism brought changes in standards regarding organizational legitimacy.

Historically, in the early stages of 19th-century industrial expansion, businesses were widely viewed as a benefit to a community. New industry provided jobs and supplied the community with an ample tax base. However, as time passed, it became more and more evident that corporations often exacted a toll on each community in terms of layoffs, relocations, pollution, increased health problems, employment safety issues, the attraction of large groups of people, as well as domination of local government.

Initially, activists directed their ire toward specific businesses within a geographical community. As technology and transportation improved, the geographical constraint became less of a central factor. The “voice” of the community became regional, national, and even international. Complaints translated into issues wherever the organization was located.

Groups of critics were being organized with generic names like unions, service groups, and educators to organize and represent certain issues. Those groups became branded by issue: environmentalists (e.g., Greenpeace and Sierra Club), animal rights (e.g., PETA), or senior citizens (e.g., Gray Panthers). Such opposition groups sought to bring organizations into public disfavor, justifying issue debates and seeking constraints over operations as well as attacks on reputation.

These forces resulted in the public relations function of community relations, which was designed to monitor emerging issues, address the acceptability of policies and operations, and assess the strength of relationships between the organization and citizens. Nonprofits and government are faced with similar challenges. The community relations function in public relations is also well established in nonbusiness organizations. It is often central to the survival of the nonprofit organization; for instance, symphonies were no longer merely expected to perform but also to reach out to increase music appreciation in schools.