The Center for Public Interest Communications is the first institution in the nation dedicated to studying, testing, and applying the science of strategic communication for change. We are based at the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications — the institution that formally established public interest communications as a field of academic study and professional practice in 2009.
Our work sits at the intersection of behavioral science, systems thinking, and strategic communication. We help foundations, nonprofits, government agencies, and advocacy organizations move beyond good intentions — and build the kind of evidence-based, outcome-oriented communication strategies that produce lasting change.
What We Do
The Center operates at the boundary between research and practice. We translate peer-reviewed findings from psychology, sociology, neuroscience, and political science into frameworks and strategies that working communicators can actually use.
Our work takes three forms:
Strategy and consulting. We partner with organizations on communication challenges that require both scientific grounding and strategic discipline — narrative research, audience analysis, message development, and campaign design. Partners have included the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the United Nations, Housing Partnership Network, ADT, UNHCR, the Council on Foundations, and others.
Training and professional development. We build capacity in public interest communications through custom training engagements and open professional development programs. Our workshops are built around the Center’s own frameworks and draw on decades of applied work across sectors. We’ve trained senior officials at government agencies, university leadership, foundation staff, and frontline nonprofit communicators.
Research and field-building. We advance the intellectual foundations of public interest communications through development of actionable frameworks that can be used by change-makers and through original research on communication, narrative, and behavior change. The University of Florida publishes the Journal of Public Interest Communications, the field’s first peer-reviewed publication. Our annual Real Good Census tracks the state of the field and the practitioners who work in it. We organize the frank gathering, a convening of people who work to change the world.
Our Approach
Public interest communications is not a synonym for nonprofit communications, cause marketing, or advocacy. It’s a distinct discipline — one that applies the rigor of behavioral and social science to the challenge of creating sustained change on issues that matter to everyone.
Learn more about what public interest communications is and how it works →
Every project we take on starts with the same questions: What does the evidence show about this problem and this audience? What would actually move the people who need to change? What specific, measurable outcome are we working toward? And how will we know if it’s working?
That last question — evaluation — is one that much of the communications field still avoids. We don’t. The goal isn’t a good campaign. It’s a changed world.
The frameworks we’ve developed — including the Six Spheres of Influence, the Science of Story Building, and the Four Questions back-of-the-envelope strategy guide — are available as standalone resources for communicators who want to apply the science without the jargon.
How We Select Partners and Projects
We’re a mission-driven organization, and we’re selective about the work we take on. Every project is evaluated against four standards:
Is the project working in the public’s interest? The work must transcend the particular interests of any single organization, political party, or individual. We don’t do communications that serves one organization’s goals at the expense of the broader public.
Is the objective supported by science? We won’t design campaigns around goals that the evidence doesn’t support, or use communication strategies that research has shown to be ineffective or harmful.
Does the project fit the mission of a land-grant institution? The University of Florida is committed to the discovery and dissemination of knowledge to solve pressing challenges — and to ensuring that people have access to the education and opportunity to shape their own lives. Our work should advance those values.
Does the project align with the UN Sustainable Development Goals? The SDGs — adopted by all UN member nations in 2015 — provide a globally recognized framework for what the common good looks like in practice. We use them as a reference point for evaluating the public interest value of proposed work.
Our History
The Center’s founding is inseparable from the history of public interest communications as a field.
In 2009, Frank and Betsy Karel endowed a chair at the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications — the Frank Karel Chair in Public Interest Communications — with the explicit goal of building a community of practice, a research field, and a curriculum around the then-emerging discipline. Frank Karel had spent his career using strategic communication for social change, including as Vice President for Communications at the Robert Wood Johnson and Rockefeller Foundations. He understood, from decades of practice, that the field needed an institutional home.
Ann Searight Christiano became the inaugural Karel Chair in 2010 and built what became the Center for Public Interest Communications from the ground up. Under her direction, and with her colleagues Ellen Nodine, Annie Neimand, Matt Sheehan and others, the Center developed the frameworks, training programs, and research infrastructure that define the field today. She created the annual frank gathering — the largest convening of public interest communicators in the world. The Karel Chair initially funded the Research Prize in Public Interest Communications, awarded annually for scholarship that advances the field.
The Center is the first of its kind. That’s not marketing language — it’s a description of what we actually built, and why institutions across the country have looked to UF as the intellectual home of the field.
Our Structure
The Center is an educational business activity and auxiliary of the University of Florida. All operating costs — personnel, programs, and research — are funded through partnerships, service agreements, grants, and gifts. We receive no general operating funding from the University, the College, or the State of Florida unless one of those parties engages us through a service agreement.
This structure matters. It means our work is accountable to the outcomes we produce, not to an institutional budget line. It also means our partnerships are genuine — we take on projects because they meet our standards, not because we need to fill a funding gap.
Two Center-affiliated faculty members hold a .25 FTE appointment in the College for teaching and service responsibilities. The Center pays overhead to the University on all revenue: approximately 14 percent of service agreement revenue, 5 percent of gifts, and grantors’ maximum allowed indirect cost rates.
We’re transparent about this because transparency is part of what we teach.
Work With Us
If you’re working on a communication challenge that requires both scientific grounding and strategic discipline — narrative research, audience analysis, campaign strategy, training — we’d like to hear about it.
Contact us to tell us about your project or training need. You can also explore our case studies, frameworks, and training programs to get a sense of how we work.