Compliments

"We are so grateful for the perfect match with Hannah and are thrilled with the Communication Plan that she has developed. It was simply an awesome experience - from my first interaction with Hamish who was able to drill down into what we really needed to the meeting with Hannah and then the final plan presentation. We have a lot of work in front of us, but it is exciting to have such a well-designed road map for us to follow. Thank you for your amazing programme and support."

Stacey Mowbray, Headway

"Helen has been a super star!! We have a well-developed draft Communications and Information Policy. Thanks so much to the Comms Collective - couldn't have done it so well and so efficiently without Helen."

Rebecca Williams, Tutukaka Coast Ratepayers and Residents Association

"We were thrilled with Philippa's help on website usability. We launched our new website last week and her report was invaluable in helping us focus our efforts on good user experience as we shaped the content and navigation."

Anna Kary, EcoMatters Environment Trust

"I loved working with the comms team, we had a good plan, and managed to stick mostly to it which is amazing for volunteers. I loved the graphics that Kelly knocked up, and the messages that we were able to get out on a range of channels. Thanks to Izzy for keeping the social media stuff going. Thanks so much to all of you for making this work for Living Streets - I know I've said that a lot but it really wouldn't happen without your special type of help."

Ellen Blake, Living Streets Aotearoa - Kaituitui a Whanganui a Tara

"I am belatedly thanking you for your connection to Anna and Kelly of Antistatic Partners. They have been a hugely insightful support in establishing our core messaging and thinking through our brand development. Both took a fresh but very considered view of our mission and as a result, articulated our story extremely clearly. They are a very professional and reliable partnership to work with. I wanted to pass on our thanks to Community Comms as, without your connection to Anna and Kelly, we would not have progressed as well as we have with our branding and marketing."

Paula MacLachlan, Turnbull Endowment Trust

"Volunteering is an important part of who I am. It allows me to use my skills to support some great grassroots work being done around the world, gain new perspectives and grow as an individual. With my first project for Community Comms Collective, I think I've achieved something in all those aspects. It offered an exposure to the challenges of refugees and asylum seekers from backgrounds and cultures I knew only a little about. My goal as a communications professional is to create problem solving and result-oriented strategies for diverse organisations, individuals and challenges. I am glad that the organisation found useful value in it and I'm excited to see them adapt and implement it to get the results they sought."

Rashi Saxena, volunteer

"We would like to express our warm thanks to you for your time and providing us very concrete and solid information in form of communication strategy. We highly admire your interest and time you spent and devoted to actively listen our story and figured out more constructively. We will try our best to adapt these recommendations tactics and are very confident that this will help us to achieve our goal. Lynne, your support to find solution and right volunteer for us is remarkable and without the support of Community Comms we wont be able to identify solution to our problem. Your support is highly appreciated. Once again thank you very much Community Comms for helping us."

Khurram Malik, HOPE Worldwide-Pakistan

"Thank you for organising the wonderful Rochelle to help put together a Communications Strategy for Age Concern Auckland. Rochelle was incredible in the support she provided to me. She came up with a sound strategy, that was practical and is deliverable. Providing tips and information on free online resources available and how to use these. I haven’t implemented everything Rochelle has suggested yet, but the strategy has been a really good foundation for some of the Covid-19 communications we have done. With a lot of things to implement when we come out of Crisis Response mode. I think the Community Comms Collective is an amazing resource for charities and community organisations. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for the wonderful work your volunteers do."

Alexis Sawyers, Age Concern Auckland

"Finding the Community Comms Collective and being matched with Claire has been a resounding success from our perspective. Claire provided invaluable support and expertise and as you have noted -the release of the report got picked up quite widely (TV ONE, Newshub, RNZ, Newstalk ZB, the Spinoff, Stuff, Magic FM, the Breeze)." Claire has been amazing – an absolutely perfect match. I also appreciated your professionalism, in being so prompt in getting in touch, writing a brief and finding Claire. All in all, connecting with Community Comms has been a fantastic experience for us. We are so thankful for the help that Claire provided in helping us share our insights publicly on the very important social issue of digital exclusion. I am hopeful we may get some beneficial change in the public service as a result.

Kerry Dalton, Citizens Advice Bureau New Zealand

"Katie was nothing short of absolutely awesome!! Every single one of our delegates subsequently raved about her, and we all agreed we could've easily sat through a full 8 hour presentation by Katie. The time flew, the presentation was thoroughly engaging, relevant, and humorous. She had the rooms full attention for the 3 hours we were lucky enough to have her for. Honestly, we could not recommend her highly enough and we would LOVE to have Katie present to us again. Thank you so very much for connecting Pregnancy Help with Katie."

Carmel Parry, Pregnancy Help

"Connecting with Dana has been absolutely pivotal in mine (and the organisation's) development. With her guidance I have created a communications strategy which has been shared with our international team, and received some awesome feedback. Dana was genuinely invested in the kaupapa of The Prince’s Trust New Zealand, she was patient with me and took the time to learn about our story, my story and the journey ahead to ensure the relationship was intentional and productive. I am so grateful for the match, and her generosity 😊 She has been fantastic!"

Bella Piper-Jarrett, Prince's Trust New Zealand

"I have nothing but positive feedback for Anna and Kelly, they were both super knowledgeable and understanding of the challenges and also the opportunities that came with the Film for Change social media and comms, they helped me gain a lot of confidence in the work that I was doing as well as a good basic understanding of comms strategies. I was able to have a solid comms plan that I was able to present to our board by the end of it."

Josie Williamson, Film for Change

"Debbie was great, the presentation went very well. Debbie orchestrated great engagement and feedback was significant and generally positive. That in itself was a great result for us given the brief was that this refresh could have some sharp edges... We really respect and welcome the support of the Comms Collective and the quality of your work is always to a high standard. Debbie continued that – thanks Debbie."

Graeme Milne, Cancer Society of New Zealand Wellington Division

"Simone was fantastic. She really put me through my paces and and she did some mock interviews and also got me to use a couple different models for drafting a press release. Very much appreciated - a good confidence builder as well as making sure I remain on my toes."

Conor Twyford, Wellington Sexual Abuse HELP

“Sincerest thanks for the assistance that you have provided KCA with over the past 6 months. It was great for you to provide us with some contacts who have assisted us with the redesign and launch of our branding earlier in the month and also for media training. We think you guys and gals at Community Comms Collective are FABULOUS!”

Tracey Wellington, Kiwi Community Assistance

“The Community Comms Collective has been amazing for the team at Parkinson’s New Zealand. We realised that we needed some help with media training and decided to ask the collective if they could help find us someone. Wow! The team at Community Comms swung into action and very quickly we had a brief and a volunteer match. Allanah has been amazing! She not only volunteered and shared her time and huge range of skills with us, she also introduced us to her networks! Last week when the media came calling because of a significant research breakthrough we were ready! Asking for help for the Collective was one of the best decisions we have made and we tell everyone we meet to use this fantastic support!”

Natasha McDougall, Parkinson’s New Zealand

“I've been lucky enough to worth with the Community Comms Collective twice -- initially when I had just entered the workforce and again a few year later for advice on a new project. Each time the insight and support from my volunteers was invaluable. They gave me the confidence to take ownership of my work and great resources on how to plan and execute different strategies.”

Louise Rutledge, Enjoy Public Art Gallery

“Brad has been really supportive and he understands that I don’t have that much experience in this area. He listens really well and tries to work with what we have and build on top of it. He is also very practical and realistic.”

Olga Smith, Job Mentoring Service/English Language Partners

“We are very pleased with the result. In terms of the working relationship, you could not have made a better match. We have both really enjoyed working together and bouncing thoughts off each other. A mutual sense of humour has also helped! I am very grateful to the Comms collective for matching us up. Keep it up – and thank you!”

Gabrielle O’Brien, Birthright NZ

Thank you, thank you especially thank you for making this information, available, affordable and relevant!!

CCC workshop participant

“Volunteering through the collective allows me to use my skills and experience to make a difference. It's rewarding to feel that I have helped in some small way. I've often wondered how I could 'give back' – this is the perfect solution. It's a win-win for all involved. A bonus is that I can use skills I might not need to use in my current paid work, so it keeps me fresh.”

Allanah Kalafatelis, volunteer

“Thanks so much for meeting with us last night. It was great to have some guidance with our thoughts, and to see them begin to take shape into ways forward.”

Justine Jones, SPACE

“You just made a match made in heaven. Vic is the perfect person to help me with the job; she has the right skills and is very enthusiastic. I am very happy.”

Helga Wientjes, Cancer Society of New Zealand

“For me the enjoyment comes from passing on my knowledge – and seeing it being used and appreciated...”

Rachael Dippie, volunteer

"Susy’s contribution was so generous, I’m in her debt – hugely thankful and appreciative of the work and generosity she brought to this project. Thanks to Comms Collective for facilitating this wonderful resource!!!"

Pippa Sanderson, Hutt City Arts Network

“Really want to say again how amazing and also apt are your resources, simplicity of finding information on your information pages – and in fact, your whole project. You are definitely going from strength to strength. Your work has been of great value to so many of our community organisation members – and of course others.”

Pauline Harper, Volunteer Wellington

“Thanks so much for the opportunity it was really rewarding. It was just brilliant to see how much Melanie grew in confidence over the placement. I also learnt a lot about my coaching style which is useful for my job. It was interesting working with a graduate – she taught me lots about social media – as our sessions were less practically PR focused and more about working with others, keeping senior management looped in, managing multiple tasks. So, I guess, more work practice guidance.”

Nicky Chilton, volunteer

“We got an article in The Wellingtonian and Hutt News and they were great. So many people have seen them and we have received much positive feedback on the article and what we are doing. We got more applications for our programme which is what we wanted. Also we had people approach us about renting their homes for our people and someone who wants to lend us money plus a group who want us to work with them on co-housing etc So all great and what you are doing is so needed and worthwhile.”

Alison Cadman, Dwell Housing Trust

“Thanks to Community Communications Collective for the help they provided to our organisation. Matt was really helpful in terms of analysing our communications strategy and giving us pointers on how to refine and develop it. He left us with some fantastic ideas to implement, and written guidelines to go on with. I’d like to thank your organisation, and Matt, for your help. We’re about to rebrand our station and his help has been invaluable as to how to go about doing so.”

Kristen Paterson, Wellington Access Radio

“...she was amazing and we really could not have raised the funds without her help getting the message about the event out. I have nothing but amazing feedback and bouquets to pass on about the process.”

Justine Mitchell, Neonatal Trust

“Utilising an inspiring communications professional to mentor an up-and-coming intern has proved to be invaluable for Volunteering New Zealand. Kieran has provided solid advice, support and mentorship to a communications student who has been learning by developing and implementing a short communications campaign for us. He has been a credit to have on the team and both our intern and organisation have learnt from his skill, experience and this working relationship”

Vanisa Dhiru, Volunteering NZ

“I am enjoying the experience – it's getting me to think about comms approaches and activities from another perspective, and polishing up some areas of knowledge I haven't needed for a while”

Jason Dykes, volunteer

“I was hugely, pathetically grateful for their feedback … thanks again this is a brilliant initiative.”

Sian Robyns, Friends of the Randell Cottage

“People First NZ would like to say a big thank you to the Community Comms Collective for all of their wonderful help over the last year. We have gone to their free lunchtime training sessions, had a free test to see how easy our website is to use, had free 1 on 1 WordPress website training and free mentoring from Communications Professionals! How amazing is that?? This has all definitely helped People First NZ to be a stronger organisation and meet our strategic goal of 'Making People First NZ more well-known, in NZ and overseas'. It also means that in the next few months we will be launching a new look for our website that aims to be even more easy to use. So watch this space!”

People First NZ

“I like your approach to matching folks up, and not putting any pressure on us to commit to anything. It's a nice way of operating. And I liked how you came up with a couple of options that fitted my circumstances. You are doing an amazing job, and I'm humbled to be part of something so cool.”

Brad Young, volunteer