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About Phillip Smith and Community Bandwidth

Phillip is a dedicated technology educator and consultant to Canada’s progressive non-profit community. He started his career as a new media producer and information technology consultant in 1995. In 1999, he co-founded his second business — a small design and interactive studio — where he co-produced national and international projects for clients like Bell Canada and Bell Mobility, Environment Canada, the YWCA, the University of Toronto, and the Union of Concerned Scientists. In 2003, he established Community Bandwidth to work more exclusively with organizations involved in social change and justice issues and with the social-mission sector at large. You can read his extended bio over here.

Five reasons to consider working with Phillip

  1. Aggressively small: A dedicated not-for-much-profit consultant with no visions of becoming a multi-national corporation (or even the “big boss man”).
  2. Hands-on approach: No management overhead, no institutional bureaucracy — when you hire Phillip, you work with Phillip.
  3. Selective client list: There are more than 45,000 non-profits in Ontario alone, so Phillip has given up on trying to help every one of them; his services are tailored to the needs of a small group of leading change makers.
  4. Length & breadth of experience: With more than 10 years of professional experience that spans over 100 projects – Phillip is able to bring a unique perspective to most technology challenges. (And he’s not going away any time soon.)
  5. Living locally, thinking globally: Witnessing our world in flux – from geopolitical instability to environmental devastation – makes it even more important to bring global lessons home; and to set examples for a better world right where we live. Phillip is dedicated to working primarily with Canadian change organizations.

From the laptop of Phillip Smith…

Community Bandwidth is many things. It’s a new idea. It’s experimental, and it’s always in transition, exploring, growing and learning. But, for me, Community Bandwidth has always strived to be:

  • a practice that supports progressive not-for-profits, social-mission organizations, and independent publications in their exploration of technology in areas such as strategic planning, campaigning and online advocacy, publishing solutions and audience development;
  • a term that refers to “the capacity to communicate important social messages”;
  • a resource where under-funded or no-budget community groups, cause-oriented collectives and social justice organizations can find basic capacity building resources, and referrals to low-cost technology support and services.

My practice is driven by the social change that I’d like to see achieved in Canada and globally. That means I focus on supporting the organizations and individuals that I feel are best able to create those impacts – the ones doing the real, hard work of supporting our communities, lobbying our government on progressive issues, educating our citizens and spotlighting injustice. To accomplish this, I have developed a small set of handcrafted services and an accessible pricing model that helps to ensure I am able to work with most organizations, regardless of their budget.

I have also made a clear choice to put my energy toward a just, sustainable, and livable society. I pursue this by working with politically engaged and progressive clients, specifically clients who:

  • are committed to progressive values and promote those values in their work;
  • work to improve their communities and give back to their profession/sector;
  • are not supportive of, or engaged in, socially irresponsible practices;
  • demonstrate progressive employment standards;
  • have a clearly defined social purpose or mission.

If this sounds like you, why don’t you contact me via e-mail, or by giving me a phone call at (416) 921-4608.

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