Civil Discourse in Nonprofit Programming

Over the past year, New Hampshire Humanities, a statewide nonprofit aimed at connecting and cultivating communities across cultures, has seen a rise in antagonistic outbursts and verbal attacks during its lecture series, Humanities on the Go. They have tasked us with finding a solution to limit these disruptions in order to run a more effective speaker series. This report details our process and our plan to remedy problems for NH Humanities. We recommend that NH Humanities use a two-pronged approach for a solution: a code of conduct and facilitator training. Together the code and the training will allow NH Humanities to regulate and, if the circumstances require it, to remove the disruptive parties from events to that ensure their programming remains productive.