community college humanities association

What community college humanities association does

The Community College Humanities Association (CCHA) is the only national professional membership organization dedicated to humanities faculty and administrators at US two-year colleges, founded in 1979 and headquartered at the Community College of Baltimore County in Maryland. The organization is structured as a nonprofit association with three membership tiers: individual memberships priced $10-50/year based on employment status (student, adjunct, full-time), institutional memberships at $575-1,095/year scaled by FTE, and sponsoring institutional memberships at $1,725/year. CCHA generates revenue primarily through these recurring annual dues, supplemented by grants from philanthropic foundations (Mellon, Teagle) that fund fellowship and outreach programs, with the grants largely flowing through to fellows and partner institutions rather than supporting CCHA overhead.

CCHA delivers member value through a portfolio of programs including biennial national conferences (held on odd-numbered years), five regional division conferences (even-numbered years) covering the Central, Eastern, Pacific-Western, Southern, and Southwestern divisions, a monthly webinar series, the bi-annual peer-reviewed Community College Humanities Review (CCHR) journal, an annual Literary Magazine Competition across multiple creative categories, and awards programs including the National Distinguished Humanities Educator Award. The organization operates no proprietary technology platform — its infrastructure consists of a WordPress-based website (cchumanities.org), Zoom for webinars, and a member content portal, with publications also distributed via Amazon for non-members. CCHA also maintains a Humanities Liaison Officer network embedding representatives inside member institutions across the country to distribute opportunities and promote membership locally.

CCHA addresses an addressable market of approximately 70,000 community college humanities faculty and 2.8 million humanities students (per AAA&S data), reaching them through conferences, digital content, email, social media, and the Liaison Officer network. Strategic partnerships extend CCHA's reach and programming capacity: the organization is affiliated with the National Humanities Alliance, partners with the American Council of Learned Societies on Mellon/ACLS Community College Faculty Fellowships, collaborates with the Modern Language Association on pedagogy seminars, partners with The Great Questions Foundation on a Faculty Fellowship Program, distributes fellowships through the Council of American Overseas Research Centers, supports the Fulbright Association's Community Colleges Chapter, and receives planning and program funding from the Teagle Foundation. The organization is governed by elected executive leadership and managed day-to-day by a small staff led by Executive Director Andrew Rusnak, Deputy Executive Directors Gregory Campbell and Mel Berry, and Director of Publications Sydney Elliott.

Name

community college humanities association

Legal name

Community College Humanities Association

Website

https://cchumanities.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1979

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

The Community College Humanities Association (CCHA) is a national nonprofit membership organization, founded in 1979, serving humanities faculty and administrators at US two-year colleges through conferences, publications, webinars, and fellowship programs.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Baltimore

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Others

Revenue model

1. Membership Dues: CCHA generates revenue primarily through annual membership dues paid by individual faculty members and institutional memberships from community colleges. Individual membership ranges from $10-50/year based on employment status (student, adjunct, full-time). Institutional memberships range from $575-1095/year based on FTE, with Sponsoring Institutions at $1725/year.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

The Community College Humanities Association (CCHA) is a nonprofit professional membership association that supports humanities faculty and administrators at U.S. two-year community colleges. It sells individual, institutional, and sponsoring institutional memberships and delivers value through biennial national conferences, five regional division conferences, the peer-reviewed Community College Humanities Review (CCHR) journal, an annual Literary Magazine Competition, a monthly webinar series, awards programs, and a campus-based Humanities Liaison Officer network.

Product overview

CCHA is a professional membership association for humanities faculty and administrators at two-year colleges, offering a portfolio of membership tiers (Individual, Institutional, Sponsoring), publications (the Community College Humanities Review journal and Discourse blog), national and regional conferences across five divisions, an annual Literary Magazine Competition, webinar series, awards programs, and a Humanities Liaison Officer campus representative program. These services work together to strengthen the humanities at community colleges through community-building, professional development, scholarly publishing, and advocacy.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Community College Humanities Review (CCHR): The flagship bi-annual peer-reviewed journal publishing scholarship, essays on pedagogy, faculty profiles, book reviews, columns, and first-person reflections on humanities education at community colleges.
• The Discourse Blog
• Literary Magazine Competition

Products and services

• Individual Membership Annual subscription membership for individual humanities faculty at two-year colleges, available to students ($10/yr), adjunct/part-time ($15/yr), and full-time employees ($40/yr), granting access to regional and national conferences, publishing opportunities, the CCHR journal, awards programs, webinars, and member content.
• Institutional Membership Annual institutional membership for community colleges at $575-1,095/year based on FTE enrollment, providing all faculty free individual memberships, discounted conference fees, special grant opportunities, free copies of CCHA publications, and discounted Literary Magazine Competition entry.
• Sponsoring Institutional Membership Premium institutional membership tier at $1,725/year providing all standard Institutional Membership benefits plus additional free faculty memberships, additional publications, and enhanced conference discounts, marketed as supporting the humanities for less than $5 per day.
• Community College Humanities Review (CCHR) Journal Bi-annual peer-reviewed journal publishing scholarship, pedagogy essays, faculty profiles, book reviews, and creative work across humanities disciplines (history, philosophy, literature, composition, ethics, climate change, biotechnology); free digital download for members and available for purchase through Amazon for non-members.
• National and Division Conferences Biennial national conference plus five annual regional division conferences (Central, Eastern, Pacific-Western, Southern, Southwestern) offering professional development, scholarly presentation opportunities, and networking for community college humanities faculty and administrators.
• Literary Magazine Competition Annual competition recognizing excellence in student literary magazines and individual creative works (poems, short stories, creative nonfiction, photography, artwork, scripts, essays, songs, and performances) from community colleges across all five CCHA divisions.
• Monthly Webinar Series Regular webinar series covering AI in humanities education, teaching methodologies, scholarly presentations, and current topics in humanities instruction delivered to community college humanities faculty via Zoom.

Quantifiable outcome

• CCHA connects humanities faculty across 5 regional divisions serving the entire United States
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers8 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Eight partnerships are on record, tiered core, minor and major.

• The Great Questions Foundation (TGQF)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 5 September 2024CCHA partners with TGQF to promote the Faculty Fellowship Program for community college faculty. TGQF, funded by the Mellon Foundation, places 20 community college faculty in a leadership incubator focused on discussion-based and student-centered pedagogy in the liberal arts. Fellows may apply for grants of $5,000-$40,000 to support humanistic inquiry at their institutions.
• Fulbright Association - Community Colleges ChapterminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 3 June 2024CCHA supports the inaugural Community Colleges Chapter of the Fulbright Association, formed to advance visibility of the Fulbright Program in America's nearly 1,200 two-year community and technical colleges. CCHA promotes Fulbright opportunities to its member institutions.
• Council of American Overseas Research Centers (CAORC)minorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 19 February 2021CAORC partners with CCHA to share fellowship opportunities including NEH Senior Research Fellowships ($5,000/month) and Multi-Country Research Fellowships (up to $11,000) available to community college faculty and doctoral candidates.
• Modern Language Association (MLA)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 27 February 2019CCHA Executive Director Rusnak and Deputy Executive Director Campbell participated in designing a Mellon-funded MLA grant program offering regional week-long seminars focused on Reading-Writing Pedagogy for instructors at access-oriented institutions including community colleges.
• American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS)majorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 30 April 2018ACLS administers the Mellon/ACLS Community College Faculty Fellowships program, awarding up to 26 fellowships of up to $40,000 each in 2018-2019. CCHA partners with ACLS for the fellowship program, including a convening in fall 2020.
• National Humanities Alliance (NHA)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCCHA is affiliated with NHA and promotes NHA initiatives including NEH grant opportunities, advocacy days, and professional development resources. CCHA shares NHA webinars and reports with its membership base of community college humanities faculty.
• American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAA&S)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCCHA assists AAA&S in survey work related to diversity and humanities education in community colleges. AAA&S produces the 'Humanities Education in Community Colleges Pilot Study' which CCHA shares with its members.
• Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCCHA collaborated with NOVA on the 'Going Global, Growing Global: New Models for Internationalization at CCs' online symposium in April 2021, bringing together faculty and administrators involved in community college international education.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• National Humanities Alliance: A national membership alliance advocating for humanities education and research. CCHA is explicitly affiliated with NHA and shares its webinars, advocacy days, and NEH grant opportunities — making NHA the closest peer in mission, membership structure, and advocacy focus.
• American Association of Community Colleges (AACC): The primary national association representing community colleges broadly across all functions. AACC is a structural peer for CCHA at the institutional level — both serve two-year colleges through membership, advocacy, and convenings — but AACC covers all disciplines, while CCHA is humanities-specific.
• League for Innovation in the Community College: A community-college-focused membership and convening organization advancing innovation in teaching and leadership. League for Innovation is a structural peer of CCHA at the two-year-college level, though it covers all disciplines and is broader in scope.

Broad incumbents

• Association of American Colleges & Universities (AAC&U): A larger, established higher-education membership organization advancing liberal education. AAC&U overlaps with CCHA on humanities advocacy and faculty development, but operates across all higher-education types rather than specializing in community colleges.

Emerging players

• Modern Language Association (MLA): A major humanities disciplinary association that has increasingly built community-college programming via Mellon-funded grants. CCHA's leadership co-designed an MLA regional seminar program for community-college humanities faculty, making MLA a partial-overlap peer extending into CCHA's space.
• American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS): ACLS administers the Mellon/ACLS Community College Faculty Fellowships program — a flagship initiative CCHA partners on. ACLS is a peer in mobilizing humanities funding and convening faculty, though its scope extends well beyond two-year colleges.
• National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE): A professional association for English-language arts educators with overlap into community-college English faculty — one of CCHA's core disciplines. NCTE is a partial-overlap peer serving a subset of CCHA's humanities constituency.

Others

• American Philosophical Association (APA): A discipline-specific humanities association with a formal CCHA liaison relationship. APA serves a subset of CCHA's faculty constituency (philosophers) and complements rather than competes with CCHA's broader humanities remit.
• American Historical Association (AHA): The largest professional society for historians, with a designated CCHA liaison. AHA serves historians across all higher-ed institutions and overlaps with CCHA's history-faculty segment without direct competition.

Regional players

• Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society: The international honor society for community and two-year college students. Phi Theta Kappa engages the same institutional base as CCHA (two-year colleges) and even some shared students, making it a sector-overlap peer operating in adjacent member communities.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/ccha_national
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/community-college-humanities-association
• Facebookfacebook.com/CCHAHumanities

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles4 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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