Updated in 2022 for 2022-25; The NRPA Marketing and Communications Certificate provides park and recreation professionals with the knowledge, skills and strategies needed to build and execute effective park and recreation marketing and communications campaigns that will help you better connect with your community. By completing this four-course online certificate program, you will gain the skills necessary to:

Develop strong marketing and communications plans designed specifically for parks and recreation.
Conduct market research and analysis to help identify your community’s needs and how to reach them.
Align your marketing and communications efforts with your agency’s strategic plan, mission and values.
Identify proper evaluation and reporting strategies that will help inform future marketing strategies.

Who Should Enroll?

Park and recreation professionals who are looking to gain focused training in marketing and communications strategies.

Course Details and Registration

To earn your Marketing and Communications Certificate and 1.2 Continuing Education Units (CEUs), you must complete all four online courses. You will walk away from these courses with a toolkit, certificate of completion and a tangible plan that can be implemented at your agency right away.

Whether you have 10 minutes or an hour, the Marketing and Communications Certificate offers a robust online learning opportunity designed for maximum flexibility. The certificate can be purchased as a full package or individual courses. 

Full Certificate CEUs: 1.2 

Needs Assessment
Explore the first step to developing a strong marketing and communications plan — understanding your audience. This course will teach you how to conduct proper market research and analysis, analyze the data to determine your community’s needs and use the results to promote your programs and offerings to the right audiences successfully.

Strategic Planning
Work through the development of a marketing and communications plan that aligns strategically and through measurable outcomes with the assessed needs, mission, vision and values of your agency. Case studies will be discussed in this course to demonstrate how to apply these concepts successfully.

Implementation
Take a deeper dive into the tactical planning for your marketing strategy. Gain a better understanding of a creative strategy and the various marketing tactics that you can use to meet your goals. You will walk away from this course with a fully developed strategy and toolkit for tactically delivering your agency’s messages.

Evaluation
Explore the final (and extremely important) step to your marketing and communications strategy — evaluating your efforts. You will learn how to define key performance indicators that align with your goals and how to properly measure your impact. Learning how to evaluate the performance of your campaigns will help inform future marketing strategies.