The IABC Handbook of Organizational Communication: A Guide to Internal Communication, Public Relations, Marketing, and Leadership

How Communications Gets Funded

Communications professionals and projects get funded in a variety of ways, and along with the organizational structure, it is one of the most significant strategies that affects the role and function of communicators. The most traditional form of funding and structure is the service center model. In this strategy, there is one central communications department that is funded by an overall tax on each corporate unit. The communications department receives an annual budget and performs projects for internal clients on a first-come, first-served basis. At the other end of the continuum of funding is the profit center model, in which the communications department charges for its projects and even takes on clients outside ...