Brand Guidelines
Communities are infrastructure. The systems supporting them are not.
Community Stack is a stewardship-led community infrastructure group. We build, operate, and steward the infrastructure communities rely on across technology, civic life, and the third sector.
18
Communities
9
Conferences
25,000+
Members
Global
Reach
Our Mission
Community Stack builds, operates, and stewards the infrastructure communities rely on.
Why We Exist
Communities are infrastructure. The systems supporting them are not.
The Value
Technical communities and third-sector organisations move knowledge, build careers, and reach the people public services and markets miss. They generate substantial economic and social value.
The Gap
Yet the systems they depend on are fragile by default. Organisers run critical communities on fragmented tooling. When a platform shifts terms or a volunteer steps back, the community absorbs the loss.
Our Response
Community Stack exists to close that gap. We operate the communities. We build the platforms. We steward the standards that allow this layer of social infrastructure to function with the seriousness it has always deserved.
Who We Are
Founded and run by community operators.
Community Stack is a stewardship-led community infrastructure group founded in Barnsley by Ethan Sumner and Mercedes Moxon Greenfield. The company builds, operates, and stewards the infrastructure communities rely on across technology, civic life, and the third sector.
Its work spans six connected pillars: Ecosystem, Link, Engine, Switchboard, Intelligence, and Labs. Its mission is to make communities easier to find, run, sustain, understand, and harder to lose.
Ethan Sumner
Co-Founder & CEO
Community organiser and technologist from Barnsley. Microsoft, Mastercard background.
Mercedes Moxon Greenfield
Co-Founder & CTO
UK Robotics Champion, accessibility advocate, engineer from Sheffield.
2026/27 Conference Programme
Flagship conferences
Practitioner-led conferences spanning DevOps, Cloud Native, and AI — in-person and virtual, across the UK and globally.
Ecosystem Portfolio
Five domains. One unified network.
Communities, conferences, and leadership networks organised into coherent technical ecosystems.
The Stack
Six pillars. One coherent system.
Each pillar operates a different layer of community infrastructure, from the communities themselves to the platforms, discovery, and standards that hold them together.
Ecosystem
We own and operate practitioner communities, conferences, leadership networks, and ecosystem brands as long-term infrastructure, not one-off events.
Link
We help independent communities, vendors, sponsors, enterprises, and investors work with community-led markets through representation, advisory, activation, and portfolio support.
Engine
The operating system for communities, bringing events, sponsorship, memberships, CFPs, microsites, analytics, and operations into one platform.
Switchboard
The full-service digital platform for the third sector, helping charities and grassroots organisations become visible, accessible, and easier to engage with.
Intelligence
Responsible insight from communities, events, platforms, and participation networks, designed to support better decisions without extracting from communities.
Labs
Applied research, campaigns, pilots, and innovation focused on digital inclusion, accessibility, offline participation, and the future of community infrastructure.
How We Operate
9 operating principles.
These principles guide every decision, from community governance to technology investment to partnership strategy.
Infrastructure First
We build for durability, not hype.
Stewardship Before Scale
Growth matters, but trust matters more.
Local Agency, Shared Standards
Each community keeps its own identity while benefiting from shared infrastructure.
Accessibility by Default
Accessibility is not an afterthought. It is part of the infrastructure itself.
Reinvestment Over Extraction
Revenue is used to improve quality, governance, accessibility, and sustainability.
Trust by Design
We are clear about who runs our communities and how value is created.
Responsible Intelligence
Insight must serve communities, not exploit them.
Impact Over Activity
We measure success by outcomes, not event counts or member numbers.
Open Where Possible
We default to openness while protecting privacy and trust.
Advocacy & Impact
National campaigns.
Community Stack runs campaigns focused on digital inclusion, accessibility, and building critical infrastructure for the third sector.
#NoCommunityLeftOffline
Ensuring rural, isolated, and digitally excluded communities can access support and participate online.
#DigitalSENDInfrastructure
Campaigning for joined-up digital infrastructure for SEND families across education, health, and social care.
#CommunicationForAll
Advocating for universal access to communication tools for non-speaking and AAC-dependent individuals.
For Coverage
Quotes available for use.
Approved quotes from our founders for use in press, media, and partner materials.
“Communities are infrastructure. They move knowledge, create opportunity, support participation, and reach people that institutions and traditional systems often miss. The systems supporting them should not be fragile by default.”
Ethan Sumner
Co-Founder & CEO
“Community Stack exists to close the gap between the value communities create and the fragile systems they are forced to rely on.”
Ethan Sumner
Co-Founder & CEO
“We are not simply an events company, a software company, or an advisory firm. We operate the communities, support the wider market, build the platforms, create the discovery layer, steward the insight, and research what comes next.”
Ethan Sumner
Co-Founder & CEO
“Stewardship before scale is not a slogan. It is the operating constraint that determines how we grow, what we take on, and what we refuse to do.”
Ethan Sumner
Co-Founder & CEO
“The people who most need community support are often the same people excluded by complicated technology. If our platforms are not usable by them, we have not built infrastructure. We have built a barrier.”
Mercedes Moxon Greenfield
Co-Founder & CTO
“Accessibility is not an enhancement to community infrastructure. It is part of the infrastructure itself.”
Mercedes Moxon Greenfield
Co-Founder & CTO
“Technology should make communities easier to find, easier to join, and easier to sustain. That is the standard we are building towards.”
Mercedes Moxon Greenfield
Co-Founder & CTO
Logos & Assets
Core brand logos.
Download official logos in PNG format. Each brand has a full wordmark and an icon mark for different use cases.
Community Stack
Primary brand logo
Community Engine
Events and conferences platform
Community Switchboard
Third sector discovery platform
Color Palette
Brand colors.
Our color system is built on a deep navy foundation with vibrant accent colors for each brand. Click any swatch to copy the hex value.
Primary Palette
Brand Colors
Typography
Type system.
We use two typefaces: Montserrat for headings and Poppins for body text.
Headings
Montserrat
Bold weight (700) for headlines, titles, and display text.
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
Body Text
Poppins
Regular (400), Medium (500), and Semibold (600) weights.
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.