When organizations take an active role in community engagement they encourage sustainable community practices and develop social capital through networks, collaboration with other organizations, relational exchanges and meaningful community connections. This paper considers regional Canadian and South Australian models of sustainable practice where organizations developed community partnerships and organizations' directors, community leaders, public relations professionals and community media promoted a culture of community responsiveness within and between organizations. In the qualitative, interpretive study organizations embedded social capital initiatives in their strategic plans. This paper focuses on the role of communication in its various forms; media both traditional and social media, that encouraged dialogue and developed trust with organizations and their communities. Considerable effort was required to sustain relationships and manage challenges to community program develop. This paper contends that developing social capital is critical to organizations' participation in their communities and to the realization of community goals.