Outreach is an effort by individuals in an organization or group to connect its ideas or practices to the efforts of other organizations, groups, specific audiences or the general public. Unlike marketing, outreach does not inherently revolve around a product or strategies to increase market share. Typically non-profits, civic groups, and churches engage in outreach.

Outreach often takes on an educational component (i.e., the dissemination of ideas), but it is increasingly common for organizations to conceive of their outreach strategy as a two-way street in which outreach is framed as engagement rather than solely dissemination or education.

Outreach strategies are linked to the organization's mission, and define targets, goals, and milestones.

Dick Tizard of Cambridge University was an early pioneer of outreach to increase the number of students from schools that did not traditionally send their pupils to Cambridge.