The escalating illegal wildlife trade (IWT) is one of the most high profile conservation challenges today. There is growing recognition among practitioners and policy makers of the need to engage rural communities that neighbour or live with wildlife as key partners in tackling IWT. However, a framework to guide such community engagement is lacking. Here, we present a Theory of Change (ToC) to guide policy-makers, donors, and practitioners in partnering with communities to combat IWT. Our ToC serves to guide actions to tackle IWT and to inform the evaluation of policies; and serves as a tool to foster dialogue among IWT stakeholders.