The Community-Acquired Pneumonia Organization (CAPO) was created in 1999, with the goal to facilitate international research in the field of pneumonia. This manuscript reviews the development of CAPO, summarises the core clinical study and functions of the project's statistical and data coordinating center and describes current research opportunities. Investigators may be interested in joining the CAPO research team or applying the CAPO model for international collaboration to other areas of clinical research.