“We would understand that the strength of our movement is in the strength of our relationships, which could only be measured by their depth. Scaling up would mean going deeper, being more vulnerable and more empathetic.” - adrienne maree brown

We believe that partnerships and relationships are essential to building a liberatory and just world. This guide serves as an opportunity to learn more about our commitments, values, and needs. We are excited to collaborate, dream, and build with partners who understand our mission and vision and support us in building new paradigms with us.

The Lupine Collaborative is for Black women, non-binary, and transgender people. We recognize that in order to dismantle the systems that have been designed to exclude these people, we need to be specific and targeted in centering these people in our solutions. We are unapologetic and unflinching in this strategy and wish to work with partners who are bold enough to stand with us in it.

Partnership Principles

• We are unapologetically oriented towards joy and abundance. We do not believe in self sacrificing or scraping by in this work.

• We are rooted in and guided by the understanding that we are all interconnected and partnering makes our work deeper, stronger, and intersectional.

• We believe that partnerships need to be reciprocal not transactional.

• We believe that we should continually be in conversation about needs, alignment, and shared goals with our partners and allow partnerships to end when they are no longer aligned.

• We hold our philanthropic partners in community not above it. Under capitalism and the within the non-profit industrial complex, funding is crucial but it is far from being the only thing that supports us.

• We are eager to work with partners who can commit to multi-year engagement. Building takes time and commitment.

So what kind of partnerships are we looking to build?

Community Partners Who:

• To our Black women, non-binary, and transgender community, let us know how we can support, love on, advocate, and show up for you

• Challenge us to sharpen and deepen our intersectional and anti-oppressive strategies and goals

• Hold us lovingly and thoughtful accountable to being who we say we are

• Collaborate with us on challenging practices that don’t serve us and building new ways of being

Philanthropic Partners Who:

• Commit multi-year and unrestricted operating funds

• Designate The Lupine Collaborative as a beneficiary of your DAF, event, or fundraiser

• Create giving circles to surround and support our work

Social/Network Partners Who:

• Facilitate introductions to values aligned donors, funders, and corporations

• Extend invitations to events, conferences, and networking opportunities

• Share their platforms with us through guest blogging, interviews, and organizational spotlighting

Intellectual Partners Who:

• Donate time and expertise on a range of topics including legal, capacity building, investing, fundraising and more.

Land/Property Partners Who :

• Share access to property/land for events and retreats

We invite you to get in touch if there are other ways you would like to support our work that align with our values and goals.