How & Why to Join Our Partner Network

Download 2-page Agreement to join our Partner Network. Just fill in the contact info, sign it, and fax it to 1-416-491-0854.

If your non-profit organization (professional society, NGO, research foundation, community group, development/environmental group, etc.) has programs related to community revitalization and/or natural resource restoration, we'd like to invite your organization to join Revitalization Institute's new Partner Network. The Partner Network is also open to funding entities--foundations, development banks, government agencies, etc.--that wish to sponsor Revitalization Institute workshops for communities, regions, or non-profits.

We will integrate your organization with other restoration/remediation/revitalization-oriented non-profit, government, academic, and business organizations worldwide in three ways:

1. Research & Funding: All of the Partners' restoration/revitalization-oriented research programs will be aggregated and organized on our research web pages.  Donors and the general public can then find and/or fund the research they need, and Partners can find research being done (or planned) by other Partners that will advance their own. 
   • There will also be opportunities to partner on research grants, either with Revitalization Institute, or with other Partner Network organizations. For instance, some major funding organization--such as the National Science Foundation in the U.S.--prefer that large research grants go to two or more institutions who are working together on the project. This is a natural approach when the goal is to advance integrated revitalization methodologies;
2. Educational Programs/Events: All of the Partners' seminars, conferences, and other restoration/revitalization-oriented educational events will be aggregated through our soon-to-be-announced Restorative Development "University".  Your members will be able to quickly and easily find the training they need, and students/practitioners around the world will be able to find your offerings;
3. News Releases: Your restoration/revitalization-oriented news releases will be aggregated on our soon-to-be-introduced news page, where reporters, organizational leaders, and the general public can quickly and easily discover everything that's happening in restoration, remediation, and revitalization all over the globe.

Maybe the best way to bring your staff and members up to speed on integrated restoration and revitalization techniques and tools--while simultaneously involving them in real-world projects and programs that could advance their contacts and knowledge--is to allow them to volunteer as a Guest Expert on the faculties of our Workshops.  No honoraria are paid, but travel expenses are normally paid for Guest Experts from academic and non-profit institutions.

Partner Network membership is free: There is no cost to belong to our Partner Network, and there are many potential benefits for your organization, such as:

• Membership Growth: You can recruit new members by publicizing your organization within the network;

• Non-dues Revenue: You can attract additional attendees for your conferences/seminars;
• Donations: You can publicize your programs to a wider group of funding agencies;
• Free website: This benefit is specifically for small or new NGOs in lesser-developed countries.  We'll create, host, and maintain a web presence for your organization free of charge.
• Program development: Your research and educational programs will be able to develop leading-edge content related to integrated restoration and revitalization programs. You can do this in partnership with Revitalization Institute, and/or with our other Partner organizations.

  • To help your institution get off to a fast start, Storm Cunningham (Revitalization Institute's founder; author of The Restoration Economy (2002) and reWealth! (2008) will do a FREE keynote talk at an event on your campus. You can choose to include faculty, staff, and/or students in the audience. This is no small benefit: Storm is the world's leading professional speaker on the subject of restorative development. He normally charges $10,000 + expenses for a 1-hour talk at non-profit/government events ($12,500 at for-profit events). To help support Revitalization Institute, he has agreed to donate one talk, and his travel time, for each new member of our Academic Network. We only ask that you pay his expenses, if travel is involved.

Evolution of the Partner Network:  Upon Revitalization Institute's founding in January of 2004, we initially grew by recruiting practitioners into Revitalization Institute one-by-one.  While successful, it was far too slow an approach to integrating the entire $trillion-dollar/year restoration economy.  We're integrating all twelve sectors of restorable assets.  We're also integrating along the axis of professional type (academic, government, non-profit, and business). And, we're doing all of this on a global basis. That's a lot of integration: It's a lot more efficient if we accomplish it by integrating existing organizations, rather than individuals. That way, individual practitioners can get better-connected to the restoration economy through their primary professional organization, rather than having to join yet another secondary organization. The result: A single web-based resource where all research, educational, events, and news related to revitalizing communities and restoring natural resources worldwide can be found.

How do you join? At this early stage, we are going to keep this on a very flexible basis, since there are so many different kinds of non-profits: professional associations, technical societies, trade associations, NGOs (environment, culture, etc.), citizens' groups, development agencies, etc. This will allow us to work with your organization in whatever way is most appropriate, and will allow us to evolve this Partner Network in whatever direction it needs to to go. 

As a result, our Partner Agreement is brief (click here to download it). Just print it, sign it, and fax it back to us.  Again: No payment is required, and the bulk of your responsibilities simply comprise providing us with information about your activities, so that we can communicate them to others.  We do, of course, reserve to right to not accept organizations that we feel do not fit with our mission. You can leave the Partner Network any time you wish. 

If you wish to join our Partner Network, please download an invitation letter, sign the form at the end of this letter, and fax the entire document to 1-416-491-0854.to Bill Humber's attention.  Call Bill Humber at 1-416-491-5050 ext. 2500 if you have questions.