Partnerships
The Feminist Institute provides essential legacy-building resources, funding, and archival support to collecting institutions, memory projects, feminist organizations, and notable feminists through our partnership program.
Partnership Types
TFI works very closely with our partners, determining the most mutually beneficial relationship based on the needs of the collection at hand. We step in where needed, providing necessary services to prioritize the digitization of feminist collections, rehome primary source documentation, and preserve feminist digital projects that would otherwise be lost or destroyed. Though every partnership is unique, they usually take one of the following forms.
Collaborative Digitization + Union Catalog
TFI works with funding bodies and institutions to prioritize the digitization of feminist archival holdings held in various institutional repositories. We raise funds through multiple channels, including individuals, foundations, governments, and corporations, to design digitization projects that benefit all parties and support and celebrate archival labor. Digitized materials are made available in the TFI Digital Archive and an institution’s digital repository (if applicable).
In addition, TFI works alongside collecting institutions to add links to existing finding aids, digitized collections, and oral histories within the TFI Digital Archive. Our goal is to unite feminist contributions to culture within one searchable database.
Physical Records Rescue and Digitization
TFI works with feminist records creators to organize physical and born-digital materials before they are in an institutional repository. Primary activities include rehoming materials in archival housing, creating container lists, migrating born-digital objects, and initial small-scale digitization projects. We work directly with our partners to set priorities, establish guidelines for future digitization, and provide first-hand context about their documentation. We then work with scholars to develop digital exhibitions with newly digitized materials, giving context to uncovered archival ephemera. In line with our code of ethics, we work with our partners to determine which materials will be posted within the TFI Digital Archive, ensuring that all parties feel comfortable with public access to digitized archival materials.
Born-Digital Sunsetting and Preservation
TFI works with feminist creators and organizations to preserve early digital initiatives at risk of being lost due to technological obsolescence or organizational restructuring. We utilize web archiving and software preservation tools for preserving born-digital projects and work with our partners to make these materials available in the TFI Digital Archive.
Are you interested in partnering with us? Email us at partnerships@thefeministinstitute.org to give us a description of your project.