Transformation through relationship, collective wisdom, and coordinated action.

About the Collective

Thousands of starlings move together in breathtaking spirals across the sky. There is no single leader, no hierarchy, no one bird directing the whole. Each one responds to the seven birds nearest to them, and from that simple act of radical attentiveness to each other, something magnificent and unstoppable emerges.

That is us.

The Starling Collective brings together experienced practitioners, strategists, facilitators, healers, and change-makers from diverse disciplines to help mission-driven organizations dismantle systemic barriers, navigate complexity, reclaim their place, and build conditions where people and purpose can thrive. We move together with the same intelligence as the murmuration: no single expert at the top, no one person holding all the power, all of us responding to each other and to the communities we serve.

We bring together deep expertise in strategic planning, fund development, evaluation, community engagement, nervous system support, and theories of change and we route every contract, referral, and opportunity back through the collective.

When you work with us, you don't get one consultant. You get the whole formation.

What We Are

More than a network. A movement.

The Starling Collective is a working collective, a group of rigorously vetted, deeply aligned consultants who actively collaborate, share opportunities, and build each other's capacity to do transformative work.

When you work with us, you don't get one consultant. You get the whole formation.

Members bring expertise across evaluation and learning, strategic planning and program development, fund development and grant writing, community engagement and coalition building, nervous system and trauma-informed practice, talent development and leadership, and theories of change.

Together, we respond to RFPs, co-facilitate training, share contracted time, develop signature programs, and build institutional knowledge that makes all of our work stronger. We are the scaffolding. You are the builders.

We exist to reclaim power, resources, narrative, and opportunity for the communities who have been systematically excluded.

What We Do Together

  • Joint proposals and RFP responses: we co-pitch and bring a full-service team to every engagement

  • Shared contracts and referrals: members send work to each other and bring each other in as subcontractors

  • Knowledge sharing and peer learning: regular sessions where we share tools, frameworks, and hard-won expertise

  • Co-facilitated trainings and signature programs built by the collective

  • Business development support: we help each other sharpen pitches, grow visibility, and build sustainable practices

Core Values

These are the operating principles that govern how we work, who we work with, and what we build together.

Impact Above All

We measure everything by one question: does this create real, lasting change for the people and communities we serve? Impact is not a metric or a milestone, it is the standard by which every decision, every engagement, and every dollar is evaluated. We do not settle for the appearance of change. We stay until something actually shifts.

Elevation Over Extraction

We measure the success of every engagement by one standard: how much more capacity, power, and possibility we leave behind. We build up the people, organizations, and communities we work with transferring knowledge, strengthening infrastructure, and expanding access. Every project we take on should leave our partners more capable without us than they were before we arrived.

Equity Without Apology

We center those most harmed by systems in every decision we make, every proposal we write, and every recommendation we offer. Our equity commitment does not negotiate with comfort, bend under funder pressure, or quiet itself in rooms where it creates friction. Our equity commitment is the lens through which all of our work is designed, delivered, and evaluated.

Restoration and Repair

We believe that systems, communities, organizations, and people have the capacity to heal. Our work is rooted in the conviction that what has been broken by oppression, disinvestment, and harm can be repaired and that something better can be built in its place. We do not patch. We do not perform. We repair, rebuild, and restore with full commitment to the long work of genuine transformation.

Reclamation as Practice

Reclamation is not a single act or a moment of arrival. It is a daily, deliberate commitment to repairing what oppression, inequity, and disinvestment have broken, and to building something more just and more whole in its place. We reclaim power, resources, narrative, and opportunity for the communities we serve. We reclaim contracts, visibility, and economic security for the consultants inside this collective. And we reclaim the right to define what real impact looks like on our own terms.

Collective Over Competition

We have made a deliberate structural choice to reject the scarcity and isolation that markets impose on independent consultants. Inside The Starling Collective, opportunity, contracts, referrals, and resources move toward each other. We co-pitch, subcontract, refer, and collaborate as a first instinct, not a last resort. Solidarity here is built into our system.

Emergent Leadership

Power belongs at the ground level. Our strategies, structures, and solutions emerge from the people and communities closest to the work. We listen before we speak. We co-design before we deliver. We follow the lead of those with the deepest knowledge and lived experience, and we build governance structures that distribute decision-making power rather than concentrate it at the top.

Wholeness Over Productivity

We believe that the people inside this collective and the people inside every organization we work with are whole human beings, not resources to be optimized. We build rest, sustainability, and joy into how we work. We take seriously the nervous system toll of doing justice work inside unjust systems. The wellbeing of our people is part of the mission.

Our People

Each member of The Starling Collective is a vetted, values-aligned consultant with deep expertise in social change, nonprofit strategy, and community-centered practice.

Tera Wozniak Stortz, M.P.A.

With 16+ years of experience working with nonprofit organizations and in academia, Tera is an unwavering ally in community building, program development, grant writing, and volunteer mobilization. She is a certified Intercultural Development Inventory administrator, professional facilitator, and published author on equitable talent development. Tera brings fierce commitment to inclusive, ground-up systems change — and to making sure the collective itself is the change it seeks to create.

Read more about Tera

Coalition Building • Community Engagement • Strategic Planning

Emmett Marsh

Focused, approachable, and driven by results, our sales manager is all about building strong relationships. They help connect people to the right solutions—with clarity and care.

Sales Manager
Marketing Director

Eleanor Parks

Creative and strategic in equal measure, our marketing director brings fresh ideas to every campaign. They turn insights into action and help our message resonate with the right audience.

Membership

Joining The Starling Collective is a real commitment and an investment in your work and in each other. Here is what membership looks like in practice.


Active Participation

You show up for each other! Membership is not passive. You contribute your knowledge, your network, and your capacity to the whole.


Reciprocal Opportunity

You agree to route contracts, referrals, and opportunities to collective members whenever possible. You bring collective members into your work and expect the same in return. What circulates here, stays here.


Shared Visibility

Your work is featured on this page and promoted through Collective’s network. You are part of collective marketing, joint pitches, and co-facilitated offerings that expand your reach.


Peer Learning & Support

You gain access to a community of practice, including regular knowledge-sharing sessions, shared tools and frameworks, peer consultation on client challenges, and honest accountability from people doing the same work.


Values Alignment

Membership means you have been vetted and are committed to the collective’s guiding principles: anti-racist, anti-capitalist, queer affirming, equity-centered practice. None of these are optional.

Governance Participation

You have a voice in how the collective grows, who joins, and how decisions are made. Power here is shared. The structure is emergent and built by the people in it, including you.

Join the Collective

Ready to Join the Formation?

The Starling Collective grows through trusted referral and values-aligned vetting. We are looking for consultants working in social change who are ready to build something real together.

What happens after you apply:

  1. We review your request. We look for values alignment, expertise that strengthens the collective, and commitment to the work. Every application is reviewed by collective members.

  2. We set up a conversation. If your application resonates, we will reach out to schedule a call to learn more about your work and share more about ours.

  3. You meet the collective. New members are introduced to the full group before being formally added, relationship is the foundation of everything we do here.

  4. You are added and activated. Your bio and links go live on this page, you are included in collective communications and opportunities, and you become a full, voting member of the collective.

To request to a consult with Tera about The Starling Collective, book a 30 minute phone call.