For Sponsors
Cooperative Economics in Service of Black Scholarship
COMMUNE: Chalk & Pen Writers Retreat for Black Scholars in Theology and Religion is grounded in a principle of cooperative economics: communities pool resources so that the work of individuals can strengthen the life of the whole.
Black scholarship has long depended upon forms of collective provision. Churches, families, schools, mutual aid societies, professional associations, and community networks have sustained intellectual work when formal structures offered little support. Chalk & Pen continues that tradition by asking scholars, institutions, organizations, congregations, and supporters to share responsibility for the conditions under which Black scholarship is produced.
Sponsors do more than fund a retreat.
Sponsors contribute to a shared economy of intellectual labor. Their support helps create time, space, food, lodging, conversation, critique, and community for Black scholars whose work contributes to theology, religious studies, theological education, congregational life, and public discourse.
Why Cooperative Sponsorship Matters
Access to research support remains uneven across the academy.
Some scholars receive funded leave, research accounts, manuscript workshops, travel support, and structured writing time. Others sustain comparable scholarly commitments with few institutional resources.
These differences affect whose books are completed, whose ideas reach publication, and whose intellectual contributions enter classrooms and scholarly conversations.
Chalk & Pen responds through collective provision.
Rather than make access to writing support dependent upon the resources of a scholar's home institution, sponsors pool resources for the benefit of a wider scholarly community.
The principle is simple:
- 1Those with greater access contribute resources.
- 2Those resources create opportunity.
- 3Scholars receive the time and support necessary to write.
- 4Their work returns to classrooms, communities, churches, and the wider field.
This is cooperative economics as a practice of scholarly care.
What Sponsorship Makes Possible
Each participating scholar receives
Participants are responsible for transportation to and from the retreat.
Institutional Cooperative Sponsorship
$3,500
Sponsor a Chalk & Pen Fellow
A $3,500 sponsorship covers the cost of attendance for one Chalk & Pen Fellow, giving a selected Black scholar access to protected writing time, scholarly conversation, creative practice, and the full retreat experience.
This model allows institutions with greater financial capacity to contribute directly to the scholarly work of Black faculty and independent scholars across the field.
$5,000
Sponsor Two Scholars
A $5,000 contribution supports two scholars through the full Chalk & Pen retreat experience.
$10,000+
Cooperative Retreat Partner
Cooperative Retreat Partners support multiple scholars and contribute to shared costs associated with lodging, meals, manuscript consultation, meeting space, and retreat programming.
These gifts strengthen the collective pool from which the entire retreat community benefits.
Individual Cooperative Giving
Cooperative economics also makes room for members of the broader community to participate according to their means.
No contribution is too small to enter the collective.
$100
Friend of Chalk & Pen
Contributes to meals, refreshments, supplies, and shared retreat costs.
$250
Scholar Supporter
Helps provide protected writing time for a participating scholar.
$500
Writing Sponsor
Contributes toward lodging, meals, and manuscript consultation.
$1,000
Chalk & Pen Patron
Provides substantial support toward one scholar's participation.
$1,250
Shared Scholar Sponsor
Covers one-half of the cost of a scholar's retreat participation.
$2,500
Chalk & Pen Scholar Sponsor
Fully underwrites the retreat participation of one scholar.
Gifts may be pooled so that many contributors can collectively support one scholar.
Become Part of the Cooperative
Universities, seminaries, divinity schools, theological schools, academic centers, foundations, congregations, professional organizations, publishers, alumni, scholars, clergy, and individual supporters are invited to participate.
Your contribution becomes part of a collective commitment to protect the time, space, and material conditions necessary for Black scholars in theology and religion to write.
We pool resources.
We create space.
We sustain scholars.
We strengthen the field together.
For sponsorship inquiries, cooperative partnerships, or information about contributing, click here.
Contact the organizers about sponsorship