This article explores why team collaboration is one of our core pillars. Drawing from real-world movement dynamics, we examine how strong collaboration can build resilience across activist spaces. From grassroots collectives to established civil society organisations, from informal networks to formal NGOs, sustainable activism depends on how well people can work together.
The myth of the hero
Activist culture often celebrates the courageous individual: the whistleblower, the community leader, the voice of truth. While individual acts matter, change also comes from collaboration. Whether in direct action, policy advocacy, or community healing, the most enduring change is built by teams that share vision, divide roles, support one another, and stay resilient through conflict.
Even the common “buddy system” in activist security (a basic principle of always operating with at least one trusted partner) underscores that activism requires others. You cannot cover each other’s blind spots if you’re working alone.
Collaboration beyond project cycles
Activist groups are often framed as temporary, campaign-based collectives. This leads to a project-oriented logic that prioritises output over process, and treats collaboration as a matter of interpersonal goodwill rather than shared structure. However, effective collaboration is not simply about being friendly or aligned in values, it requires a clear articulation of roles, mandates, decision-making processes, and mechanisms for accountability.
Drawing from organisational theory, especially in contexts of horizontal or non-hierarchical organising, clarity of structure is critical not only for efficiency but for fairness. Without explicit agreements, activist teams are more vulnerable to conflict, burnout, and mission drift. We do not advocate for bureaucratisation; rather, we argue that structure is a form of care, particularly in politically volatile environments where the stakes of dysfunction are high.
Accountability without enforcement
Unlike corporate or institutional workplaces, activist spaces rarely use legal contracts or formal HR processes. When conflict arises – over money, credit, values, or broken agreements – activists don’t typically go to court. Instead, conflict often spills into the public, becoming a reputational war. The results can be devastating: burnout, division, disillusionment, and harm to the very communities activists seek to support.
In such environments, collaboration must be rooted in mutual accountability that does not depend on punitive mechanisms. This includes establishing shared principles, outlining clear agreements at the beginning of any joint effort, and creating internal channels for conflict resolution. It also includes understanding power dynamics within teams, how they are negotiated, and how they may be unconsciously reproduced.
Effective collaboration also includes planning for disagreement. This can involve pre-defined escalation pathways, rotating facilitation roles, or agreements about how to publicly communicate internal issues. The goal is not to suppress conflict but to prevent it from escalating into crises that paralyse the work or damage relationships beyond repair.
The role of solidarity and mutual care
Collaboration also has a human dimension that goes beyond coordination. Many activists operate under emotional stress, legal risk, and psychological fatigue. Isolation makes such stress harder to bear. By contrast, collaboration creates a network of mutual awareness, where members track each other’s capacity or intervene when burnout is visible.
This is especially critical when working with high-risk populations, including those experiencing trauma or systemic marginalisation. In such cases, collaboration is not only about efficiency but about ensuring the ethical integrity of the work. When multiple actors are involved, responsibilities can be cross-checked, consent can be collectively monitored, and mistakes can be corrected before they become patterns of harm.
Collaboration at the movement level
While much of activists’ work focuses on intra-organisational collaboration, it is equally important to examine how movements collaborate across organisations and networks. Activist ecosystems are composed of multiple actors who often share goals but differ in approach, language, or analysis. Here, collaboration requires even more intentionality.
This includes shared strategies for collective action, transparency about overlapping work, and mechanisms for resource sharing. In fragmented contexts, strong inter-organisational collaboration can prevent duplication, minimise harmful competition, and amplify collective power. It also allows for continuity: when one organisation is under threat, others can step in to provide support, maintain visibility, or carry on the work.
In movement-building, no actor should be irreplaceable. Effective collaboration ensures that the work is not dependent on individual charisma or institutional stability, but on shared vision and distributed capacity.
Activism Hub work
We support activist groups and networks in building durable collaborative structures. This includes creating collective agreements, establishing clear role distributions, setting up mechanisms for horizontal accountability, and developing protocols for conflict prevention and response.
We recognise that most activist groups are not equipped with formal training in organisational development. That is why our support is tailored to the realities of informal organising, political risks, and limited resources. We help groups develop internal systems that reflect the values and specificities of their own.