Partnership

Here's what your investment makes possible

Marquette Adaptive partnerships are community impact partnerships — not logo packages. We're built on a few strong relationships rather than hundreds of small transactions, and our immediate priority is closing our first founding partnership so the founding winter is funded before it's built.

Founding Partner

Suggested $25,000+

The problem: adaptive recreation needs people, equipment, training, insurance, and operations before a single participant gets on snow. Your role: establish that infrastructure. The outcome: adaptive alpine exists in Marquette.

Recognition & benefits

Permanent recognition as an organization that helped establish Marquette Adaptive during its founding era
Prominent placement on the Founding Partners page, and recognition elsewhere when relevant
Recognition in founding-season launch communications, program announcements, and community updates
A concise annual impact report of verified outcomes
One concise seasonal or mid-year update
Priority invitations to community events, equipment demonstrations, and program celebrations
Employee learning, volunteering, and engagement opportunities where they genuinely exist
Permissioned impact stories and photographs you can share
A real working relationship with Marquette Adaptive leadership — advisory, never governance

Community Partner

Suggested $10,000+

The problem: good programs already here are capacity-limited. Your role: fund programming, training, and support for them. The outcome: more opportunities without duplication — and adaptive recreation stays available and affordable.

Recognition & benefits

Community Partner recognition on this site
An annual impact update tied to real outcomes
Appropriate recognition in community and media communications
Invitations to community experiences and demonstrations
Employee engagement opportunities where appropriate
Permissioned impact stories where they are available

Program Partner

Suggested $5,000+

The problem: a specific adaptive activity, season, equipment need, or access opportunity isn't happening yet. Your role: make that one possible. The outcome: a season of experiences that wouldn't have existed.

Recognition & benefits

Recognition associated with the initiative you support
Website recognition
Inclusion in communications about that program
Verified results for the program you funded
Invitations to related events and experiences
Participant-impact storytelling where permission exists

Benefits are described as what we intend to deliver, not guarantees of publicity. We don't promise specific media coverage, social reach, impressions, participant numbers, or business outcomes — and we don't sell permanent homepage logo placement.

Purpose-driven partnerships

Solve a specific, identified need.

Adaptive Access Partner

Participant access

Keeps participant cost low so the true cost of an adaptive experience never becomes the family's cost. No hardship application.

Equipment Partner

Equipment & storage

Funds adaptive equipment and the real implementation costs around it — fitting, maintenance, and safe enclosed storage.

Mobility Partner

Transportation

Solves the transportation barrier so equipment and participants can reach the mountain, the trail, and the water.

Instructor Development Partner

Training

Develops qualified local adaptive recreation professionals so the expertise stays in Marquette County.

Community Adventure Partner

Multiple activities

Expands access across more than one activity when the need spans seasons.

In-Kind Partner

Goods, services, expertise

Not every barrier is financial. Facilities, services, or professional expertise solve problems without cash.

These exist because the need is real. We don't invent sponsorship categories to create more packages.

Founding period

Founding Partner means something.

Founding Partner recognition is tied to a defined founding period built around the 2026–27 founding winter. When that period closes, Founding Partner status closes. Organizations that join later are welcomed as Lead, Community, or Program Partners — they don't retroactively become founders.

We'll keep a permanent record — Our Founding Partners — of the businesses and organizations that helped establish Marquette Adaptive from the beginning. That historical recognition can remain even if an organization doesn't continue as an annual partner, and we'll always show current annual partners separately so nothing is misleading.

How we know it worked

You should be able to say: we can see what our investment made possible.

Impact reporting stays short and verified. We report the things that actually indicate access expanded:

Adaptive experiences made possible
Participants served
Participant costs reduced
Equipment acquired and put into use
Instructors trained
Existing programs strengthened
Community gaps addressed

Before every partnership, we ask

1.What community problem are we solving?
2.What will this investment make possible?
3.How will we know it worked?
4.How will we show the partner their impact?
5.Can we deliver everything we promise?
6.Does this preserve Marquette Adaptive's independence?
7.Does this protect participant dignity?

How we partner

Partners are relationships, not ATMs.

We look for partnerships where the community wins, participants win, the partner wins, and Marquette Adaptive becomes stronger. That can mean funding — and it can also mean equipment, expertise, transportation, services, facilities, training, employee participation, connections, or multi-year commitments.

How the money works

Partners fund the infrastructure so participants can access high-quality adaptive recreation at low cost.

Participant cost stays low

We don't design the program around recovering the real cost of adaptive recreation from families. Participant fees are a small part of how this works.

Affordability is built in, not applied for

Wherever the economics allow, the support is already in the price. No income forms, no hardship applications, no explaining your finances to anyone.

Low cost never means cut corners

Fair pay for professional work, real training, proper insurance, and maintained equipment. Partners fund the difference — the founder does not personally subsidize it.

When we publish program economics — actual cost, partner support, participant cost — the numbers will be real ones from verified quotes, never estimates used for effect.

What partner support builds

We'd rather own the infrastructure than own every program.

Equipment, storage, transportation, instructor development, insurance knowledge, and partnership infrastructure are the hard parts. Local activity experts are often the best people to deliver the actual experience — so we help them do it instead of building a competing program. We don't have to own the program to help make it happen.

We look for a few deep, renewable, multi-year relationships rather than dozens of small sponsorships or a labor-heavy annual fundraiser. Three great partner conversations usually beat a gala.

How we're structured

Marquette Adaptive is currently a locally owned, for-profit social enterprise. We chose this structure so we can move quickly, compensate people fairly for the professional work required to build strong programs, and learn what model will best support adaptive recreation in Marquette County over the long term.

As Marquette Adaptive grows, we may explore transitioning to a nonprofit or another community-focused structure if doing so would allow us to bring significantly more resources and opportunities into adaptive recreation.

For now, Marquette Adaptive is not a nonprofit, and payments made directly to Marquette Adaptive should not be assumed to be charitable or tax deductible.

Start a partnership conversation