ABOUT ORCHID

We envision a world with a fully resourced, community-led care infrastructure where all Black, Indigenous, Queer and Trans, and People of Color experience the care, wellness, and dignity they desire.

OUR MISSION

Our mission is to realize reproductive and economic justice by driving integrated capital to Black, Indigenous, Queer and Trans, and People of Color owned ventures anchoring community development with transformative birth and reproductive care.

We utilize integrated capital to invest in:

  • The creation of financial and physical structures that increase community health and wealth;

  • The shift toward midwifery-centered community care and growth of that workforce; and

  • Building community leadership capacity for organizational and financial resilience.

OUR STAFF

  • Tenesha Duncan (she/her)

    FOUNDER & CEO

    Tenesha is a Black feminist strategist exploring the intersections of reproductive and economic justice. She leads Orchid Capital Collective’s work leveraging grants, loans, and investments to fund the shift toward community owned and driven comprehensive birth and reproductive care. Tenesha brings over a decade of experience in reproductive health, rights, and justice in direct service provision, care quality improvement, organizational development, coalition building and facilitation, philanthropy, and venture capital.

  • Dana Castillo (they/she)

    OPERATIONS MANAGER

    Dana is a first-generation Salvadoran immigrant with an affinity for projects that are rooted in liberation, curiosity, and justice. As the Operations Manager, they bring to Orchid Capital Collective a decade of experience working with nonprofits, progressive businesses, and collectives. Their fondness for operations lies in its potential to help imagine and create new ways of being that strengthen our connections to one another and the world, and that ultimately disrupt systems that cause harm to Black, Indigenous, LGBTQ+ folks, and people of color.

OUR VALUES

Our values - rooted in a framework of beloved economy - guide our approach to scaling this ecosystem and center the humanity and wellbeing of communities to achieve this vision. The beloved economy framework sparks imagination and turns ideas into economies that work for everyone. We value:

  • Resources are a necessary tool for our work, and we have so much already creating value and impact in our communities. We will grow what we need, how we need it, and when we need it if we build from our knowing, strength, and sovereignty. We hold this value as a call to practice collective growth and prosperity.

  • We are part of an interconnected community and operate from a place of trust, care, honor, and reverence for people, the land and the environment. We exist to responsibly steward resources to achieve economic justice and support the birth and reproductive justice ecosystem in ways our communities identify and share.

  • We value self-determination; our communities know what they need; they are powerful and our role is to shine a light and move resources in support of their vision.

  • We follow the framework of SisterSong, which defines Reproductive Justice as the human right to maintain personal bodily autonomy, have children, not have children, and parent the children we have in safe and sustainable communities. We prioritize and center funding and partnerships that are intersectional and support the experiences and choices of people across the reproductive and gender continuum.

  • We are building toward a world we would like to see. To do this, we stay open, curious, and committed to co-creation, iteration, and experimentation. Making mistakes is also part of our experimentation and creativity process and allows us to learn ways to remain iterative.

  • We mean what we say, do what we commit to, and we welcome feedback from partners because accountability is essential.

  • The intersections impacting us and our partners requires nimbleness and openness to adapting to a constantly changing world. We are committed to this as a practice as we grow, learn, and work in community.