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© 2026 Common Fabric Alliance. All rights reserved.
We are a worker-owned mutual service infrastructure. We exist to break the loop that keeps nonprofits understaffed and apprentices underemployed.
Common Fabric was founded on a simple observation: two problems that look different are actually mirror images. Nonprofits face an impossible tradeoff — pay market rates they can't afford, or rely on volunteers who eventually leave. Early-career practitioners face the opposite trap — unable to find roles without experience, unable to gain experience without roles.
We built an infrastructure that connects both. Community organizations bring real projects. Apprentices do real work under senior guidance. Practitioners teach while building. Everyone contributes, everyone benefits, and the work itself funds the system.
No VC funding. No extractive platform. Community-owned from the start.
The two problems mirror each other perfectly. We didn't invent a marketplace. We built an infrastructure where solving one problem automatically solves the other.
Common Fabric founding thesisTo create sustainable, community-owned infrastructure that turns real work into real learning — and real learning into lasting careers that serve the common good.
A world where learning and working for the common good are the same act — and where everyone who contributes shares in what they build.
Real projects teach more than any classroom. Apprentices ship real things.
We expect professional-grade work and provide the structure to achieve it.
The work serves communities first. Profit is a byproduct, not the purpose.
Clear terms, shared governance, honest communication at every level.
We build things that work and last. Craft matters. Shipping matters.
The digital product industry has a broken talent pipeline. Three generations of practitioners face disconnected challenges.
Help community organizations leverage AI to do more with less, at greater depth and higher quality than they ever could alone.
Rapidly upskill recent graduates to 3+ years experience through short, intensive, real-client apprenticeships.
Senior practitioners with 15+ years of experience lead independent studios, mentor apprentices, and build for community benefit.
One grant cycle primes the flywheel. After that, the work funds the next cohort. The system sustains itself.
Each entity has a specific role. None can override the others in their exclusive domain.
The nonprofit entity. Holds all IP under AGPL v3 in permanent charitable trust. Controls curriculum, credentialing, and ethical standards.
The commercial engine. Client delivery through Studios 1-7, AI Orchestration Platform, and revenue generation for sustainability.
Shared governance with exclusive decision-making domains the Foundation Board cannot override. Practitioners, apprentices, and CBOs all participate.
Small founding team. Big structural ambitions.
"We built Common Fabric to be the institutional architecture that replaces what traditional employment failed to provide: real structure, real mentorship, real ownership."
linkedin.com/in/tdillmann →"We're not building a startup. We're building the infrastructure that makes existing organizations more effective — without extracting from the communities they serve."
linkedin.com/in/saeedeh-nosrati →Approved founding instructors. Reviewed and confirmed.
Senior practitioners, researchers, and educators who review our work, challenge our assumptions, and hold us accountable to our mission.
UX Design & Research Advisor
Academy Program Advisor
Academy Program Advisor
Coaching & Mentorship Advisor
Product Design Advisor
UX Research Advisor
UX Design & Research Advisor
Product Management Advisor
Recruiting & Placement Advisor
Apprentice Well-Being Advisor
Quarterly async review · Annual virtual board meeting · Available for questions and guidance
Whether you lead a nonprofit, want to join as an apprentice, or are a senior practitioner looking for meaningful work — there's a place for you here.
Talk to usThree paths. Choose yours.
For Community Organizations
Bring your digital challenge. Get professional-grade help at rates that respect nonprofit budgets.
Talk to us →For Apprentices
Real client work, senior mentorship, and Prova credentials. Applications open quarterly.
Join the waitlist →For Senior Practitioners
Run your own studio within the Common Fabric framework. Mentor the next generation. Build for community.
Explore the studio model →