Community strategy · Policy research

Where community truth
meets institutional change.

Too much DEI work is built for the institution, not the community. We do it differently — starting with the people most affected, and working outward from there.

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Our methodology

Most DEI work fails before it starts — because it's designed by people who aren't in the room when the harm happens. Consultants parachute in, run a workshop, and leave. Tessera doesn't work like that.

We're embedded in queer communities in Melbourne. Our networks are real. Our understanding of the gap between what institutions think they're doing and what communities actually experience — that comes from being on both sides of it.

Queer-led. Melbourne-based.

01
Listen
We talk to community members directly — not through a survey, not through a proxy. Through relationships we've built over years. What we hear shapes everything that follows.
02
Analyse
We go through your website, your policies, your programs, your language. We're looking for the distance between what you say you do and what you actually do.
03
Map
We put it plainly: here's the gap, here's why it exists, here's what it costs the community. We don't soften it. You hired us to be honest.
04
Design
We build what's needed — a strategy, a communications rewrite, a referral pathway, a training program. Whatever closes the gap we found.
05
Transfer
We hand everything over so you can keep going without us. Or we stay on and keep working. Either way, the engagement doesn't just stop at a document.
What we offer

The work
we do.

A community audit. A full strategy. An ongoing relationship. The scope depends on where you are and what you actually need — not what looks good in a proposal.
01
Community Lens Audit
A clear-eyed look at where your organisation actually stands with queer communities — not where you think you stand. This is where most engagements begin.
  • Materials and communications review
  • Community and stakeholder interviews
  • Written findings and gap map
  • Prioritised recommendations report
  • 60-minute leadership presentation
$3,500 fixed fee
02
Community Strategy Engagement
For organisations ready to move past the audit and into real change. We build the strategy, the communications framework, and the referral pathways — then we stay for 30 days to make sure it lands.
  • Full community audit as foundation
  • Co-designed community engagement
  • 12-month strategy with KPIs
  • Communications framework
  • Mental health referral pathway map
  • 30-day implementation check-in
$8,000–10,000 6–8 weeks
03
Advisory Retainer
For organisations that want someone thinking about this alongside them — not just handed a document and left to figure it out. Two days a month, ongoing.
  • 2 consulting days per month
  • Monthly strategy call + async support
  • Campaign and comms review
  • Community network access
  • Priority workshop bookings
$3,000 /month · min. 3 months
Foundations Workshop
Half-day · up to 25 people · tailored to your sector
$2,500
Day Rate
Custom scopes · government tenders · facilitation
$1,500/day
Areas of work

Every tile in the mosaic.

Queer & gender diverse
Our founding domain and our deepest expertise. Genuine community roots, authentic networks, and a methodology built from the inside out.
Community strategy
Institutions & organisations
Councils, universities, healthcare networks, arts organisations — we work with institutions that are ready to move beyond good intention toward genuine change.
Engagement & audit
Policy & research
Original research and systemic advocacy that changes the environment our clients operate in — not just individual practice.
Think tank

"We are not a diversity consultant who read a report.
This is the community we live in."

Tessera Institute — Melbourne, 2026
About us

Community-rooted.
Institutionally credible.

Tessera Institute was born out of a simple observation: the organisations and institutions shaping queer lives were rarely designed with queer communities at the centre. Good intention without community truth is not enough — and public equity cannot be a byproduct. It has to be the point.

We are queer-led and community-rooted. Our understanding of this space comes from being in it — not studying it from the outside. That's the difference between work that lands and work that doesn't.

Right now we're a consultancy. The longer ambition is to become a genuine policy voice — producing the research and advocacy that shifts the systems our clients are trying to navigate.

Work with us →
Authentic, not performative
We turn down organisations that want cover rather than change. Pride month campaigns, rainbow logos, box-ticking workshops — that's not what we do. If you want something real, we're interested.
Community first
Institutions pay us. Communities benefit. Those two things can coexist, but only if the second one is never sacrificed for the first. We take that seriously.
Systemic, not symptomatic
Surface fixes don't interest us much. The point is to change something structural — the kind of change that means the same harm doesn't keep happening to the next person who walks through the door.
Sliding scale, not sliding values
Full rates for institutions that can afford them. Reduced or free for grassroots queer organisations that can't. The work is funded by the sector, not extracted from the community.
Evidence and advocacy
We're building toward producing original research — the kind that gives organisations something to point to, and gives the broader conversation something to push back against.
Get in touch

Get in
touch.

If you're thinking about this work — even if you're not sure what you need yet — just reach out. We'd rather have an honest conversation early than a formal proposal later.

Email
hello@tesserainstitute.com.au
Location
Melbourne (Naarm), Victoria
Australia
Response time
Within 2 business days
Sliding scale
If you're a grassroots queer organisation without a budget for this — reach out anyway. We'll figure something out.

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