The PILLAR Co-Op

You helped build this. You should share in it.

Every PILLAR client has come through a relationship. The Co-Op formalizes that. When you help PILLAR grow, you earn a percentage of the revenue you help create.

Register a referral →

The Origin

Every client started with a relationship.

Every client PILLAR has ever had started with someone who trusted the work enough to connect us with someone who needed it.

PILLAR started with a belief: that world-class creative, communications, and marketing could be built differently. That if you stripped away the bloat, the layers, and everything that did not serve the work, and instead paired talented people with meaningful projects, you could open doors that had always been closed.

We have been fortunate. What started as a belief became a business, and that business grew to half a million dollars in revenue in its first two years. We are proud of that, and we are honest about how it happened: not through a sales strategy or a marketing funnel, but because people kept making introductions.

The Co-Op is that truth turned into a system. If PILLAR grows because people believe in it enough to open doors, then those people should share in what they are helping build. Not as a favor. Not as a side hustle. As members of something.

How It Works

Know someone? Make an introduction.

01

You know someone

An organization that needs creative, communications, or marketing help. If the work matters and the creative needs to be exceptional, PILLAR can build a team around it.

03

You earn 10%

If the introduction leads to a signed engagement, you earn 10% of the statement of work value. Paid quarterly. One introduction on a $50,000 project means $5,000.

Three Ways In

Outside referrer. Family. Advocate.

Outside Referrer

10% of signed SOW. 12-month commission window. Quarterly payouts.

Someone entirely outside the prospective client's organization. A friend, a professional contact, someone in an adjacent field. You know an organization that needs help, and you make the introduction.

One introduction could be worth $1,000 on a small project or $25,000 on a major engagement. You do not need to know the scope. You just need to know someone.

You also get the PILLAR mug. This mug cannot be purchased. It can only be earned. Make of that what you will.

PILLAR Family

10% of signed SOW. 24-month commission window. Priority staffing. Quarterly payouts.

The contractors who have been accepted into PILLAR's network. You know what PILLAR is from the inside. You have done the work.

You earn the same 10% as any outside referrer, but on a longer 24-month window from the agreement date. On a $75K annual retainer that renews inside that window, that is $15,000 total.

Most people in the network do not realize that a simple introduction could earn them $5,000 to $15,000 or more. You are not selling PILLAR. You are connecting people you know with work you have experienced firsthand.

And yes, you get the mug too.

Internal Advocate

Champions PILLAR from inside a client org. No cash. Career investment.

Someone inside an organization who knows PILLAR's work and believes in it. You put PILLAR's name forward when your organization starts talking about needing an agency.

We will not pay you cash for this, and we will be direct about why. Paying someone inside an organization to advocate for a specific vendor is a conflict of interest. We take that line seriously.

What we will do: invest in you professionally. Workshops, community access, and priority consideration for contractor roles when they open up.

You do still get the mug. That is not a kickback. That is just the right thing to do.

The Math

A $50,000 project means a $5,000 commission. One introduction. That is it.

Project Size Outside Referrer
(12-month window)		 PILLAR Family
(24-month window)
$10,000 one-time project $1,000 $1,000 plus priority staffing
$50,000 annual contract $5,000 $5,000 plus priority staffing
$150,000 annual contract $15,000 $15,000 plus priority staffing
$250,000 anchor client $25,000 $25,000 plus priority staffing

Most referrals fall in the $10K to $50K range, and we are upfront about that. The larger numbers show what is possible, not what is typical. There is no minimum project size.

When a PILLAR Family member also works on the engagement

Contract Value Sample Contractor Rate Year One Commission Year Two (If Renewed) 24-Month Total
$75K retainer $38,000 $45,500 $45,500 $91,000
$150K retainer $72,000 $87,000 $87,000 $174,000
$200K retainer $80,000 $100,000 $100,000 $200,000

Contractor rates shown are illustrative. Actual rates vary by role, scope, and project. Year Two figures assume the engagement renews inside the 24-month window.

Real Numbers

The part most companies would never publish.

$1.00

per dollar collected

64¢ Contractor labor
16¢ Overhead
10¢ Your commission
4¢ Taxes and reserves
6¢ Owner take-home

Sixty-four cents of every dollar goes to the people doing the work. They get paid first. Sixteen cents covers the infrastructure that makes the work possible: project management tools, communication platforms, design software, insurance, accounting, legal, and dozens of other line items that never touch a deliverable but keep everything running.

That leaves 20 cents. On a referred project, 10 of those cents are yours. The remaining 10 go to the owner, but not all of it. About 4 cents goes to self-employment taxes and a reserve for emergencies and scope creep. The owner's actual take-home is roughly 6 cents on the dollar.

You are earning a larger share of the profit than the owner keeps after taxes. That is a deliberate choice, not an accident.

The commission comes out of PILLAR's margin, not the client's budget. The client pays the same rate regardless of whether a referral was involved. There is nothing hidden. You are reading the terms right now.

The Terms

Transparent by design. No fine print.

Commission basis

10% of the signed statement of work value. Change orders and scope creep beyond the original SOW are not commissionable.

Quarterly payouts

Calculated quarterly and paid within 30 days of each quarter's close, after PILLAR has invoiced and received payment. You get paid when we get paid.

Person-to-person referrals

A referral names a specific contact at a specific organization. It does not create a claim on the organization as a whole.

Five-step milestone system

Register, Introduce (14 days), First Conversation (60 days), Active Scoping (90 days), Signed Engagement. Each step has a deadline. Miss a step, the referral expires.

Commission window

Outside Referrer: 12 months from the agreement date. PILLAR Family: 24 months. Renewals and extensions of the original scope are commissionable inside the window. Materially different scopes require a new agreement, with PILLAR making the determination in good faith.

No exclusivity

Maintain your own client relationships and professional activities.

Mutual non-solicitation

We protect each other while the work is happening, and we release each other when it is done.

No equity

The Co-Op is a revenue-sharing arrangement, not a legal partnership.

Annual review

Rates may be adjusted for new agreements going forward. Existing agreements are honored at their original terms. Changes are never retroactive.

Registration before outreach

A referral must be registered before PILLAR begins any formal outreach to that specific contact. If PILLAR is already in conversation with that person, the referral does not qualify.

These are the highlights. The full Co-Op agreement covers everything in detail. Download the full terms →

Questions

You're thinking it. We'll answer it.

No. And we think it is important to say that directly. A kickback is when someone receives hidden compensation for steering a decision they have authority over. The Co-Op is none of those things. PILLAR's pricing does not change based on whether a referral was involved. The commission comes out of PILLAR's margin, not the client's budget. There is nothing hidden. The cash tiers are designed for people outside the prospective client's organization. For people inside an organization, we deliberately do not offer cash compensation. We take that line seriously.
We do not pay people cash for advocating from inside a potential client organization, regardless of their role, because receiving money from a vendor you are recommending to your employer is a conflict of interest. We will not put you in that position. What we will do is invest in you professionally: workshops, community access, and priority consideration for PILLAR contractor roles.
We would rather invest in you substantially up front than string you along with a small percentage forever. The 10% commission is a real portion of what PILLAR earns on a project. Inside the window, the referrer earns a larger share of the profit than the owner keeps after taxes. If the commission were ongoing, we would have to drop it to 2-3% to make the numbers work. We would rather write you one meaningful check than send you small ones indefinitely. For PILLAR Family, the window is 24 months because your ongoing presence in the network contributes to client retention.
Your signed agreement. The terms you agree to apply to any referral you make while that agreement is active. If PILLAR wants to change commission rates, those changes apply to new agreements going forward, not retroactively. Either party can exit with 30 days written notice. Outstanding commissions on active contracts continue to be paid through the end of the window.
Every referral is tracked in a register from introduction to signed contract. You will have a simple agreement documenting the terms before any introduction happens. Commissions are calculated quarterly and you will receive a statement showing the math. If you have a question, you talk to a person, not a department.
You get paid when we get paid. If a client is late, your payout is late. If a client does not pay, there is no commission on that portion. We cannot pay commissions on revenue we have not received, but we also cannot pay contractors or ourselves on revenue we have not received. Everyone is in the same boat.
Your commission is based on the signed statement of work, not on what the engagement eventually becomes. Scope creep additions are not commissionable. The commission is tied to the SOW as signed, because that is the engagement your introduction created.
Renewals and extensions of the original scope are commissionable as long as they fall inside your commission window. Materially different work requires a new agreement, and PILLAR makes that determination in good faith. If you make a new introduction to a different person at a different organization, that is a new referral with its own commission.
No. A $5,000 project earns a $500 commission. A $250,000 engagement earns $25,000. The math scales the same way regardless. We intentionally did not set a floor because we do not want anyone second-guessing whether an introduction is worth it.
Make the introduction anyway. You do not need to qualify the lead, diagnose the need, or figure out the scope. If someone you know has any kind of creative, communications, or marketing challenge, that is enough. PILLAR will have the conversation and determine fit. The worst that happens is a good meeting that does not turn into a project.
Talk to us. The referral register tracks who introduced whom and when. PILLAR resolves disputes with a bias toward the Co-Op member in ambiguous cases. That bias is written into the terms.
Nothing happens. No penalty, no awkwardness. If it is not a fit, that is just how it goes. We will appreciate the introduction regardless.
Yes. Before any referral is active, you and PILLAR will sign a simple Co-Op agreement covering commission terms, attribution, payment timing, confidentiality, and termination. It is short and readable.
No. You can participate as an individual. If you already have a business entity, that works too. There may be tax advantages to receiving Co-Op income through a business entity, so we would encourage you to talk to a tax professional about what makes sense for your situation.
Yes. Someone in PILLAR's contractor network who also knows organizations outside their current work can earn outside referrer commissions on those introductions. If they later leave an employer and bring that client to PILLAR, they are family with priority staffing. Different tiers, same person.
If you have already made an introduction that led to an active PILLAR engagement, talk to us. We cannot retroactively apply the Co-Op to past introductions as a matter of policy, but we built this program because we believe the people who helped PILLAR grow should share in what they helped build. We want to have that conversation.
We've got you. Download the one-page PILLAR reference sheet or check out the “What PILLAR Does” section below. You do not need to pitch or sell anything. A warm introduction is all it takes. PILLAR handles everything from there. If you would rather just talk it through first, set up a time with Eddie directly.
The PILLAR mug cannot be purchased. It can only be earned. Every Co-Op member gets one. We will not be taking further questions on this matter.
Sorry about that. Reach out directly: eddie@pillargroup.co.

What PILLAR Does

Creative, communications, and marketing.

Branding. Messaging strategy. Campaign development. PR and earned media. Design. Web development. Content creation. Executive communications coaching.

See our work →

World-class creative for organizations that cannot afford to be ignored. Senior strategists, designers, writers, and producers, assembled around the engagement and released when the work is done. No hand-offs. No dead weight. Significantly less overhead than a traditional agency.

PILLAR gives you agency-level work and you only pay for what you are actually getting. If the work matters and the creative needs to be exceptional, PILLAR can build a team around it.

One introduction. That's the whole ask.

You already do this. The Co-Op just means it counts.

Register a referral, or talk it through with Eddie first.

Register a referral → Questions first? Talk to Eddie →