A partner is simply someone you are closely involved with — a person or an organization you have tied your fortunes to. Dolores Park has thousands of them. The picnickers who carry their cans to the bin, the cafés on 18th Street that hand out reusable cups, the artists who paint the pledge posters, the crews who show up at 9 a.m. on a Saturday to pick up what Friday night left behind. Nobody signs a contract to love a park. But plenty of people and businesses choose to work at it together, and that shared work is what this page is about.
Love Dolores is not a city department and it is not a membership club. It is a loose, stubborn coalition of Mission District merchants, neighborhood groups, performers and volunteers who decided that the grass, the benches and the views were worth defending. Partners are the reason a Community Day has coffee, gloves and someone to explain which bin the iced-tea cup goes into. If you run a business, a nonprofit, a band or a food stand near the park, there is a place for you here.
Neighborhood Businesses
Creameries, taquerias, coffee shops, markets and bars within walking distance of the park. They put the pledge on their counters, stock aluminum over glass, keep a water station for refills, and let their staff join a cleanup without losing a shift. When a customer asks where the nearest recycling bin is, they know the answer.
Community Organizations
Nonprofits, cultural centers, merchant associations and neighborhood groups that already have volunteers, insurance and a mailing list. They bring people and know-how; we bring the park, the bins and a table at the Eco-Popup. Together we can run a sorting station, a park history walk or a family afternoon without either side having to build from scratch.
Artists, Performers & Crews
Illustrators who design the pledge signs, musicians who play a free set on the lawn, dance and cheer groups who turn a cleanup into something people actually want to attend, and the brass-band regulars who have become part of the park's soundtrack. Culture is why people come here in the first place, and it is a legitimate form of care.
What We Ask of a Partner
There is no fee and no exclusivity. What we ask for is time and a few habits:
Take a shift. One Community Day or one Eco-Popup slot a season is enough. Some partners do far more; nobody is expected to.
Use the can. Push aluminum over glass in what you sell and serve, and make it easy for your customers to find a bin on the way out.
Skip the throwaway. If you hand out swag, make it something people keep — a bandana, a koozie, a collapsible bottle — not another single-use cup.
Carry the message. Put #lovedolores and #dolorespark where your customers already look: window, menu, receipt, feed.
Show up when it rains. The Saturday after a big weekend is the one that matters most, and it is also the one where volunteers are scarcest.
What Partners Get
Recognition on this site and in the Love Dolores Gallery, where partner photos and posters live side by side with everyone else's. Supplies for your own team — gloves, bags, sorting signage — when we have them. A standing invitation to the Community Days on the calendar, with your name on the poster. Co-branded pledge cards for your counter. And the practical thing: a park that is clean on Monday morning is a park your customers want to come back to.
The Public Outreach Ambassadors
You have probably met them without knowing the title. Ambassadors are the people at the 19th and Dolores corner on a Saturday afternoon, in a bright vest, next to the bins. They do not lecture anyone. They hold a bag open, point out that the compost bin takes the pizza box and the recycling bin takes the can, and answer the question people actually ask: where do I put this? Most of them are volunteers who live in the neighborhood and were tired of walking past the same mess.
If you would rather talk to people than pick up trash, this is the job for you. Ambassadors work two- to four-hour shifts, are paired with someone experienced on their first outing, and set the tone for the whole park: friendly, brief, non-judgmental. Partners often send one or two staff members to an ambassador shift, which is an easy way to start a partnership without committing a whole team.
These community organizations, artists, and businesses LOVE DOLORES, too.
BiRite Creamery
BiRite Market
Café UB
Cheer SF
Cream
Delfina
Dolores Outpost
Dolores Park Cafe
Dolores Park Works
Easy Breezy
Friends of Dolores Park
Guerrero Market & Deli
Headline Shirts
Kasa Indian Eatery
Katz Bagels
Knights of Revery
Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts
Mission Neighborhood Services
MOOP Squad
Muddy Waters Coffee Shop
Namu Gaji
Pay N Save Grocery
Philz Coffee Shop – Castro
Recology
San Francisco Mime Troupe
San Franpsycho
SF Surfrider
The Blue Fig
Truly Mediterranean
Taqueria El Buen Sabor
Woods Cerveceria
How to Become a Partner
The process is short and human, and it starts with a message rather than a form. Use the Contact page and tell us who you are, where you are, and what you would like to do — a cleanup shift, a sorting table, a poster, a free set on the lawn, a supply donation, or simply a spot on your counter for the pledge cards. Say roughly how many people you can bring and which days of the week work for you.
From there we will arrange a short walk around the park, usually on a weekend, so you can see where the Eco-Popup sits at 19th and Dolores, where the bins are, and what a Community Day actually looks like. You will meet an ambassador or two. If it still sounds like something your team wants, you sign the Love Dolores pledge, print and decorate a sign, take a photo with it, and post it with #lovedolores and #dolorespark — or upload it straight to the Love Dolores Gallery, where it will appear within 24 hours. Images should be 72dpi, ideally 600 pixels wide by 720 pixels high, and please send no hi-res files.
Then you are on the roster. We will tell you when the next Community Day is, and you will get first word on park events, volunteer needs and supply drives. Partners who cannot give time but can give materials — bags, gloves, reusable bottles, printing — are just as useful, and we will say so on this page. There is no category lock, no minimum term and no way to buy your way to the front of the list; the people who show up on a wet Saturday are the ones everyone remembers.
One more thing worth saying plainly: partnership here is not a marketing channel with a park attached. It works because neighbors, businesses and crews decided that a shared public space is worth the small ongoing effort of keeping it usable. If that sounds like your organization, we would like to hear from you.