diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index ef2b4aea..38aff747 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -2,6 +2,8 @@
 __pycache__
 .pytest_cache
 
+/.venv-3.8
+
 # C extensions
 *.so
 
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index e1c0ee09..7932cb88 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+include repo-tools/base.mk
+
 .PHONY: clean compile_translations coverage diff_cover docs dummy_translations \
 	extract_translations fake_translations help pull_translations push_translations \
 	quality requirements selfcheck test test-all upgrade validate
@@ -20,63 +22,61 @@ help: ## display this help message
 	@echo "Please use \`make <target>' where <target> is one of"
 	@perl -nle'print $& if m{^[a-zA-Z_-]+:.*?## .*$$}' $(MAKEFILE_LIST) | sort | awk 'BEGIN {FS = ":.*?## "}; {printf "\033[36m  %-25s\033[0m %s\n", $$1, $$2}'
 
-clean: ## remove generated byte code, coverage reports, and build artifacts
+clean: $(coverage) ## remove generated byte code, coverage reports, and build artifacts
 	find . -name '__pycache__' -exec rm -rf {} +
 	find . -name '*.pyc' -exec rm -f {} +
 	find . -name '*.pyo' -exec rm -f {} +
 	find . -name '*~' -exec rm -f {} +
-	coverage erase
+	$(coverage) erase
 	rm -fr build/
 	rm -fr dist/
 	rm -fr *.egg-info
 
-coverage: clean ## generate and view HTML coverage report
-	pytest --cov-report html
+coverage: clean $(pytest) ## generate and view HTML coverage report
+	$(pytest) --cov-report html
 	$(BROWSER) htmlcov/index.html
 
-docs: ## generate Sphinx HTML documentation, including API docs
-	tox -e docs
+docs: $(tox) ## generate Sphinx HTML documentation, including API docs
+	$(tox) -e docs
 	$(BROWSER) docs/_build/html/index.html
 
 upgrade: export CUSTOM_COMPILE_COMMAND=make upgrade
-upgrade: ## update the requirements/*.txt files with the latest packages satisfying requirements/*.in
-	pip install -qr requirements/pip-tools.txt
+upgrade: $(pip) $(pip-sync) ## update the requirements/*.txt files with the latest packages satisfying requirements/*.in
+	$(pip) install -qr requirements/pip-tools.txt
 	# Make sure to compile files after any other files they include!
-	pip-compile --allow-unsafe --rebuild --upgrade -o requirements/pip.txt requirements/pip.in
-	pip-compile --no-emit-trusted-host --upgrade -o requirements/pip-tools.txt requirements/pip-tools.in
-	pip install -qr requirements/pip.txt
-	pip install -qr requirements/pip-tools.txt
-	pip-compile --no-emit-trusted-host --upgrade -o requirements/base.txt requirements/base.in
-	pip-compile --no-emit-trusted-host --upgrade -o requirements/test.txt requirements/test.in
-	pip-compile --no-emit-trusted-host --upgrade -o requirements/doc.txt requirements/doc.in
-	pip-compile --no-emit-trusted-host --upgrade -o requirements/quality.txt requirements/quality.in
-	pip-compile --no-emit-trusted-host --upgrade -o requirements/ci.txt requirements/ci.in
-	pip-compile --no-emit-trusted-host --upgrade -o requirements/dev.txt requirements/dev.in
+	$(pip-compile) --allow-unsafe --rebuild --upgrade -o requirements/pip.txt requirements/pip.in
+	$(pip-compile) --no-emit-trusted-host --upgrade -o requirements/pip-tools.txt requirements/pip-tools.in
+	$(pip) install -qr requirements/pip.txt
+	$(pip) install -qr requirements/pip-tools.txt
+	$(pip-compile) --no-emit-trusted-host --upgrade -o requirements/base.txt requirements/base.in
+	$(pip-compile) --no-emit-trusted-host --upgrade -o requirements/test.txt requirements/test.in
+	$(pip-compile) --no-emit-trusted-host --upgrade -o requirements/doc.txt requirements/doc.in
+	$(pip-compile) --no-emit-trusted-host --upgrade -o requirements/quality.txt requirements/quality.in
+	$(pip-compile) --no-emit-trusted-host --upgrade -o requirements/ci.txt requirements/ci.in
+	$(pip-compile) --no-emit-trusted-host --upgrade -o requirements/dev.txt requirements/dev.in
 	# Let tox control the Django version for tests
 	sed '/^[dD]jango==/d' requirements/test.txt > requirements/test.tmp
 	mv requirements/test.tmp requirements/test.txt
 
-isort: ## fixes isort issues found during quality check
-	tox -e isort
+isort: $(tox) ## fixes isort issues found during quality check
+	$(tox) -e isort
 
 quality: ## check coding style with pycodestyle and pylint
-	tox -e quality
+	$(tox) -e quality
 
-requirements: ## install development environment requirements
-	pip install -r requirements/pip.txt
-	pip install -qr requirements/pip-tools.txt
-	pip-sync requirements/dev.txt requirements/private.*
-	pip install . # CLI entry points
+requirements: $(pip) $(pip-sync) ## install development environment requirements
+	$(pip-sync) requirements/dev.txt requirements/private.*
+	$(pip) install . # CLI entry points
 
-test: clean ## run tests in the current virtualenv
-	pytest
+test: clean $(pytest) ## run tests in the current virtualenv
+	$(pytest)
 
-diff_cover: test ## find diff lines that need test coverage
-	diff-cover coverage.xml
+diff_cover: test $(diff-cover) ## find diff lines that need test coverage
+	$(diff-cover) coverage.xml
 
-test-all: ## run tests on every supported Python/Django combination
-	tox -e quality
-	tox
+test-all: $(tox) ## run tests on every supported Python/Django combination
+	$(tox) -e quality
+	$(tox)
 
 validate: quality test ## run tests and quality checks
 
diff --git a/repo-tools/base.mk b/repo-tools/base.mk
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..19a4ab4f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/repo-tools/base.mk
@@ -0,0 +1,38 @@
+# Base Makefile components to build on.
+#
+# Ideally, this would be pulled in from another repo by a `git subtree`
+# reference and would include most of the Makefile so that upgrading
+# repos to the latest functionality (and keeping them standardized)
+# would be fast and simple.
+
+PYTHON_VER := 3.8
+
+# These are required for bootstrapping a virtualenv to the point where
+# requirements can be installed.
+
+venv_name := .venv-$(PYTHON_VER)
+pip := $(venv_name)/bin/pip
+pip-compile := $(venv_name)/bin/pip-compile
+pip-sync := $(venv_name)/bin/pip-sync
+
+$(venv_name): ## Create the virtualenv, or recreate it if it already exists
+	python$(PYTHON_VER) -m venv $(venv_name) --clear
+
+$(pip): $(venv_name)
+	pip install -r requirements/pip.txt
+
+$(pip-compile) $(pip-sync): $(venv_name)
+	$(pip) install -r requirements/pip-tools.txt
+
+# The rest of the Python tools are listed here, and all are fulfilled
+# by the same target. By calling them from their explicit virtualenv
+# paths, we ensure that the virtualenv will be used (including by
+# other tools they call).
+
+coverage := $(venv_name)/bin/coverage
+diff-cover := $(venv_name)/bin/diff-cover
+pytest := $(venv_name)/bin/pytest
+tox := $(venv_name)/bin/tox
+
+$(venv_name)/bin/%: $(venv_name)
+	make requirements