Instituto Lab

Instituto's mission is to build sustained power with low-income and communities of color in Arizona. Our programs build effective and sustaining advocacy capacity among low-income and communities of color. At Instituto, we accelerate organizations by focusing on leadership development and scaling programs. We also incubate organizations and solutions that will help mobilize voters and build capacity in places that have historically been under-invested in.

VISION

Looking ahead to 2027, communities of color will become the majority of the population in the state of Arizona. We envision a state where low-income and communities of color will have the power to address the issues that matter the most so they can thrive and live a life of dignity.

WHAT'S NEXT - OUR 2023:

Instituto is in a critical growth point going into our 4th year of existence. In 2022 alone we accomplished the following:
66 Trainings
1,402 Training attendees
1,056 coaching hours
131 coachees
8 communities of practice

The work above is no small feat, and we recognize now more than ever how important it is for our community leaders to have what they need to be successful. With that being said, the first half of 2023 we will continue to do what we do best which is meet the capacity building needs of our infrastructure, identify talent to invest in, in our Monzon Fellowship, and follow through with critical programs that have been started like Building for the Future. While this is happening, we will go through an extensive strategic planning process to help us identify our year by year strategic plan to get us to our pivotal moment in time, 2027. We look forward to sharing the outcome of this process and final plans in July 2023. In the meantime, as mentioned above, our work in accelerating and incubating will continue with key focuses listed below:

Building for the Future: During our 2021 internal and external strategic planning session, we identified a major gap within Arizona's civic sector in professional development for fundraising professionals and financial investments to our partners from local and state-wide philanthropists. We know that a majority of our partner's funding comes from national organizations and while we expect that our partners will continue to benefit from those contributions, there is an opportunity to expand innovation in how organizations can increase their financial capacity and build a more sustainable, self-determined organization.

In Q1 of 2023 Instituto will launch an Arizona Funding Report, a qualitative and quantitative research project assessing challenges organizations face when raising money, identifying funding sources (national, state, or local) and an analysis on who is receiving funding by key demographic data, and analyzing the existing talent of development professionals within our partner organizations.

Acceleration:

Encuentros: Encuentros are convenings designed to create collaboration and growth amongst the civic sector's executive leadership. Members will be allowed to bring two senior-level people to each of these convenings. Convenings occur on a bi-monthly basis. During Encuentros, leaders strategize on ideas and the needs they have to build robust campaigns through training, discussions, and community building. This program also includes executive-level coaching. Instituto will contract two executive-level coaches to assist the Executive Director and Founders in coaching.

Accelerating Power Services: While we rely heavily on training for professional and leadership development we know that training is one piece of the puzzle to providing acceleration support. Adults learn by acquiring skills through learning how they can be applied directly to their work, applying skills learned through practice, and by talking through challenges with colleagues. Instituto has a multi-year strategy of "Accelerating Power" by:

Training Offerings: Year-long training series in the areas that will help organizations scale their impact.
Coaching Hours: Professional coaching in data, digital, development and operations, and communications will be available on retainer to provide coaching hours to our partners.
Resources: Partners will have access to our content for free through our online library of resources like Praxis in Action.
Monzón Fellowship: The Monzón Fellowship is a six-month fellowship that builds capacity, expands political power, and further develops existing leadership in organizations and campaigns. Fellows participate in a one-of-kind experience that will expand management skills to run and scale advocacy and civic programs.

Collaborative Intentions underlying the above:

Building outside of Maricopa County: We believe that for Arizona to truly thrive, we have to strengthen communities in every corner of the state, not just Maricopa County...