News
26 April 2021
Announcing Potencia, Luminate’s Partner Support Program in Latin America
By Gabriela Hadid, Laura Bacon, and Kathryn Uhl (Synergos)
In November 2020, Luminate launched an organisational strengthening program, designed to increase the capacity of our Latin America portfolio, called Potencia, which means power, strength, and potency in Spanish and Portuguese. Building on the suggestions provided by partners during a regional gathering held in São Paulo in 2019 and the feedback received through the 2020 Grantee Perception Report (GPR), Potencia aims to systematically assess and respond to the capacity needs of partners across Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico.
What we’ve learned so far
In the first phase of the program, we conducted a needs assessment through one-on-one virtual conversations with the leaders of the 31 participating partner organisations. These conversations shed light on the unique, multi-faceted nature of each organisation’s strengths, needs, and vision for how Luminate could support them. Despite the diversity of their needs and profiles, there were clear common threads, which informed the 2021 program’s priority areas.
This year’s Potencia program will provide partners with a menu of options to choose from, including tailored one-on-one consulting, peer learning networks, workshops and webinars, tools, and resources across three key areas:
- Financial Resilience: Financial sustainability, diversification of funding sources, fundraising, and Board governance
- People & Culture: Human Resources management, including Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice (DEIJ), employee wellness, career growth, and professional development
- Programmatic Impact: Programmatic growth strategies, impact measurement, and evaluation
Partnership with the Synergos Institute
Following an open Request for Proposals (RFP) and rigorous applicant review and selection process, we opted to partner with the Synergos Institute to assist with the needs assessment, program design, and implementation of Potencia. The Synergos Institute is a global non-profit organisation with a vision for a just, equitable, and regenerative world. With 30+ years of experience across 60 countries, Synergos serves as advisory partners, conveners, and capacity builders for civil society and community-led efforts to advocate systems-level change.
What comes next
In the first year of the Potencia program, we aim to provide our partners with access to the tools, resources, knowledge, and networks to assist them on their journey towards building their organisational capacity. We hope to leverage our position as a philanthropic organisation in Latin America to convene our partners and catalyze peer learning opportunities across our portfolio. We plan to extract learnings from the first year of the Potencia program and will continue to build upon them to shape future partner support offerings in the region.
About global Partner Support at Luminate
The Potencia program in Latin America is just one example of how Luminate helps to support the inspiring and impactful organisations in our portfolio. As a global philanthropic organisation, Luminate makes grants and investments to organisations to help build more just and fair societies all over the world. Above and beyond grants and investments, Luminate provides both non-financial and financial support to our partners to help them become more resilient, networked, healthy and inclusive places to work.
Learn more about our Partner Support program here.