By Executive Director, Claudia Arroyo, Prospera
The year 2025 has been challenging for our organization and our community. We have faced funding losses that require us to make difficult strategic decisions to ensure Prospera’s sustainability in 2026. As part of this process, some of our beloved colleagues will not be continuing with us next year: Dani Ancin from Community Education; Ángela Solis from Communications; and Tania Figueroa from Programs.
I want to be very clear: these decisions are not related to the performance of any of these individuals, but rather to a broader context affecting many organizations across the country—the decline in funding due to anti-immigrant rhetoric and fear around supporting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. What we are experiencing at Prospera is not unique; it reflects an environment that challenges all organizations committed to social justice and equity. We are not an isolated case; we are part of a symptom of a much larger harm.
The way we approached these changes has also been very Prospera. For nearly two months, we involved all colleagues in consultations and collective processes. In several meetings, I, as Executive Director, stepped back to allow for open and honest conversations, avoiding the discomfort that my presence might create. We are conscious of power and privilege dynamics, and while our relationships are very horizontal and close, we always honor transparency and genuine participation.
A key value throughout this process has been transparency around the organization’s financial health. At Prospera, we have always shared with all colleagues where the numbers stand and how resources are managed. There are no surprises, no information hidden only for leadership. This is part of our practice of community governance and reflects our values: we seek to honor, at all times, the principles that guide how we serve our community, both within and beyond the organization.
The process included individual surveys, one-on-one meetings with each team member, and spaces for collective feedback. With the support of the leadership team and by listening carefully to everyone, we identified the most prudent decision to keep Prospera strong without compromising the dignity or respect of our colleagues. This path would have been shorter if the decision had been made unilaterally, but that would have undermined the trust, affection, and the Prospera “spark” that defines us. These processes are long, yes—but they are inclusive, strategic, and faithful to our values.
Although we feel pain, there is also ownership: we understand this as a strategic decision, part of our resistance and our ability to move forward despite challenges. We remain committed to our mission, to our community, and to the mutual care that defines us.
Even in the face of deep loss, we remain together like a resilient forest: every root, every seed, and every trunk sustains us, and together we face hurricanes, plagues, and challenges with hope and passion for what is still yet to bloom.
At Prospera, we know that despite this mutilation, we will bloom stronger. This loss hurts, but it also propels us forward with love, care, and determination. To Dani, Ángela, and Tania: you will always be part of Prospera. Your roots are here, and your legacy will continue to inspire us every step of the way. Because “Once a Prosperadora, always a Prosperadora!”Here we share stories and reflections from each of the colleagues who are leaving, highlighting their superpowers, achievements, and impact at Prospera. We hope this recognition opens doors and opportunities for them, and that they know they will always have our support—whether through references, letters of recommendation, or any accompaniment they may need as they continue on their journey.
Dani Ancin
What are you most proud of from your time at Prospera, or what has most marked your experience with the organization?
At Prospera, I have been part of an exemplary organizational culture. In several organizations I have worked with, the idea of creating a healthy, caring internal culture was either not discussed at all or felt like an unattainable dream. At Prospera, we don’t just talk about it, we live it. I saw that it is possible to have a culture of care where diversity and people’s humanity are respected. I learned how that culture is built day by day, even through the smallest gestures and actions, from the top and from all directions. It gives me hope for my future collaborations and confidence that Prospera can navigate whatever storms come next and continue to grow, with its values shining like a guiding light.
Some of my personal accomplishments include:
- Redesigning the evaluation and impact system
- Developing the Salesforce system for data management
- Developing the training system for collaborators (consultants, mentors, coaches)
- Leading the Facilitación para Liberar[nos] (Facilitation to Liberate Ourselves) program, guiding the training process for Prospera participants to facilitate our programs
- Supporting grant proposal and report writing
- Developing educational materials for the Prospera Communities program, which I hope will bring greater sustainability and growth opportunities to the organization
How do you imagine your future at this moment?
I would like to continue supporting nonprofits through grant writing, program monitoring and evaluation, and the development of educational materials, while also developing my own projects. Popular Education is what drew me to Prospera, and I want it to be my compass in everything I do. I also hope to remain connected to Prospera.
How have you experienced this process, and how do you feel about no longer being able to stay on the team due to lack of funding?
The damage caused by this administration is not limited to nonprofits or the immigrant community (even though this community is currently a direct target of state violence). Personally, it breaks my heart to see these impacts, and at the same time it gives me hope to witness the way Prospera has approached this crisis, with transparency, love, and care. I hope it serves as an example for all our communities of how we can care for one another in the midst of difficult truths and changes we wish we did not have to make.
Ángela Solis-Francis
What are you most proud of from your time at Prospera, or what has most marked your experience with the organization?
I feel deeply proud to have been part of an organization that walks alongside entrepreneurs, accompanying and supporting one another. At Prospera, I learned that communication is not just about telling what we do, but about caring for how we tell it and who we place at the center. What marked me most was the trust I was given to lead, create, and make decisions, even in moments of great uncertainty. During my time at Prospera, I was able to strengthen a narrative that centers entrepreneurs and their stories, always ensuring that our communications reflected the values of cooperation, resilience, and well-being that define the organization.
I was also deeply marked by the trust to lead creative processes, shape campaigns, reports, and strategic content, and respond with agility even in moments of change or crisis. I learned that good communication not only informs, but also accompanies, connects, and sustains community.
I carry with me the privilege of having accompanied stories of resilience, cooperation, and courage, and of having contributed to ensuring that those voices were heard with respect, beauty, and truth.
How do you imagine your future at this moment?
I imagine my future with openness and curiosity. This closing of a chapter invites me to pause, integrate everything I have learned, and continue moving forward with greater clarity about the kind of work and impact I want to build. I know that I want to keep telling stories with purpose, accompanying collective processes, and putting my skills in the service of communities that believe in cooperation and shared well-being.
I don’t yet have all the answers, but I do have one certainty: what I experienced at Prospera stays with me and strengthens me for what comes next.
How have you experienced this process, and how do you feel about no longer being able to stay on the team due to lack of funding?
It has been a painful and complex process, because it is not a personal decision nor a reflection of performance, but rather the result of the structural realities that many community organizations face. There is sadness, of course, but also, and above all, deep gratitude.
It hurts to say goodbye to a team of people I deeply respect, and at the same time I recognize the care and transparency with which this moment has been navigated. I leave with a full heart from all that we shared, with pride in the work accomplished, and with the conviction that the bonds built here are not broken; they are simply transformed.
Tania Figueroa
What are you most proud of from your time at Prospera, or what has most marked your experience with the organization?
I feel deeply proud and grateful for the trust that my colleagues, entrepreneurs, consultants, mentors, and allies placed in me. That trust allowed me to explore ideas, question the everyday, propose new ways of accompaniment, and communicate from my own truth. Because of it, I was able to show up with honesty, presence, and care in my work with the women in our community.
Over these four years, as Entrepreneur Success Coordinator for the high-touch programs, I had the privilege of observing, testing, and adjusting not only the content, but also the rhythms and the ways in which we delivered these programs. This work of iterating through deep listening led to accompaniment that generated real impact for the entrepreneurs, their families, and for Prospera as an organization.
I am proud to witness growth not only in businesses, but in the women themselves: how they speak from a more grounded place, how they name challenges with clarity, how they allow themselves to learn, make mistakes, and hold one another in community.
Being able to offer my own approach, that blend of strategy, awareness, deconstruction, and love, within work that strives for collective economic independence and coherence with its values, has been a gift.
I carry in my heart the generosity of the team and their capacity to hold and support one another, even in the most uncertain moments. What we experienced during this complex process reaffirmed something I have always admired: Prospera does not simply write its values on a website; it embodies them, lives them, and practices them every day.
Here, I confirmed that working with immigrant women is not only my vocation; it is part of my place in the world.
How do I imagine my future at this moment?
My future feels like open territory: uncertain, yes, but fertile. I will take a few weeks to return to myself, to my family, to what makes my heart smile; to write calmly, touch my deepest emotions, and honor this transition.
My work with women, organizations, and small businesses continues. The Next Forty — a conscious leadership atelier, is the space where all that I am converges: designing leadership with integrity, growing with equity, and building cultures that can endure for the next forty years. That future calls to me and sustains me.
How have I experienced this process, and how do I feel about not being able to continue due to lack of funding?
I have lived it from many places. First, from a sense of collective courage: all the internal conversations, the care, the attempts to resist what is imposed were infused with values, transparency, and bravery. Along the way, of course, there was uncertainty, sadness, anger, and also acceptance.
It is not easy to step back when one works with an open heart. It is frustrating that such urgent causes continue to depend on funding cycles that do not always honor the depth of the impact we generate. And yet, I accept that sometimes nothing breaks; it simply shifts to take us somewhere else.
I do not leave with anger, but I do leave with a critical lens: I hope the funding ecosystem comes to understand that work with immigrant communities requires continuity, not temporary patches.
On a personal level, I leave grateful and deeply moved. I feel grief, but also dignity. And I know with absolute clarity that what I built here, the relationships, the experience, the certainty of purpose, does not depend on a contract.