The IncludUs Way: Engineering Models That Scale
- Includus Admin
- Nov 14, 2025
- 5 min read
How IncludUs builds blueprints for scaling local brilliance nationwide.
By Bacilia Angel | Founder, IncludUs Fund
We don't just hope for inclusion. We engineer it.
While most organizations treat diversity and belonging like annual campaigns or feel-good initiatives, we approach it like infrastructure. Because that's what it is - the foundational system that determines whether communities thrive or fracture.
After years of building civic innovation projects across the country, we've discovered something critical - inclusion isn't about good intentions. It's about good engineering. And good engineering scales.
The Problem with Inclusion Theater
Most inclusion efforts fail because they're designed backwards. Organizations start with outcomes they want to see - more diverse leadership, better community engagement, increased civic participation - then work backwards with tactics that feel right but aren't built to last.
The result? Inclusion theater. Programs that look impressive in annual reports but crumble under pressure. Initiatives that work in pilot form but can't expand beyond the founding team's bandwidth. Systems that require constant manual intervention to keep running.
We needed a different approach. Not inclusion as activism, but inclusion as architecture.
Engineering vs. Hoping - The IncludUs Framework
At IncludUs, we treat community power like any other engineering challenge. You start with specifications, design for load capacity, build in redundancy, and test at scale.
Our engineering methodology rests on four core principles:
1. Design for Systems, Not Events
Most organizations design inclusion like event planning - one-time gatherings, seasonal campaigns, annual summits. We design inclusion like city planning - permanent infrastructure that handles daily traffic and scales with population growth.
When we launched our voter engagement work in California's Central Valley, we didn't just organize registration drives. We built a media and culture lab that creates ongoing content, trains local creators, and develops sustainable revenue streams for community storytellers.
The difference? Event-based organizing stops when funding stops. System-based organizing creates its own momentum.
2. Build with Community Engineers, Not Just Community Leaders
Traditional community organizing focuses on identifying existing leaders and giving them more resources. We focus on identifying community engineers - people who understand both the emotional landscape and the structural mechanics of how change happens.
Community engineers think in frameworks. They see patterns across different contexts. They know how to take something that works in one neighborhood and adapt it for another city, another demographic, another political moment.
Our fiscal sponsorship program specifically seeks out these hybrid thinkers - activists who code, artists who analyze data, organizers who build business models.
3. Code for Replication, Not Perfection
Silicon Valley taught us that you can build something once and deploy it everywhere. But most social impact work gets rebuilt from scratch in every new location, by every new team.
We code our models for replication. Every project includes documentation, training protocols, and adaptation guides. When our regional Mexican music voter outreach worked in California, we didn't just celebrate the success - we documented the methodology so other communities could adapt it for cumbia in Houston, bachata in New York, or country music in Tennessee.
The goal isn't perfection in one market. It's consistent quality at scale.
4. Measure Infrastructure, Not Just Impact
Traditional metrics track outputs - how many people reached, events held, dollars raised. Infrastructure metrics track capacity - how many new leaders trained, systems automated, partnerships sustained.
We track both. But we invest based on infrastructure metrics, because those predict scalability.
The Architecture of Belonging
When you engineer for scale, you discover that belonging isn't just a feeling - it's a function of well-designed systems.
Our research and data lab has mapped the structural elements that create sustained civic engagement across different communities. The patterns are remarkably consistent -
Access Layer - Physical and digital pathways that remove friction from participation Identity Layer - Cultural relevance that makes people see themselves in the work Agency Layer - Meaningful roles that give people ownership over outcomes Network Layer - Connections that extend beyond single issues or campaigns.
When all four layers function together, you get what we call "civic belonging" - communities where people don't just vote or volunteer, but see themselves as architects of their own futures.
Scale Without Sacrifice
The biggest challenge in scaling social impact isn't resources - it's maintaining quality and authenticity as you grow.
Tech companies solve this with standardization. But standardization kills the cultural specificity that makes community work effective. You can't scale authenticity through templates.
Our solution - pattern scaling instead of program scaling.
We identify the underlying patterns that make our work successful, then train local teams to express those patterns through their own cultural languages. The IncludUs Fund doesn't just provide money - it provides methodology transfer, allowing community engineers to adapt our frameworks rather than copy our programs.
This approach lets us maintain local authenticity while achieving structural consistency. Communities get solutions that feel native to their context but are backed by proven engineering principles.
Building the Next Generation of Community Infrastructure
Right now, we're living through a massive infrastructure moment. Billions of dollars flowing into roads, bridges, broadband, clean energy. But we're underinvesting in the most critical infrastructure of all - the systems that help communities organize, advocate, and govern themselves.
Community infrastructure isn't just about nonprofits. It's about building civic capacity that can handle whatever challenges come next - climate disasters, economic disruption, demographic change, technological upheaval.
The communities with strong civic infrastructure will adapt and thrive. The ones without it will fragment and fail.
The Blueprint Is Here
We're not theorizing about how to engineer models that scale. We're doing it.
Our institute trains community engineers across the country. Our design lab prototypes new approaches to civic engagement. Our projects generate real policy wins and electoral outcomes.
But here's what we've learned - good engineering spreads faster when more engineers understand the methodology.
Join the Architecture
The future of community power isn't going to be built by accident. It requires intentional design, systematic thinking, and sustained investment in infrastructure that lasts beyond any single campaign or crisis.
If you're a funder who thinks in systems, a leader who builds for scale, or a community engineer ready to architect the next generation of civic infrastructure, we should talk.
Because inclusion isn't just a value we hold. It's a system we build. And the blueprint is already here - we just need to activate it.
The question isn't whether we can engineer models that scale. We already have. The question is how quickly we can deploy them everywhere they're needed.
The architecture of belonging is waiting to be built. Let's engineer it together.
Engineering for a Better Tomorrow is written by Bacilia Angel, founder of IncludUs — a national nonprofit building the systems equity needs by supporting bold, community-led ideas.
We turn vision into action across health, education, economy, environment, civic life, and leadership — because inclusion shouldn’t be a trend. It should be the infrastructure.
Want to partner, collaborate, or support the work? Reach out: bacilia@includusfund.org Follow: @includusfund | LinkedIn
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