The key component of that—creating local ownership—dates back to the organization’s origins, when Lanning, Cindy Dach of Changing Hands Bookstore and Michael Monti of Monti’s La Casa Vieja founded the Arizona Chain Reaction coalition. In 2006, the organization became a nonprofit and changed its name to Local First Arizona.

In the past few years, LFA has shifted further into helping small towns, tribes and nonprofits, as well as businesses.

“We launched the Arizona Economic Recovery Center during COVID because so much grant money was going to the large actors and not enough was reaching the communities it was intended to serve,” she explains. “We started it as a pilot, and it’s been so successful that we’re changing the name to the Economic Resource Center, continuing to ensure that Arizona gets its fair share of the taxpayer dollars that we put into the federal government.”

Post pandemic, the center continues to serve as a resource library where folks can get a grant writer, project manager or financial expert at no cost to help them compete successfully for federal grants.

“In the past 20 months, the program has helped small towns and tribes win about $33 million, and that’s on top of the $54 million that we distributed in small business relief aid,” Lanning says.

Other recent LFA initiatives include the creation of three incubator kitchens, with two more in planning stages. “They could be entrepreneurs looking to start a restaurant, food truck or catering company, or even products like cottage-industry salsas, jellies and jams,” she continues.

“We offer affordable kitchen space for them to get started, with a robust curriculum and technical assistance to help them launch a successful food business.”

LFA also has expanded its sustainability efforts with a Green Business Certification Program and Green Business Bootcamp, which help small businesses by conducting energy and water audits and creating plans to reduce their impacts. More recently, they also launched a Green Loan Fund, offering low-cost capital to companies installing new or replacing outdated equipment that reduces energy or water use by 20% or more.

Looking back on the past two decades—and an organization that has grown to 54 staff members and multiple statewide offices—Lanning describes it as an evolution.

“Part of our journey has been the complexity of building a diverse small business sector, and part has been unraveling the complexities of systemic issues,” she says. “You can’t just have a superficial campaign reminding people to buy local without focusing on the other end of the spectrum, which is how to strengthen entrepreneurship, small business and communities. They go hand in hand, and I feel we’ve risen to the occasion.”