Build the future of social impact
The Makerspace is where practitioners stop consuming best practices and start building them.
Most professional development in this field follows a familiar pattern: someone with expertise presents to a room of practitioners who take notes and go home. The Makerspace flips that model. Practitioners come together to co-develop the tools, frameworks, and resources the field actually needs, guided by research and tested in real environments.
Three types of labs run inside the Makerspace. Each one serves a different purpose, but they share a common principle: the people closest to the work are the best positioned to advance it.
Core Labs
Building foundational capabilities for the field.
Build With AI
Bring a real project and build alongside other practitioners, with live guidance on tools, build strategy, and troubleshooting.
Who this is for
People who already use a paid Claude, ChatGPT, or Gemini subscription and have a real project ready to build. This is a live build session with direct guidance.
What to bring
- A project you want to build. Bring a problem from your own work.
- A paid AI subscription. Claude, ChatGPT, or Gemini.
Join a session
What you could build
Choose a project that would be useful in your work. Examples include:
A web application
A client-facing tool built with Lovable.
A reporting workflow
Automation for a recurring reporting task.
A research tool
Pull together and format information from multiple sources.
A branded slide deck
A presentation for your team or stakeholders.
Video content
Create video with MiniMax.
A team dashboard
Prototype an internal view of your team's work.
More about the tools we use
You'll learn when to reach for which tool, with guidance on choosing one that fits your project.
Reasoning, writing, analysis, and code generation.
Autonomous tasks with multiple steps.
Building web applications without writing code from scratch.
Video and multimodal content.
Specialized tasks alongside the other models.
Using Copilot at work?
The lab also covers using Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, and specialized tools alongside the AI tools your company provides. You'll still need a paid Claude, ChatGPT, or Gemini subscription for the session.
Five-Level Competency Ladder
Click each level to see what it means for you as a prospective attendee. You do not need to arrive at level five, but this lab assumes you already use a paid AI model and can bring a real project.
1Level 01Orientation
You already use a paid AI model, but you are new to turning that experience into a working build. The lab helps you orient around a real project, choose a practical starting point, and work alongside people who are building too.
2Level 02Exploration
You have started experimenting and want guided exposure to what is possible. The lab helps you compare approaches, ask practical questions, and figure out which tools, methods, or workflows are worth pursuing further.
3Level 03Application
You are ready to use this on a real project. The lab helps you move from ideas into something usable: a working tool, a draft workflow, or a concrete build you can take back into your job right away.
4Level 04Proficiency
You already use these skills and want to get sharper. The lab helps you improve judgment, troubleshoot faster, and produce stronger results with less trial and error.
5Level 05Integration
You are weaving the skill into how your team or program operates. The lab helps you turn individual capability into repeatable practice, connect it to strategy, and build enough confidence to guide others.
Core Labs teach practitioners essential skills that cut across every program and every context. Structured learning experiences with a defined curriculum, built on RWI's research base.
Genome Labs
Collaborative working groups where corporate practitioners from different organizations come together over months to research, build, and pressure-test new tools and frameworks for the field. Participants shape a working resource from the start and can implement it immediately.
The name reflects the ambition: mapping the underlying structure of effective social impact practice, the way a genome maps the structure of a living system.
Microsoft Alumni Network
Amplifier Labs build on existing initiatives, partnerships, or capabilities to expand their reach or deepen their impact through the Makerspace model.
This collaboration connects Microsoft Alumni Network expertise with the corporate volunteering community. The lab explores how AI tools can improve volunteer program design, matching, measurement, and storytelling. It brings technical depth from the alumni network together with field knowledge from RWI practitioners, producing resources and approaches that neither group would build alone.
Find Your Lab
Whether you're ready to build AI competence, co-develop industry tools, or extend an existing initiative, the Makerspace has a place for your work.
See Upcoming Labs and Events