From the desk of Harvest Foundation President Kate Keller
Supporting the nonprofit community is core to Harvest’s mission of creating a welcoming community where all can thrive. The community is best served when nonprofits can provide quality and consistent services.
In a world with limited resources, growing and sustaining a quality nonprofit can be challenging. We do our best to provide educational and leadership opportunities, but we know there is more we can do and want to do.
Harvest is currently exploring the idea of a Nonprofit Center. These Centers exist across the United States and vary quite a bit. In general, they tend to be buildings that co-locate nonprofits, offer shared or back office services, and offer capacity-building opportunities.
To get a feel for what I am trying to explain, here are several examples:
Jessie Ball DuPont Center — www.dupontcenter.org
Center for Nonprofits @ The JFL Shop — www.cfnjtlshop.org
Midland Shared Space — midlandss.org
By operating in one facility, organizations can gain economies of scale — reducing costs, sharing resources, and serving communities more effectively leads to stronger nonprofits. Sometimes these centers merge around an issue, like the arts or the environment, but often the buildings house a variety of nonprofits and also offer co-working spaces.
Harvest is exploring the feasibility of a center in MHC. We are trying to understand if there is a demand for space — traditional office space, convening and meeting space, or co-working spaces. And we’d like to know what types of nonprofits are looking for space.
To understand this, we will be releasing a survey to our local nonprofit community next week. If you run a nonprofit of any size or age or are looking to start a nonprofit, I encourage you to take the survey. If you are not on our mailing list, please tap or click here to join.
Harvest is dedicated to supporting and empowering nonprofits in MHC. Stay tuned for further information on this exciting adventure!
