Katie Edwards, Author at The Nonprofit Centers Network

08/Nov/2016

pie During the 2015 State of the Shared Space Sector survey, NCN found that a large proportion of mission driven shared spaces are operating as successful social enterprises. At the same time, the majority of these spaces are offering their tenants below market rate rent. How is this possible? A new publication, Balancing Act: Sustainable Finances for Shared Spaces, out this week, gives us some insight. Here are three key findings to help you balance your shared space business model.

Maximize your rentable square footage. We all love to have access to vibrant common areas, big meeting spaces, and funky cafes, but when it comes to profitability, rentable office space is key. For every 10,000 square feet of common area, profitable centers have four times as much rentable space. Centers running in the red only had 25,000 square feet of rentable space for every 10,000 square feet of common space.
Make sure your offices are full. Rental revenue is perishable income – if someone isn’t in that space for a month, you will never have the opportunity to regain that revenue.
Manage your expenses per square foot. Profitable centers in our studies had total expenses in the range of $22 (including staff, utilities, maintenance, internet, and more) per rentable square foot. Centers running a loss were paying over $90 per rentable square foot on average! Paying close attention to your expenses goes a long way.

Want to learn more about our research? Download the report here today! Thanks to the Jones Trust for sponsoring this publication.

Katie Edwards

31/Oct/2016

For most people, sharing resources – whether it be office space, accounting staff, or a common kitchen – is a new way to work. With the release of the Streamlining Social Good report and our recent webinar on the same topic, I’ve been thinking a lot about my biggest takeaways from this convening and what I would tell other people

Katie Edwards

17/Oct/2016

For many years, I’ve believed that building the trust necessary for collaboration takes time – weeks, months, maybe even years. While at the Stanford Social Innovation Review’s institute on Network Leadership, a presentation by David Sawyer and David Ehrlichman of Converge for Impact shook loose my perspective on the subject. Over the course of a two-hour session, I and over 300 participants were led through a series of exercises focused on what we could do to build trust for impact in our own networks. At the end, I was surprised, not only at what had been shared with me, but also at what I had shared with others, and how quickly we had found common ground upon which to build. Here are my top take aways from the session...

Katie Edwards

03/Oct/2016

In September, I had the privilege of attending the Stanford Social Innovation Review’s Nonprofit Management Institute on Network Leadership. I have been interested in the topic of network leadership because every nonprofit center that we know of is or has the potential to be a network for catalyzing social good. For many years, the idea was that to increase your social impact, you had to bring your model to scale. However, researchers like Jane Wei-Skillern have found that there have been many organizations who have multiplied their ability to achieve impact by taking the opposition – slimming down their operations, specializing, and working in concert with partners.

Katie Edwards

05/Sep/2016

Running a nonprofit shared space can be a challenge. In addition to the hard skills of leasing, facility maintenance, and tenant improvements, nonprofit center managers must also be equipped with the soft skills of culture management and facilitating partnerships in order to create meaningful collaborations among the tenant partners under one roof. In our 2015 State of the Shared Space Sector survey, we at NCN wanted to answer some long standing questions about what it really takes to run a nonprofit center. The full findings of our research can be found in Managing Collaboration: Staffing & Salaries in Shared Space (available for free download). Here are a few highlights:

Katie Edwards

08/Aug/2016

One of the biggest reasons nonprofit centers and coworking spaces exists is to give people the chance to get to one another – to connect in the kitchen, chat around the coffee pot, and share ideas. At the same time, so many of us live at least a part of our lives online, checking Facebook and twitter, searching for connections on LinkedIn, or exploring the latest MMORPG. Connecting in person can be a huge breath of fresh air.

Katie Edwards

18/Jul/2016

As my partner and I prepared to host a meal for his growing number of coworkers, I realized that many of the key ingredients for sharing a meal also apply to shared space. It’s no wonder that many nonprofit centers use the breaking of bread as a gateway to bigger, more important forms of collaboration. We learned at Streaming Social Good that collaboration isn’t something that’s natural – it’s something that you have to practice. A potluck is an easy way to practice and reflect on the principles of collaboration, while gathering with friends. Here’s are my reflections on how the key ingredients of a good potluck apply to shared spaces:

The goal is clear! At great potlucks, you know why you’re there – to have fun and eat some great food. The same is true of strong shared spaces – every person knows why they’ve joined this group, why they’ve moved their offices under one roof with their partners.
The host gets things rolling, while inviting others to share their skills. The host of a potluck provides a little structure to the shindig, outlining the time and date, and the list of things that will be needed. Like a host, a shared space manager helps their community to identify the skills needed to meet their goals.
Invite people to volunteer. Once the menu is outlined, you invite people to volunteer to play a role. Whether someone brings a three-layer chocolate cake they worked on for hours or someone just grabbed a bag of chips and dip from the store, each role is important for a plentiful meal. In shared space, the leaders need to recognize all the contributions, small and large, that make the community possible. Everyone has a specialty that will shine when you let people play to their strengths.
Reap the rewards together. The best part of a potluck is eating the fruits of everyone’s labor. In the meal, you get to appreciate what has come together. While it may not be perfect, it will be bountiful. In shared space, it’s important to remember to celebrate the things that have happened because your community has come together under one roof. Savor the successes, no matter how small.

Take a moment to think about your shared space. If it were a potluck, would it be one that you’d show up to? If not, how can you realign things to make it easier for people to participate? Sometimes what seems to be a complex problem can be very simple if you look at it in a different light.

Katie Edwards

11/Jul/2016

NCN helps nonprofit organizations share many kinds of organizational infrastructure – not just space. You may see or hear us talk about “shared services” from time to time. We define shared services broadly as the collaborative use of resources across traditional organizational boundaries. Multiple organizations, or multiple programs within a larger organization, establish shared services to collaboratively and more efficiently make use of equipment, staff, program resources, and much more. Most nonprofit organizations have a traditional organizational model with their own core operations such as purchasing, public relations, human resources, IT support, equipment, and workspace. Financial pressures drive nonprofit organizations to look for new, cost-effective structures. Shared services offer a long-term solution by allocating much-needed resources to multiple organizations for a fee. Virtually any resource that does not uniquely fulfill an organization’s mission has the potential to be shared, including, but not limited to, things like busses, IT, software, reception, purchasing services, payroll, HR, volunteer management, and client intake. Why should my organization consider shared services? There are five key benefits:

Katie Edwards

20/Jun/2016

In most for-profit coworking models, free, all-you-can-drink coffee is included in your membership fee. Coffee helps to animate the space, and gives people a reason to get away from their desks Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos, argues that to encourage innovation and ideas, people need to have the opportunity to “collide” with one another, to interact. In a shared space, the common coffee pot, helps to provide an opportunity for partners to interact – because let’s face it, coffee is a necessity in the working world.

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Katie Edwards

06/Jun/2016

People dread meetings for many reasons – often they aren’t well planned, they aren’t well attended, and they drag on for far too long. Here are a few tips to make sure your meetings among your collaborative partners are on point.