NonprofitCenters Network: February 2008 Blueprint for Success

Operations Manager Keiko Isono stands in front of central mailboxes for nonprofit organizations at the Osaka NPO Plaza in Japan.

In This Issue:

March Training in Boston
Upcoming Events
New Resources
Property Tax Exemption Campaign
Innovative Programs
NCN Member News
News from the Steering Committee

Innovative Strategies for Nonprofit Workspace
Join us March 12th in Boston for this day-long introductory training on creating Nonprofit Centers hosted by Third Sector New England at their NonProfit Center. This hands-on seminar will walk you through the steps and considerations for planning, financing and operating a Nonprofit Center. For more information, visit www.nonprofitcenters.org/events.

NEW! Web-based Seminars on Community Space
In March, NCN will host its first web-based seminars focusing on community meeting spaces. The first session, Managing Meeting Spaces, is scheduled for March 18th at 2:00pm EST. This 90-minute session will offer participants the opportunity to discuss strategies for staffing, scheduling and renting out conference rooms and other community meeting spaces. Pam Brems from The Mansour Center and Neel Hajra from NEW Center will share their experiences and models for effectively managing these sought-after spaces. In the second session on March 25th, Community Spaces in an Election Year, nonprofit attorney Cynthia Rowland will offer tips and pitfalls to avoid in providing meeting space for political events. Don’t miss these two lively discussions. Web seminars are free to NCN members, $25 for non-members. Register at www.nonprofitcenters.org/events.

Check out our Green Building Resources page for links to some of our favorite green building websites. We've included sites with resources on energy savings, recycling and composting, landscaping, water issues, green and salvaged products, building and more. Brief descriptions of each site will help you find the answers to your green questions quickly.

Use our new NCN Member Search to search NCN members’ websites for answers to all of your nonprofit real estate questions. The search engine is available to NCN members only, so join the Network for access to even more information on Nonprofit Centers!

Thanks to Shelley Hamilton of MarinSpace, a new Staffing Benchmark Study for Nonprofit Centers is available in the Online Resource Center. The report of her preliminary research provides a snapshot view of the number of staff and their responsibilities at Centers around the US. If you would like to add your Center to the Study, please contact Shantel Nilson at 415.561.6327 or snilson@tides.org.

A December decision by the Minnesota Supreme Court challenges the property tax exemption of nonprofit day care center Under the Rainbow, because they charge close to market rates for their services. The decision, if it stands, could have wide-reaching repercussions for other nonprofit buildings in Minnesota and elsewhere. For more information, read Rick Cohen’s article about the case in The Nonprofit Quarterly.. In response, NCN member Minnesota Council of Nonprofits has started a Charitable Tax Exemption Education Campaign. For more information, visit www.mncn.org.

Our Japanese Partners
In December China Brotsky, Roxanne Hanson, and Steering Committee member Jonathan Spack visited Japan at the invitation of the Kansai NPO Alliance. The group was able to visit seven of the more than 40 Nonprofit Centers operating in Japan. Most of the Centers are supported by local governments and provide one-desk workstations for small organizations, in addition to larger offices. Many Centers also featured a bank of mailboxes and storage lockers for organizations that do not have an office. By including nonprofit resource libraries and capacity-building services at the Centers, these facilities help to provide flexible support for the growing Japanese nonprofit sector.

Shared Information Technology
NEW has developed npServ, an innovative service where nonprofits share a common I.T. system plus a "time share" tech support person. npServ is currently in use by two of NEW Center’s tenants and four non-tenants, with several more interested in joining. The entire system utilizes "open source" technologies, allowing participants to save significant money through reduced software fees, greater reliability, easier remote management, and lower hardware costs. Most important, npServ allows nonprofits to focus less on I.T. and more on what matters: their missions! To learn more, visit www.npserv.org or contact Neel Hajra.

Eating In Style
Third Sector New England’s NonProfit Center opened the new NonProfit Center Café on February 12 to an enthusiastic welcome from tenants. It's being operated by Darnell Adams, Founder and Chef of Eat In-Style. Darnell is an entrepreneur whose business has been incubated at Nuestra Culinary Ventures, a program of Nuestra Comunidad, an inner-city community development corporation. She specializes in making delicious, healthy, foods with local and organic ingredients when possible.

Congratulations to the North Penn Community Health Foundation who moved into their brand new Nonprofit Center in January. Additional tenants will join the Foundation in the building in March. For more information, contact Executive Director Russell Johnson.

Happy (belated) 20th Anniversary to Fairhill Center in Cleveland, Ohio. Situated on 9.5 acres in a Cleveland Historic Landmark, Fairhill Center works to connect people, organizations, and choices to foster successful aging. Not content to rest on their laurels, Fairhill Center has begun a Campaign for Kinship Village to enhance their services for kinship families. For more information, contact Associate Director Michael Gathercole.

Do you have an exciting development or interesting experience that you would like to share with the Network? Send your news to info@nonprofitcenters.org and we will add it to the next Blueprint for Success.

We are pleased to welcome new NCN Steering Committee Members Kim Frentz, President of Ventura Partners, and Amy Tobin, Executive Director of the David Brower Center. We are also pleased to announce new officers for the Steering Committee. Tim Wintermute, Executive Director of the Luella Hannan Memorial Foundation will serve as the new Chairperson, with Vice Chairs Shelley Hamilton, Executive Director of MarinSpace, and Andy Johnston, Executive Director of Loudoun Cares. Michael Gathercole, Associate Director of Fairhill Center, will continue to serve as our wonderful treasurer. We wish to express our deepest thanks to departing Committee members Martha Burton and Andra Lichtenstein, and former Vice Chair Sue Dennis. A special note of gratitude goes to Alex Zwissler who served three years as our founding Committee Chair and remains a leader in The NonprofitCenters Network.