In Ontario, the Ministry of the Attorney General recently invested new funds into their system of legal clinics. In exchange, the government expects the clinics to seek out ways to reduce costs and reinvest those savings into their work. In response, the Specialty Legal Clinics Modernization Initiative was formed to co-locate nine unique programs serving needs ranging from legal support for people living with AIDS, people with disabilities, to accident victims to tenants, landlords and youth.

In 1978, with a dream of establishing a permanent home in New York for the nonviolence movement, the A. J. Muste Memorial Institute purchased a three-story loft building in downtown Manhattan, affectionately known as the "Peace Pentagon". By providing affordable office and meeting space to mission-related tenants, and using income from several commercial storefronts to offset expenses, the Institute has provided a way for activist groups to stay in a convenient location while freeing up vital resources for their social justice work.

Foundation House opened its doors in January 2016, as the creation of The Counseling Foundation of Canada, Laidlaw Foundation and The Lawson Foundation. Over the months, the conversation evolved from a simple idea of having a collective roof over their heads to becoming a hub for philanthropic collaboration, learning and sharing.

Although the majority of NCN’s members are based in the US and Canada, there are many shared spaces across the globe. This month’s featured member is the Visy Cares Hub in Sunshine, Victoria, Australia, a suburb of Melbourne. Opened in 2007, the Visy Cares Hub is Australia’s largest co-located youth service center that is managed by The Youth Junction Incorporated. Bringing together 20 not-for-profit youth services under one roof, this center is able to support approximately 18,000 disadvantaged youth people between the ages of 12 to 25 per year.

The Jessie Ball DuPont Center in Jacksonville, Florida brought new life to the city’s former public library, a unique mid-century modern structure designed to diffuse sunlight, sustain winds up to 150 mph, and support the weight of hundreds of thousands of books. Abandoned in 2005, the building found new life as home to 12 nonprofits a few years later. The Jessie Ball DuPont Center has a mission of providing affordable office space to nonprofits, nurturing collaboration among tenants, and raising the visibility of the nonprofit sector in Jacksonville’s civic life. The center operates as a program-related investment for the Jessie Ball DuPont Fund, who owns the building.  The Fund recognizes that the building will not have as great a return as some of its other investments, but they are choosing to create true community asset in downtown Jacksonville. See the Jessie Ball DuPont Center for yourself by checking out its online photo gallery.