We recently wrapped up our spring Regional Chapter roundtables and always love hearing the latest tips from practitioners on the ground. Check out the helpful tips that our members shared with each other at this quarter's NCN member Roundtables.
We recently wrapped up our winter Regional Chapter roundtables and always love hearing the latest tips from practitioners on the ground. Check out the helpful tips that our members shared with each other at this quarter's NCN member Roundtables.
We recently wrapped up our fall Regional Chapter roundtables and always love hearing the latest tips from practitioners on the ground. Check out the helpful tips that our members shared with each other at this quarter's NCN member Roundtables.
We recently wrapped up our summer Regional Chapter roundtables and always love hearing the latest tips from practioniers on the ground. Check out the helpful tips that our members shared with each other at this quarter's NCN member Roundtables.
5 tips from NCN Spring Regional Chapter Roundtables: 1. Ask your community "what in the space is giving you life?" Some of our Co-Leads asked this question in the roundtable, and we loved it! Reminding ourselves and our community members what is so special about our beautiful spaces can be energizing, motivating, and impactful.
5 tips from NCN Winter Regional Chapter Roundtables: 1. Try a collaborative internship program Have you ever heard of a shared internship? One center was able to get a grant to pay interns for an amazing internship program focused on their center theme. Among other benefits, the interns spoke about the value of being able to learn from several different nonprofits, since they can work with various tenants, which makes it unique to other internships opportunities they had.
As we transition into fall, NCN members at our recent fall Regional Chapter Roundtables shared changes that are happening not only with the season, but also changes with their centers and their organizations. In the fall, the chapters focused mostly on the topic of finance, and it’s always nice to hear of new innovations and ideas as we continue this important work. Below are a few innovations that we wanted to highlight for this season:
5 tips from NCN Fall Regional Chapter Roundtables:
1. Consider new ways to meet conference room and meeting space demand
Meeting and conference space demand seems to be rising across the board. Some members asked: “How can that be a source of revenue? Are there meeting room memberships or other models that make sense?”
2. Take a sabbatical
Mission driven work is critical for our communities, but it’s important to give ourselves and our teams time to recharge. One member shared their policy of encouraged staff sabbaticals, and after hearing about their amazing trip, we hope all centers can implement a similar policy!
3. Build in rising utility costs
We heard that utility costs seem to be rising for centers, especially in certain regions. Whether you have a standard % increase annually, or true-up at the end of the year, you might consider how to build that in to your budget more carefully this year.
4. Evaluate tenant participation
We all know that tenants add a lot more to centers than their financial contribution. If tenants are paying rent, but aren’t coming into the office, are they taking the place of other organizations who might contribute more to the vibrancy of the center? Some centers are starting to have these conversations to think of creative ways to reevaluate tenant contributions and participation.
5. Build trust with two-sided transparency and financials
One member suggested that as a landlord, they have build trust with tenants and have a stronger reciprocal relationship by being more open with their financials and by having two-sided transparency.
NCN recently hosted our summer Regional Chapter Roundtables across the US and Canada. Every time I attend these Roundtables, I'm reminded of the incredible impact our members have across North America. The incredible work our centers in operation and centers in development are doing, the incredible teams and tenants they serve, and the incredible solidarity and support they show their fellow NCN members by sharing ideas. In the spirit of sharing, below are a few of the great ideas for centers that we heard.
Last week we had our first NCN Regional Chapter Roundtables of 2022. These Regional Chapter Roundtables occur once a quarter, and I am really enjoying seeing each chapter build its own identity and community for peer learning and connection. I am always so impressed by the tricks of the trade and new things I learn from our members at these roundtables, and I wanted a way to bring these to all of our NCN community. So, after each quarter’s round of roundtables, I’ll be sharing 5 tips I heard from the regional chapters about nonprofit centers and social purpose real estate. So without further adieu, let’s see what I learned about this time!
Last month, NCN launched our Regional Chapters meetups with 10 chapters across the US and Canada. The theme that I heard over and over again in this first meetup - community. At the most basic level, the Nonprofit Centers Network is a community of people who envision a world where every nonprofit has access to a quality workspace and quality infrastructure to deliver on their mission. In our 10 Regional Chapter launches, I saw 10 different regional communities start to come together to learn from each other, and share how they create and support their own communities in their nonprofit centers.
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April 15, 2024
March 19, 2024
