From infancy onward, we are taught the value and correctness of sharing. Partaking in playtime with peers while allotting toys to friends is one of the fundamental lessons in life’s early learning stages.
So it’s no surprise, then, that over the last few years the concept of office consolidation has been adopted by – and a subject on the lips of – voluntary sector organizations in the context of workspace environment: splitting rents, sharing office supplies, and in the process, reducing all manner of overhead costs associated with running a nonprofit or business of any kind.
Yet while the idea is fiscally sound, there are pros and cons to sharing one’s workspace with other organizations.
(Note: A September 2008 story on these digi-pages, titled Sharing: Today’s new models of change, explored what the concept is all about. For a fuller appreciation of the origins and mechanics of this trend, one should read Ms. Birnbaum’s excellent article.)
We’re one, but we’re not the same
That line from U2‘s song One pretty much sums up one of the major hurdles of sharing an office space with others. Though it can be nice to reduce operating expenses, it’s often trickier to limit organizational stress among peers working to different ends.
For Maureen Moloughney, executive director of Heartwood House in Ottawa – which houses 15 charities in a 22,000 square foot building owned by a local synagogue – making sure the other organizations under her roof all get along, is essential.
She says anyone trying to set up a shared workspace needs to “find a group of organizations, at least five, who share a similar vision of being ‘better together’ under one roof in a community rooted in the mission of sharing resources and ideas, for the good of the entire community.”
Without that, it can be very hard to succeed in the sharing mission. Moloughney lays out three bits of advice for nonprofit start-ups looking to create a viable shared workspace. She advises the following:
- Make sure you have a community coordinator. “The success of the organization begins with daily attention to the growth and development of the community. Focus on growth of the community can only happen successfully if there is someone that attends to this part of the life of the community on a daily basis.”
- Don’t focus solely on rent savings. “Being a member in this [shared] community may not mean the cheapest rent in town. Value operating simply-but-well before operating cheaply. Determine a square footage rate that is fair to all groups, while covering the real operating costs of the community.”
- Stay in the “giving” frame of mind. “Generosity is essential to success in this type of village of community-minded organizations. Be like the best street you’ve ever lived on where neighbours know each other and help each other by sharing and caring about each other’s well-being.”
Keep in mind, Moloughney adds, that all this advice comes into play after the first hurdle of shared workspace is cleared: obtaining the actual space to work in.
“Our greatest challenge was starting Heartwood House with no money. Congregation Beth Shalom owns our building. We are very grateful to them for establishing a phased-in rental plan for this building. We could never have begun…without their support,” she says. “The next challenge was moving into a building that had been closed for two years and needed extensive cosmetic upgrades. Every group had to agree to be responsible for the upgrades to their space.”
Seeking a shared mentality
In Edmonton, the Edmonton Chamber of Voluntary Organizations (ECVO), has been busily agitating for more shared spaces for the city’s charities and nonprofits. Russ Dahms, ECVO’s executive director, expresses frustration with the lack of urgency shown by some in the city’s halls of power in realizing the potential of the sharing concept.
The most intriguing idea, he says, is building off of aging suburban municipalities’ need to liquidate empty schools – in towns where there is no longer a sufficient amount of youth to populate classrooms – and revert them back to the province instead of paying annual maintenance costs.
While many of these buildings could be used to “accommodate” nonprofit organizations willing to share space, the cost of purchasing such a building would be astronomical for any voluntary sector organization. Many of them need millions of dollars in renovations just to bring them up to safety code, Dahms says. And if the municipalities can’t afford “$8 million a pop” to keep them, it’s certain [that] nonprofits won’t have that type of cash either, he says.
“The ECVO is meeting with city officials to figure out what best to do,” Dahms states. In the meantime, Dahms’ organization and the city are working on tangential initiatives that could help pave the way to more shared spaces in his city soon.
The City of Edmonton and the ECVO are working on developing a toolkit for nonprofit organizations exploring space alternatives, as well as a website to serve as a clearinghouse. “Those having space and those needing space can post and search,” he says.
Additionally, Edmonton’s Public School Board continues to host “community consultations” about nonprofit use of empty classrooms in operating schools. It also recently bought a school closed by the school board. “A committee of city council has directed the administration to find out what options are available for nonprofit groups to utilize the school,” Dahms says.
Interestingly, the ECVO is also considering forming a nonprofit development corporation in order to place bids on buildings.
“As a sector, we’re not positioned to do a deal. This might help us get in a buyer’s position. But to buy privately held real estate, we’d need at least two thirds of the money to come from the government,” he explains, adding that obtaining cash from government for this type of initiative “is hard” because, generally, all nonprofits can hope for is limited grant money for smaller projects.
Pay it forward
Despite the obstacles, those that are successfully sharing space are doing so with a competitive advantage to their sector peers.
Moloughney estimates that some of her member organizations save an average of $12,000 per year by “using member group meeting room spaces for their programs. These groups could not afford the full cost of rent for their programs. Renting office space they can afford, and borrowing meeting room space from our larger member groups makes it possible for these small-budget groups to offer top quality programs in spaces suitable for the programs.”
Her organization has also established a communal printing program and Internet program that saves members an additional $700 annually. “The people power resources are fantastic. Someone always has an idea to help…with a problem, or writing a grant, or finding a better way to do things.”
Andy Levy-Ajzenkopf is president of WordLaunch professional writing services in Toronto. He can be reached at andy@wordlaunch.com.
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