Seeing Opportunity in Empty Spaces
By Tom Evans
This is one of those classic stories in which some people see an empty space and others see an opportunity.
A bit over a year ago, a 6,000-square-foot office space went vacant directly next door to the Arizona Community Foundation’s offices at 22nd Street and Camelback. This sort of thing happens every day in commercial real estate – companies use a company like Austin Tenant Advisors to find and move into some offices, the companies then grow and move out to bigger facilities, leaving the old space empty. And when companies shift to a bigger space, they often find that the new spaces require some kind of renovation. Actually, the second-generation spaces that were previously occupied by tenants require more makeovers. That is why, while shifting to a new space, many organizations opt for a commercial build-out. As such, it can help prepare the potential property for the new tenants. However, many companies often prefer to use a building cost calculator beforehand. Many who have experience in choosing build-outs, often recommend a cost calculator as it can provide an estimate beforehand, which can actually be beneficial for those who are moving to a new space.
Anyway, coming back to the story, ACF’s leadership was kind of excited, though, because things had gotten pretty crowded in their offices and they could use the extra space, so they started looking into how it might be utilized. The immediate thought was that some of the
embedded organizations that call ACF home could be shifted over to the new space, in sort of a typical “we’re expanding the office” kind of way.
These “embedded” organizations – the Rodel Foundation, the Arizona Foundation for Women, Arizona Grantmakers Forum and Social Venture Partners-Arizona – are their own independent nonprofits, but have partnered with ACF to have it provide office space and additional infrastructure. This helps the organizations reduce overhead costs and allows them to put more resources toward their missions. Somewhere along the line, leaders at Rodel and ACF had an idea. What if we do something more than just shift some offices around? What if, instead, we create a center for collaboration, where nonprofits can work together regardless of their missions to have a bigger overall impact – “a place where ideas are born,” as it now says on the door?
And with that, the Bert A. Getz Center for Collaborative Philanthropy came to life. The center, named for groundbreaking Arizona philanthropist and ACF founder Bert Getz, was recently completed and is having an opening celebration in early November.
The four organizations that call the center home all have very distinct missions,
without a great deal of overlap. But that doesn’t mean collaboration can’t help all
of them.
“We all are looking for ways to collaborate and leverage resources so that we can have the greatest impact,” said Laurie Liles, president & CEO of the Arizona Grantmakers Forum. “By co-locating we interact more. By interacting more we start having conversations. And by having conversations we find ways we can collaborate and work together.”
The center houses the four embedded nonprofits but is also available as a resource to other nonprofits looking for a place to gather and interact – if you book in advance, because the center is already abuzz with activity.
And while Jackie Norton, Rodel’s president & CEO, said the term “collaboration” is sometimes overused, it reflects the new reality that nonprofits are facing.
“I think there’s a collective recognition that if you want to teach kids to read or if you want to cure cancer, one person can’t just do it alone,” she said.
The concept of housing multiple nonprofits in one place isn’t new – the BHHS Legacy Building in central Phoenix is an example of the concept at work as well. And the Helios Education Foundation just broke ground on a 65,000-square-foot building that will be designed to foster collaboration in education.
What it does show is the way the thought process has shifted in the nonprofit community over time. It used to be that nonprofits tended to stay in their own silos – whatever your mission, you went out and did it on your own.
The problems with this kind of thinking are myriad, of course. First, it’s expensive – that kind of thinking means that every nonprofit would have to build their own
infrastructure, lease or build their own buildings, and be saddled with the burden of their own administration. That’s still fine for many nonprofits, but others are thinking outside the box and identifying just the sort of partnerships than can help them better focus on their missions.
And, the “silo” approach can mean not only missed opportunities to boost their impact, it can create an almost competitive environment, where nonprofits are fighting for dollars and impact in similar spaces instead of looking for ways to work together.
The one thing the nonprofits in the Getz Center have in common is simple – they all want to make the community a better place. And by thinking a bit outside the box, it’s a safe bet they’re going to succeed.
