Meyer Memorial Trust

I am very excited about your idea! If you are looking for people to explore this idea with you, please count me in. Ride Connection was going to begin a search for building space for either non-profits providing human services or non-profit agencies centered around transportation to be co-housed in order to centralize common services, explore efficiencies to ensure as much funding as possible is spent on direct services. Our current lease will expire in 4 years so we are beginning to look for a stable "home". We want to be visible, have a place where people can come to learn about and be supported in their selection of their transportation options. I recently read an article that talked about an office building that was going to be a condo style building where the businesses would purchase a piece of the building. I would like to explore that idea further as well. But please include me in any future discussions you might have on this subject. Ride Connection's board and staff are very interested.

Elaine Wells, Executive Director

I think this is a terrific idea. In Salem we are always scrounging for meeting and training space for hosted events and I'm sure many other Salem-based state associations are as well.

I would bet there are more than enough human-service related association nonprofits to make a critical mass. Just off the top of my head I can think of us (ORA), another smaller but like assn (CPAO), the Children's Alliance, Advocacy Coalition, Cross-Disability Coalition, DD Coalition, CADO (Community Action Coordinators, and Area Agencies on Aging.

We at ORA have been struggling with how to get sufficient funds to get into a building (having spent essentially lost money on rent for the past 20 years), but our resources must go to serving our membership first. We would love to be an essential part of any future activity around this concept.

The positive synergy of having human service groups together would have real outcomes I believe. Many of our clienteles overlap (e.g. kids, kids with DD, people with multiple disabilities, etc.)and certainly we need to learn to look beyond specific funding streams to meet multiple needs.

Please keep me informed of next steps. Thank you, Tim Kral, Executive Director, Oregon Rehabilitation Association

This is a great idea and actually one that's existed in Portland for many years to some degree.

This June many non-profits had to leave our office building in downtown Portland. Instead of all six groups looking for office space individually, we all looked together, and now five groups share one office.

This works out well - we're all small groups and we share the copy machine, the kitchen, and meeting space. We were able to rent a nice office that none of us could afford on our own.

The only tricky thing to negotiate was the lease - which groups would sign? The landlord didn't feel comfortable having all six groups sign and some groups wanted a three year lease and others wanted a one year lease.

While we were able to work these details out, it would have been much easier if shared non-profit office space already existed.

I'd love to see more offices like ours! If you'd like to see our joint space, feel free to contact me at 503-274-2720.

I think this concept could be very beneficial. It would not be unlike my company, NELA Management Group. We manage 7 non-profits currently and it saves each client significant monies to all be sharing costs such as rent and other amenities. We can segment out accounts for reimbursements on the postage meter, copier, fax, etc. (you could have a central media center and check out equipment, etc.). In addition, a switchboard might work the same as having multiple employees when it comes to having a phone answered by a live person when the non-profit can only afford a 1/4 time person. In addition, the commeraderie and proximity of sharing a space would definitely lend itself to providing substantial leads for each group from the other.

Our office is also in a building called the Association Center and is probably a broader example of what you are talking about. We have two large conference rooms that all of the tenants share on a first-come, first-served basis, which includes all 7 of our clients.

I think your idea is a superb one. It might even be more beneficial to segment the building into non-profit "industries" such as Arts and Culture, Humanities, Social Services, etc. Then each non-profit could meet monthly to exchange ideas.

Best of luck,
Nancy

I think this is a great idea. You might also consider using it as a non-profit incubator similar to incubators for start-up companies in the for profit world.

I think this is a really good idea. Community Action Resource Enterprises in Tillamook is in the process of a feasibility study for a new facility, and we are exploring exactly this model. In our small community there are many non-profits who struggle to find affordable office space. Co-locating and even potentially sharing some administrative services seems like it would create many efficiencies.

In addition, many of these non-profits serve the same clients and the facility could also be beneficial to those we serve.

One of the challenges as we approach this project is the much larger cost to capitalize space for many organizations as opposed to just our one little organization. There are also questions of ownership, maintenance, and governance to be answered. All very exciting however. I will check out the models you have mentioned as we continue our study.

Thanks!

I support this concept. We need to cooperate and partner in today's economic climate. Affordability is important. Having a "green" building would be appealing. Shared meeting and training space makes a great deal of sense. I believe a joint copy center and mail center could work well. I also think an "administrative services organization" that NPOs could buy into might fly. Perhaps the building could be operated as a "co-op"?

Allen Hunt, Exec. Dir., William Temple House

At this year's Recent Changes Camp (an eclectic gathering of geeks and communitarians) in Portland, there was a lot of discussion of creating an "O-Guild," which I understood to be a means of pooling shared resources for open source projects. Central to the idea was a shared space where these projects could coexist and enjoy the benefits of proximity. Yes, there are still techies who recognize them ;)

Since so many of these open source projects are nonprofits -- or at least not-for-profit -- it's interesting to consider the benefits of designing a certain portion of a multi-tenant nonprofit center to appeal to open source techies. The nontechnical groups could certainly benefit from the greater access to techspertise, and we geeks could get in some valuable practice interacting in some of those pre-internet media, like watercoolerspace. Perhaps the geeks could have their own floor to prevent overquestioning or overexposure to undershowering.

Here's a link to the (underedited) OGuild page from the RCC site: http://2007.recentchangescamp.org/OGuild

I had my suspicions about the intricacies of the organization needed to coordinate the shared resources -- though it does seem possible to net an efficiency gain there. My guess is that an organization like the one run by Nancy (a previous poster) is likely to be needed to manage such a community continuously for enduring success.

Thanks for asking around.

- ethan

"As a board member of a growing nonprofit, the idea of shared space is logical, cost effective and opens the door for other facets of resource sharing (like hr, receptionist, telecom). I fully support the shared space concept and it has been burning in the back of my mind since a couple years ago when I took a tour of the "Treehouse" building up in Seattle with three community rooms seating up to 150, along with 60,000 square feet of office space and houses something like 15 nonprofits. A beautiful and amazing building.

However, the question I have is whether such buildings should be owned and operated by Foundations or if it is more appropriate for a foundation to capital fund cooperatives of like-missioned, mid-sized nonprofits as a way to increase the asset base of nonprofits (ala a condominium ownership concept).

That way MMT is acheiving the twin goals of fostering intimate collaboration AND is building the capacity of nonprofit organizations.

I'd rather MMT create a capital-match fund for 3-4 collectives representing nonprofit sectors rather than becoming a developer and building management company."

I’d like to consider beyond cost sharing. This could be a way for nonprofits to deepen their efforts and expand the impact of missions. Instead of like organizations together housed in the same building, let’s talk about who we serve and the potential to more deeply fulfill our missions. Example, a client comes to Ride Connection for transportation options. Then needs employment support for their dissability (Oregon Rehabilitation Association), and NELA also interacts with this client. Next CARE assists with the client's first time parent needs. And so on... This is not a coincidence of convenience for this particular client. This is planful strategy to impact the culture surrounding this and many others who interact with a few or all of the nonprofits. Sure they share a conference room, and some other resources, that helps. The true beauty of this style is improving the community through mission compatability. Please check out co-housing for the residential equivalent.

Ben Pierce
Administrator
Community Cycling Center

This is an idea that has been waiting to be pulled into reality. I am intrigued by anonymous' posting on the condo ownership concept as well as the way Nancy of NELA is working. It seems most useful to have a couple models or frameworks - that way the focus is less on the wow and more on the real discovery of working possibilities and applications that we can push forward to benefit organizations' work in a variety of ways.
I was a breath away from signing up for that conference - but decided for now I needed to put some potentials back in the hat and attend to the knitting at hand. I am delighted to know that ideas were brought back and are being more deeply explored here. Kudos on that.

TACS is very interested in this idea- a nonprofit facility would provide a great opportunity for sharing key infrastructure resources for financial management, information technology, communications, hr management, etc. Hopefully it could also include a large meeting space for nonprofit events and trainings.

We have recruited Dahnesh Medora, formerly of the Tides Center in San Francisco to join our staff in part to share his expertise in the development of shared nonprofit facilities, fiscal sponsorship/incubator and other shared services for nonprofits.

We are very interested in working with others to move this idean forward.

Hello Doug (and any other interested parties). I am Tara Sue Salusso, the Executive Director of South Lane Wheels, a nonprofit in Cottage Grove, OR. We acquired a building a couple years ago that was larger than what we needed for our organization and that was in desperate need of renovation. It had formerly been the Internal Medicine building and its configuration was not conducive to our mode of operations. Because of my background with a nonprofit coalition and my vision for our community, I saw a great opportunity for repurposing and reorienting the building in order for it to be used by a number of nonprofit organizations. The project transformed an old medical building into a professional nonprofit center that provides offices and amenities to other small nonprofits wishing to reduce expenses while enhancing productivity and persona. Not only does the Center have more than 1500 square feet of common area space to be used by all tenants, it also has technology and amenities to enhance nonprofit capabilities. Currently five nonprofit organizations use our center with a small amount of space still available. Our third tenant to move into our nonprofit center is the Cottage Grove Community Foundation.

Center amenities include two large meeting rooms, one small meeting room, and exterior deck that can used for meetings or social functions, a mobile dry erase board, large television with DVD and VHS capabilities, two kitchenettes, a color printer (tenants can network into this printer) with duplex and scan capabilities, DSL, Internet and fax services. Additional amenities in our plan include presentation equipment and screen.

I invite you to come and visit our site. We may be the closest nonprofit center. I also welcome your call if you are interested in learning more over the phone. I would love to share more detail with you. Please call me at 541.942.0456.

FYI. The renovation was funded by a number of Foundations including the Meyer Memorial Trust. We are so appreciative and thankful for the incredible support that we have received in this venture from within our community and across the state.

In response to your specific questions:
Does the concept of a nonprofit service center make sense? Absolutely
Would this kind of space add value to our community? Absolutely
What needs do nonprofits have that this kind of space might meet? Lower overall expenses in regards to occupancy and shared resources and space.
Affordable, stable rent? Yes Shared services? Yes Meeting space? Yes
Program space? A nonprofit incubator? Office space with a programatic theme, where organizations with similar goals/activities could be co-located? We do not have similar programs however that is a great idea and has been discussed among nonprofits, government, and coalition members for years. We can discuss barriers and opportunity further when we connect in person.
What else comes to mind as we explore this idea? As funding constraints increase and the need for better coordination and collaboration becomes imperative to nonprofit survival [This is NOW], nonprofit centers and coalitions will become more and more valuable and viable.

This is amazing serendipity. Just the other day I had a conversation with someone else asking this exact question.

My thoughts about how this could work:

- The organizations have complementary missions. I imagine any configuration could work, but focus on a key strategy and bring excellence together for maximum impact.
- They share a common vision/understanding/commitment for working together.
- There is a boundary between organizations so that if one organization were experiencing a crisis it wouldn't threaten the others.
- That the organizations commit to knowledge-sharing and there is some level of evaluating what works/what doesn't.

We are also looking for space and would be interested in pursuing this conversation.

OK, that's it. Thanks for helping spark a big new idea.

Alison Hill
Director of Development and Communications
Community Cycling Center

You might consider that Cubespace - www.cubespacepdx.com offers workspace for "micro"businesses and would probably offer reasonable accomodation for small nonprofits looking to share workspace costs. Might be worth talking to them before reinventing the wheel.

We are just moving into a rental with two other organizations in Portland. We have shared offices with other non-profits for years and find it does bring cost savings. Almost more importantly, it increases our effectiveness, collaboration and helps us each focus in our strength areas and let others focus in theirs.

A couple of thoughts on the process (from non-profit real estate developer's perspective):
- a condo structure would help allow for sharing of governance, control over costs...
- most rents (sq. ft. basis) paid by non-profits are below or at the bottom of the market. Therefore the gap gets filled either by government or fund development (up to half the capital costs). Many non-profits are pretty dependent on fund development for operations, so working through the finance model before folks get to far is a good idea.
- There are great opportunities for shared conference room/ classroom space, and potentially IT systems...
This makes lots of sense, and thinking of a green building, good location.. center is a goal of ours.

Great idea...from the comments I am not surprised that there is probably demand for more than one building, and that there are different needs of different kinds of nonprofits( social service agencies vs. advocacy groups).

I also think the comments by anonymous about capital funding "for cooperatives of like-missioned, mid-sized nonprofits as a way to increase the asset base of nonprofits (ala a condominium ownership concept)"should be explored.Large nonprofits such as the Oregon Medical Association and Oregon State Bar can afford to buy their own buildings...it would be great if mid-sized nonprofits could more easily get off the rent drain and into an asset.

Please count me in as someone interested in helping make this a reality.

An excellent idea...Something the creative services sector has been doing nationally for years. Question: Should MMT own and manage real estate, or is it better to help create an enviornment where non-profits are invested in the success of their enterprize and the development of shared service sector resources through collective ownership? Happy to participate in this dialogue. cl

Some in the environmental community have discussed an idea that goes one step further than this and what Kay Sohl mentioned in her post. The concept is for several groups to join together and create an entity (perhaps for-profit) that takes on several functions that currently require staff or contractors (accounting, publications, HR, payroll, database management, etc.) I came across three trade associations doing this (Assoc.s of Animal Science, Dairy Science and Poultry Science). It was a painful "birthing" process for the entity, but now one of the EDs said that her organization is saving 30 - 35% in expenses because of the arrangement and the entity is also pursuing other clients. The three EDs serve as the governing board and are trying to figure how to best use the addt. revenues. It's complicated, but could make sense for like-minded groups. They did not use foundation resources, so I'm not sure if the best use would be seed money from foundations or foundations wholly owning the entities.

This is a terrific idea I expect will spark lots of interest. I am a contractor to Oregon Ocean and have learned that many non-profit contractors and staff work out of their homes in Portland. Those of us involved in oceans work meet regularly as a Plankton Club at the Lucky Lab. Contractors and staff who work from home offices find this a great way to connect and network. Informal club mtgs also include staff to members of congress and others who do work in their organization's office space.

Several of us who work from home offices have discussed idea of organizing a shared space. Also, I work with many non-profit organizations with office space; yet, we often scramble to find adequate space for large meetings and workshops (and sometimes resort to renting at relatively high cost from non-profits like the "Y").

Benefits include, Meeting space for larger meeting and gatherings; Shared services, including admin staff, equipment and storage space; Program space for those collaborating on projects, including reception/public space to promote public/member/donor participation; promotion of shared strategies, creative thinking -- a nonprofit incubator would offer similar benefits artists generate with shared studio buildings.

As they say what goes around comes around. This is not a new idea but, it is a good one. And should be considered more often by local non-profits.
Today, I'm glad to say my agency partners with two other non-profits as part of a condo association and shares a building that was purchased by a community philanthropist. Her vision to create a place where girls and women can receive support, services and program will have a long lasting effect on the community.

Amy Bresler
Girl Scouts of Western Rivers Council
Eugene, OR

This is an excellent idea and one that should move forward. BecomeX is in the process of looking for space to accomodate our program for young women, and we would love to have the opportunity to share space and resources. Please count us in on any planning meetings.

One comment above mentions a condo set-up. They way to provide truly stable office space for non-profits might be to enable them to own a piece of the building(s) they work in. MMT could still retain permanent ownership of a percentage of units in the building(s) to rent to non-profit start-ups.

There are many members of the Coalition for a Livable Future that would be interested in a non-profit center for groups that are currently involved in CLF and beyond. This has been an ongoing discussion over the years. Ideas that have been attractive to folks who have participated in these discussions are shared meeting space, shared administrative services, non-profit incubator/linkage program and community gathering space. It seems like there could be some pretty amazing new collaborations, etc... with some sort clustering of organizations based on goals/organization type, etc.

I also like the idea of having a range of ownership-rental options to meet different needs.

The idea is an excellent one and worth exploring. Your responses have come from around the state which makes it more complex. I would hope that the space/building provide services for families or individuals that meet many of their needs "wrap around" - thus making their lives easier. Also that it makes sense which services are in the space and that they are learning from each other and partnering for funding and providing services together.
Diane

A very good idea. I doubt it would work in my little village but it might be worth a try. Anything to keep the overhead down gives us more resources to help the community.

A wonderful idea! Benefits from being part of a
non-profit neighbor community would continue to
expand as those involved learned more about each
other. There might be shared information (& human) resources, possibly collaborative projects - at the very least, a cross-pollination of ideas that would benefit the similar client groups served by different non-profits, as well as co-operative organizational sustainability strategies.

Public awareness campaigns (to invite individual donors and volunteer participation) could be launched as a collective effort . . . perhaps with an
annual "event zone" that could be like a block party, or, by using an internal event space that could be booked by individual organizations for auctions, presentations, performances . . . during the "zone."

The reality of being part of a core community of non-profits - as next-door neighbors - could certainly help us share resources more easily.
And not only things like costly office machines -
but, a shared studio space for special projects, like sign or banner making, assembling craft-kits for family or kid activities, etc.

It would also just be a great morale boost. Yup!
So, I give this idea a bit THUMBS UP!
Thanks for setting the idea in motion.

Robin, Earth Arts NW

Young Audiences of Oregon and SW Washington has talked internally about the idea of sharing office spaces with another arts organization(s) for the past year. We spend a great deal of time and resources securing space for the many artist and teacher workshops we direct, as well as we are growing in size and need more space. I agree with much of what has been written in response to your investigation into this idea. Some considerations that are particularly important to our organization are the follows:

- The organizations have complementary missions.
For us it would be education of children and the arts.
- They share a common vision and understanding of sharing common spaces and perhaps personnel.
- Agree with this statement "There is a boundary between organizations so that if one organization were experiencing a crisis it wouldn't threaten the others." Ideally this would mean common reception, staff work rooms, large workshop space, kitchen area, and conference centers, but the offices of the individual organization are separate to identify the organization's particular identity.
-Lastly, perhaps some ownership options over the space, versus rental/lease.

We will be looking for space in the next two years and would be interested in pursuing this conversation with you.

Gail Hayes Davis

I think cooperative office space is a good idea. It provides stability to non-profits and frees staff time for attending to the mission rather than constantly worrying about office space.
A few years ago, our community was meeting to decide the fate of a vacant property. Many asked for a new library. What came to my mind was a library on the first floor with office space for family oriented non-profits on a second floor. A family could come to one building for services that deal with children and families and the library would have rental income to offset the cost of building maintenance, utilities, and general expenses. I wish you all success with this concept.

Good Morning to all - we think this is a great idea which has lots of creative possibilites. We are in the process of looking for a house for some of our families and have thought about having areas for other non-profits offices etc. Resources that our families could access, etc. Lots of good ideas. Please let us know if there will be a planning group developed to talk over the ideas.

The Texas State HIPPY office is housed in a historic building complex with many other non profits. It has been working well for them on many levels - not the least of which is easy networking. I dream of the day when Oregon has a State HIPPY office.

If you don't know it already, CubeSpacePDX in Portland (at 622 SE Grand Ave.) opened recently and offers amenities and resources found in traditional high tech offices for an hourly or monthly fee. The focus, as I understand it, has been to serve as a professional and networking space for many in the nonprofit consultant community, but they are also clearly focused on serving the nonprofit community, particularly small or nascent organizations with limited resources.

The CNRG governing board meets regularly in one of their high tech conference rooms. They also host nonprofit networking gatherings monthly and numerous other events on site. This past spring they (CubeSpace) reserved their meeting rooms for a one-day nonprofit management workshop series in partnership with Portland State's Institute for Nonprofit Management. The event focused on meeting the technical assistance as well as networking needs of small to mid-sized organizations and the space appeared big enough to accommodate their regular patrons without disruption.

The space itself is to my mind fabulous. In addition to the standard office options (printers, high speed copying, cubicles near or distant from others, wireless internet access, meeting and small conference rooms, a real person to answer and direct calls to all who use the space, and air-conditioning (!), they have a Flexcar located nearby and an on-site shower for bicyclists as well as a stocked kitchen (that can also serve as an informal meeting space) to make the "rented" office space feel like a community. It is my understanding that they are also seeking to serve as a nonprofit incubator, but I don't have these details readily to convey here.

As a CNRG board member I go there regularly and suspect that there are numerous additional ways in which it can and will serve the local and regional nonprofit community as a shared space and resource, in part because it seems to be growing as the community makes requests of it. My suggestion is that folks Google it for more information.

Nonprofits sharing space serve two purposes -- reduced and/or shared overhead costs and centralizing services for the people who need them. In Portland, Dan Saltzman's office is funding a feasibility study to examine the benefits of a "one stop" center for domestic violence services. The goal would be for a dv survivor to receive crisis intervention services, information and referral, public assistance, and legal information all in one place - reducing the trauma and stress of having to tell her/his story again and again. I think bringing consolidated services to the community is definitely a way to strenghten the way we all work together!

A great idea! Of course, there's the local for-profit model of the Vollum Natural Capital Center. If MMT was to pursue this idea, I hope the space would incorporate green building features and utilize local building materials. I'd also love to see a space that functions to connect co-located organizations as well as nonprofits from throughout the region (urban-rural connections), perhaps through improved communications infrastructure or free meeting space for out-of-towners.
Seems like an idea that's ripe for partnership with PDC, local developers, and the city. There's was once talk (articles in the Trib) of developing "nonprofit" office space at SW 5th near St. Mary's and the streetcar line. I think the developer was Williams & Dame.

I've long fantasized something like this in our little three village area at the coast. My image is of a storefront which groups could share and have a public presence. Many of us work out of our homes here but having a center for interaction and shared equipment would be really a boost to us all.

Don't forget the land trust model of ownership - It can be like a condo. My understanding is that the Burlington Land Trust in Vermont has some buildings where the trust owns the land and the various non-profits own their spaces.

Also, it seems like Portland's own Jean Vollum Center is an interesting model that combines offices and meeting spaces with commercial space as well. And a green building to boot.

Portland Community Media also thinks it is an good idea. We purchased the property next door to us on MLK Blvd about 2 years ago and have been in the feasibility study mode since. We have done market surveys of many potential tenants, commercial and non-commercial. This summer my task is to conduct the research about a nonprofit incubator site. An alternative is a community media site which would housed a number of community media organization, electronic and print, web-based and traditional, to become a one-stop-shopping site for the media needs of other nonprofits, neighborhood associations and business associations.

I've spoken to the interim director of the Institute for Nonprofit Management at PSU. They would be interested in partnering to provide service to the nonprofits at the incubator or or INPM services through the incubator.

I sure could use one or more partners on this feasibility study for the nonprofit center. Anyone interested??? PCM has a building, it has resources and has done the research about where other resources may be available.

Hell, I'd like to break ground in a year!

Thanks to all of you who have added your comments to this blog discussion. It is gratifying to see so much interest! And to read your many interesting and useful ideas...

Here's a short summary of my top take-aways:

--Many nonprofits are interested in some kind of center for a variety of reasons: more organizational stability, reduction and/or more control over rent/lease costs, efficiencies through some sharing of support services and meeting space, synergy from proximity to other like-minded groups, etc.

--There would be great value in including geeks and IT services in the mix, who could in turn support the other tenants

--It's important that MMT not reinvent the wheel, interfere with or overlook other similar efforts. It would be good to look closely at what other groups among us are already doing along these lines (e.g., CubeSpace, the community center in Cottage Grove, trade and professional associations, etc.)

-- Based on responses received so far, there is a lot of value in continuing this open dialogue.

--We will continue to study this issue and report back to you in the near future.

Wow.

Okay.

Where to begin?

For the last three years I have spent a great deal of time online and offline with some incredible people at omidyar.net, a community created by
Pam & Pierre Omidyar (founder of eBay), and allowed members to gather together under the common belief: We believe every individual has the power to make a difference. We exist for one single purpose: So that more and more people discover their own power to make good things happen.

Omidyar.net: http://www.omidyar.net/home/

Grimes Profile: http://www.omidyar.net/user/u746967553/

So as of 9/7/07 they are closing.

Many, many of the most active and most productive members from around the world, Kenya, Uganda, Thailand, England, Scotland, Canada, France, Italy, Germany, Budapest and the US have moved to ned.com

Ned.com: http://www.ned.com/

Ned.com is an all volunteer member governed online social network in combination with real world locations made up of social entrepreneurs,
activists, social purpose enterprises, grassroots nonprofit, non-governmental, and community based organizations taking action locally,
nationally & globally, collaborating and making the world a better place.

There is a community owned Ned coop in war torn Gulu, Uganda. There is a community owned Ned coop in Kampala, Uganda. There is in development a Ned coop and graduate student run incubator in Ubon Ratchathani, Thailand. And
there is going to be a Ned location here in Portland, with month to month desk availability for NPO, NGO, CBO's, and social entrepreneurs. There are people in Boston, Seattle, Atlanta that are interested in joining as well. Each "developed world" location will have a sister-city like connection to four coops from around the world in developing locations.

Ned Coop Flowchart:
http://www.ned.com/group/ned/file/4.83.11881411834/get/Ned%20Coop20Flowchart%20V5.pdf

Ned.com Flowchart:
http://www.ned.com/group/ned/file/9.40.11881412409/get/Ned.com%20Flowchart%2
0V8.pdf

All the physical locations will be tied together online thru ned.com. There will be face to face meetings and the chance to learn and collaborate
together the way in the tradition started at Omidyar.net. There will be shared media distribution channels to other messages often unheard to lack of budget or ability will be heard, seen and **acted upon.**

Ned Microfinance: http://www.kiva.org/lender/neddotcom

Ned Prosper: https://www.prosper.com/lend/listing.aspx?listingID=10604

Ned YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=neddotcom&p=r

Ned Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/neddotcom/

I could go on and on (and on). But will let it rest for now. If you want to chat about Ned/Portland, please ping me. If anyone is interested in desk
space in Ned/Portland, please ping me. If you want to chat about social entrepreneurs, ping me.

Be well.

N: Mark Grimes
C: - a better world experience
E: mark.grimes@ned.com
W: http://www.ned.com/

Doug, we've met several times via Leadership Portland, Bus Project and Maggie Brenneke (a good friend of mine).

I own and run a space similar to cubespace, called souk, http://www.soukllc.com. We are located in Old Town Chinatown.

Please let me know if I can be of any help going forward.

I am buying a commercial building in Portland and am looking for nonprofit tenants interested in filling it (at a reduced rate) and then buying it from me. As a former nonprofit director, I know how hard it can be to make this happen without partners, and I have already made this concept happen in Eugene. Now I'd like it to happen here in Portland.

In Eugene in 2005 I purchased a building with my personal nestegg in order to consolidate 8 arts organizations under one roof, allow them shared infrastructure so that they could use more of their money for their missions. The Eugene Ballet took leadership on the nonprofit side and pulled together the tenants for the 14,000 sq ft building. Our arrangement allowed them reduced rent for 3 years so that they could do a capital campaign to purchase the building from me in 3 years. That building, called MidTown Arts Center, is now used by the Eugene Ballet and 7 other arts organizations, and they are purchasing the building from me this summer.

I am searching now for tenants in Portland for a similar set up: my goal is to buy a building in summer large enough for numerous nonprofits to use and work together to raise funds to purchase it from me as their fundraising allows. I am not rich and am not able to give the building to nonprofits, but I want my investment to work for justice in the community.

If you would be interested in discussing this possibility with me, please email me at carolezoom@mac.com or call 541-954-8373. I am hosting an informal meeting on 4/16/2008 at 6 pm for those interested in meeting to discuss this idea. For details, contact me.

Carole Zoom
www.carolezoom.com