Charities and Office Space: New Kinds of “Home”

Not every charity has an office, and some of those that do sometimes don’t incur significant costs. For example, some charities own their space (more often the case for more established or larger organizations). Other charities have agreements with Board members or sponsors / donors who provide space for free, or arrangements with a level of Government to pay nothing or well below market rent.

And of course for many small charities there are no such costs: run out of basements or church halls their spaces are donated as well.

Of course, if you are a charity that owns property and is paying Property Taxes, check and see if you’re eligible for a rebate. For example, in Toronto charities can receive a 40% rebate.

But for many charities, the reality is that rent and associated costs are often the second or third largest line items on any Budget (usually after Salaries and/or Program Costs). So in our world of funding reductions and challenging economic times charities and non-profits of all kinds are thinking about how to better manage this cost.  In addition to ensuring you have the right expert support on the real estate side, here are some themes I'm seeing on this front.

Often the starting place is to see if you can be one of those fortunate organizations that can get free (or inexpensive) space from a Board member or sponsor / donor.  It’s more often requested than recevied, but it's a great place to start, and we all know that you don’t get if you don’t Ask!

Being thrifty by nature, charities have also explored a variety of shared space and “co-location” options over the years. Find the right partner(s) and suddenly your “common” areas like reception space, meeting rooms and kitchenette become a shared cost – not to mention the photocopier and utility bills. Not to be undertaken lightly, this option requires detailed partnership agreements, but has a proven track record.

Another similar option to co-location spaces is a Hub. These shared spaces are differentiated by providing a “one stop shop” for participants and clients, where the organizations co-locating find further synergy due to their joint focus on a particular cause, issue or geography. Some are led by one larger organization (e.g. a United Way), others by ad-hoc groups who can more effectively address issues by operating together.

The last office concept I’ll mention for in post is virtual offices for charities. Based on the for-profit model used by Regus, Telsec and others, charities are now setting up virtual office spaces for other charities. One of the earliest versions I’m aware of (founded in 1998) is CAN (Community Action Network) Mezzanine in London England which proudly advertises on their website that for £93 per week you can rent a fully serviced desk.

More on Canadian innovations on this front in the near future.

Avoiding an Expensive Road to Nowhere

During a meeting with a relatively new charity and prospective client last week the question was asked if we could help them craft and deliver a number of Foundation and grant proposals.  The answer was yes, but first I wanted to understand several things. For example,

1. What were they hoping to achieve (e.g. how were the funds planned to be used)?
2. Was the rest of the organization prepared / supportive of this (e.g. back of house receipting, recognition plans, Board support, etc.)?
3. How had they determined that Foundations and grant proposals were the best possible means of achieving these goals (as opposed to major gifts, an annual campaign, events, or any other revenue stream)?

The point I was making with these questions seemed to become very clear when I mentioned a favourite phrase, “if you don’t know where you’re going, then any road will do”.  There are many good reasons why a solid and well thought out Vision and Mission and associated Strategic Plan are helpful, not the least of which is that it forces the organization to critically assess what they want to achieve and how they want to do so.

For newer charities (and new businesses) this is particularly important.  Most don’t have deep financial reserves, or (in the case of charities) Board members who have extensive backgrounds in fundraising or other non-profit work.  For example, as I’ve discussed before your Director with the great sales background may not be well qualified to guide your fundraising efforts.

However, this is not to suggest that every new organization rush out and pay for “outside help” to develop your strategies.  First, no one knows your organization better than you do.  Second, new organizations may be better served in the short-term by using your limited resources to build up your Program and Outcomes (so that when you’re finally ready to start making Asks you have brilliant outcomes to discuss).  And finally, not everyone who provides “outside help” will first ask you where you want to go and how you’re planning to get there… And this could prove to end up being an expensive road to nowhere.

So in case you’re wondering, in the example of the prospective client I mentioned at the beginning, we’re not going to start writing grant proposals.  We’re going to meet next week with some Board members and ask questions about what they want to achieve and how they want to do so.  And that's a good start.