Serve Denton is a Nonprofit Center…But What Does That Actually Mean?
You can’t expect someone to set personal resolutions when they’re struggling to find their next meal.
Because here’s the baseline truth: a person can’t engage in personal development if they are struggling to have their basic needs met. If someone is struggling to keep food on their table or a roof over their head, it’s unlikely that they will have the capacity to contemplate future hopes and long-term goals. They’re in survival mode and their main focus is simply that – surviving.
The same truth pertains to nonprofit organizations.
When a nonprofit is struggling to meet its basic organizational needs (such as constantly chasing after funding, ensuring programs stay afloat, or stressing about their client’s outpacing needs), vision casting and goal setting for future endeavors can feel absolutely overwhelming.
It’s for this very reason, that nonprofit centers like Serve Denton exist.
In Denton County alone, hundreds of families struggle to find the resources they need to survive and simply make ends meet.
Merely 3 years ago, nearly 50% of Denton households were struggling to get by between paychecks, as was reported in the Denton Record-Chronicle.
When 1 out of 2 families are wrestling for survival, it's crucial that nonprofits rise to the pressing needs and serve their community.
But what happens when the nonprofits designed to help those families are also struggling with those same challenges?
When nonprofits grapple to meet their basic organizational needs to keep their resources moving, the first people affected are those in need of immediate resources and support. The grander consequences of a nonprofit struggling to maintain its funding and programs directly affect the families and community they are designed to serve.
This is the driving motivation behind Serve Denton’s mission.
Serve Denton believes two things:
Finding help should be easy
Nonprofits shouldn’t struggle to meet the needs of their community
And by partnering with local nonprofits in one convenient location, they turn these beliefs into a reality.
Serve Denton is the largest nonprofit center in Denton County and one of the largest nonprofit centers in Texas. Made possible by the investments and resources rooted in trust from the people in and out of our community, thousands of struggling families are served every year.
Operating as a one-stop-shop of nonprofits, families receive the wrap-around services they need in one convenient location.
Take Aundrea for example.
Aundrea had been working overtime to make ends meet and caring for her children after an exhausting double shift when she realized her electricity had been disconnected.
Without electricity to power the AC, she had no way of preparing meals or keeping her family cool in the 100-degree Texas temperatures.
She was in a desperate situation when she came to Serve Denton seeking emergency utility assistance. But after just one conversation with a Client Navigator, she was able to apply with TCOG onsite and get immediate help with her disconnection–all without having to catch a bus to another location across town.
With limited time and resources, Aundrea was able to come to one building at one time and get the help she needed.
And that’s precisely why Serve Denton exists.
In just one building, caring professionals can be brought together under one roof to provide a multitude of services resulting in more people being helped and becoming self-sufficient.
Top 3 benefits of nonprofit centers
When the government can’t fully provide the resources communities need, nonprofits stand in the gap.
By providing health services, education, and other social services, nonprofits strengthen their communities and support citizens who are in desperate situations.
But nonprofits can only fulfill their missions when they have dedicated resources on a constant basis, which in many ways, is easier said than done.
Here’s the ultimate benefit of nonprofit centers:
Nonprofit centers meet the needs of such organizations by providing high-quality workspaces, an improvement on programs and operations, and the infrastructure to achieve greater community impact.
Let’s narrow these down a bit further.
Shared Spaces
Sharing spaces help protect nonprofits from rising rental costs and unnecessary overhead costs. When less time, energy, and resources go into maintaining a nonprofit’s building, more time, energy, and resources can go into programs that serve their clientele.
According to the recent NCN report, the most popular workspaces offered in nonprofit centers is office space with private desks and workstations–personalized and dedicated space.
Currently, Serve Denton has 9 onsite partners reaping these shared space benefits.
Second to office space, nonprofit organizations also value the coworking facilities nonprofit centers offer. In these spaces, staff from different agencies can connect, collaborate, and together work holistically to serve their clients.
Nonprofit center coworking spaces (like Serve Denton’s pictured below) are designed to create a mission-driven community of nonprofits that promote:
Organizational sustainability
Strategic partnerships
Public and community awareness
Additionally, nonprofit centers generally see an increase in referrals from other organizations in the building as a result of these shared spaces.
Just last year, Serve Denton had a whopping 2,973 internetwork referrals.
If that weren’t enough, the tangible programs offered by nonprofit centers act as another benefit to partnering nonprofits. Fostering programs such as networking events, professional development, tenet referrals, and peer learning serve to create a culture of trust and collaboration that ultimately strengthens the community as a whole.
2. Save on costs
It’s probably no surprise to hear that most tenants save on costs when they are housed in a nonprofit center like Serve Denton.
But what may come as a surprise is exactly how much these nonprofits are saving.
Based on the 2019 data gathered from the Nonprofit Centers Network, the average annual cost savings for tenants is $15,500.11
That’s a lot of money.
That’s a lot of money that can actually be used to bring their mission to life.
Typically, these savings are reallocated to bettering existing programs, establishing new programs, or increasing staffing to execute the development of services.
Here at Serve Denton, our partners saved $541,377 last year alone.
That’s over half a million dollars going right back into partner’s programs to directly serve families just like Aundrea’s, making their services more accessible for people in need.
This is our mission being put into action.
3. Collaboration
The brilliant Henry Ford said it first, “Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success.”
Collaboration is at the very heart of nonprofit centers like Serve Denton.
The intentional creation of a nonprofit center’s space is specifically designed to promote the exchange of ideas through hallway conversations, communal lunches, and network events.
When two or more tenants come together (whether that be purposefully or spontaneously) they are set up for success and together march toward a common, mutually beneficial goal: making their services accessible to the people who need them most.
There’s no doubt that centers like Serve Denton help nonprofits find solutions to their challenges. Struggles pertaining to space, resources, and collaboration are greatly impacted through the partnership of nonprofit centers and co-locating in one building.
And better yet…
Nonprofit centers are helping nonprofit partners improve:
Their ability to achieve goals
Staff morale
Program sizes and scopes
Stability of costs
Stronger revenues and impacts
Your nonprofit can benefit from Shared Spaces
At Serve Denton, our mission has always been to help nonprofits operate with excellence.
We do this by helping nonprofits run efficient and effective organizations – specifically through our Shared Spaces program.
And here’s the best part:
We have space for you.
Contact us if you’d like to talk to us about how your organization can reap the benefits of our Shared Spaces program.
Schedule a screening call and take your next step in moving your nonprofit forward.
“If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.” – Henry Ford