It’s not often an executive director can say, “Projections for 2024 occupancy-related costs will decrease by approximately 40%.” Especially when working from a newly occupied, 3,000 square foot suite in the heart of the city we serve. So as the three of us each ventured into 2024 budget talks with our respective boards, we were brimming with optimism.

Cost efficiencies weren’t even our favorite headline as we reported to trustees about expectations for the new year. The real news centered on benefits we were already seeing after our three, small-staffed foundations co-located in the same office suite last summer.

This was not a merger. Each foundation maintains its distinct mission and grantmaking priorities. With assets in the same range and a similar approach to staffing, our operations and systems are virtually identical. We enjoy some overlap among grant partners, we share the same aspirations for strengthening our region and state, and we regularly collaborate with the same community partners in various civic and philanthropic circles.

We quickly began substantive collaboration. Right off the bat, we joined forces to identify, vet, and commit to a new grant management system. While each foundation signed its own contract and maintains its own database, implementing the new system was so much easier than flying solo. We underwent training together, looked over one another’s shoulder in the early days, and answered each other’s questions. We continue to lean on each other as each becomes more proficient with the system. Our staff even presented on panels together about the benefits of co-location and grant management!

In a similar fashion, each foundation outsourced its bookkeeping to the same accounting firm with books being handled by the same accountant.  Reimbursements are seamless. And the list goes on. One IT firm. One wireless account set up to serve each foundation separately with internal firewalls for security. Shared huddle and conference rooms coordinated for our respective board meetings using annual calendars and reserved day-to-day through an office-wide calendar.

Getting to the heart of our shared commitment to be better partners for nonprofits, we used the new grants management system as the occasion to workshop our application process and associated forms to be more user friendly. We’ve brought a similar team effort to conversations about all aspects of partner engagement, from structuring grants to reporting.

Read the full article about sharing an office by Pat Lummus, Gabby Sheely, and David Weitnauer at The Center for Effective Philanthropy.