Lifting nonprofits to achieve greater impact is at the heart of our mission. We partner with local nonprofits to provide high-quality, affordable facilities and finance, HR and IT solutions. In turn, our partners are able to focus more time and resources on what they do best – advancing their missions.
We are also a nonprofit and understand the challenges that can bring. It’s why we work hard to be as cost-effective as possible. By utilizing a Shared Services model for our back-office solutions and offering below-market rent, we are able to pass these savings on to our partners.
The Ascend Nonprofit Center is a 5-story, 100,000 sq. ft. facility, centrally located in uptown Charlotte. It includes tech-enabled meeting spaces of varying sizes, break rooms on each floor, and a co-working space for emerging and small-staff nonprofits called HopeWorks. Currently, we have 12 nonprofit partner tenants and 11 HopeWorks tenants.
What is one interesting fact about your space?
The Ascend Nonprofit Center is the creation of nine local nonprofits coming together to find a solution to a shared problem. In the late 90’s, Charlotte was experiencing rapid growth. Office space was becoming unaffordable and nonprofits were experiencing frequent, unplanned moves. As a result, these nine agencies developed the idea for a shared space with shared costs and a common purpose.
Collectively, they organized and conducted a $9M capital campaign to bring the building to life. It also included the latest IT infrastructure. Over time, the collaborations among these agencies and the building deepened, and in 2009 we launched Shared Services to also provide finance and HR to our partners.
What are your favorite resources that you would recommend to others?
One of our most favorite resources is Canva. It is a very intuitive, user-friendly tool for graphic design. They have templates that you can edit to make it reflect your brand. As a nonprofit, you can apply to use to gain a Pro account for no cost. It has enabled us to build on-brand, professional looking social media posts, flyers and other graphics.
We have a Real Estate Committee made up of a group of industry experts that provide guidance and recommendations when it comes to building operations and lease agreements. Their support is invaluable!
We also use an email system for facilities management requests. It’s called Jira Service Management by Atlassian. Through this system, requests are funneled to our facilities manager and tracked.
Center Name: Ascend Nonprofit Center
Center Member Type: Center in Operation
Location: Charlotte , NC
Center Website: www.AscendNPS.org
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