Balancing Act: Sustainable Finances Report

Over 70% of nonprofit centers were operating at a break even or profitable financial position

Balancing Act: Sustainable Finances for Shared Spaces is the third report from the State of the Shared Space Sector Survey, sponsored by The Jones Trust.

In the 2015 State of the Shared Space Sector survey, NCN found that a large proportion of mission driven shared spaces are operating as successful social enterprises. Over 70% of nonprofit centers were operating at a break even or profitable financial position. At the same time, The Nonprofit Centers Network has heard from many of its members that traditional nonprofit funding streams, like major gifts or foundation grants, are difficult for them to attain. It is important to analyze the practices of the profitable centers to understand how to help those centers that are running a deficit and to help new spaces avoid major pitfalls.

Your center will likely relate to many of the report findings. From financial to space needs here’s just a few stats that stood out to us:

• The average profitable center is approximately 20,000 square feet larger than the average center running a loss
• Centers running a loss had total costs per rentable square foot that were four times greater than their profitable counterparts
• On average, a space running a surplus has 26 tenants
• Forty percent of profitable centers used debt as a part of their financing plan

This report marks the first time that the profitability of the nonprofit shared space model has been reported and analyzed, and the findings validate many common practices across for-profit and nonprofit shared spaces. Balancing Act: Sustainable Finances for Shared Spaces demonstrates clear indicators for financial strength in this model.

Thank You To Our Report Sponsors: