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About Shared Spaces

Bead For Life.

Shared spaces, or multi-tenant nonprofit centers, serve a diverse array of constituencies from youth activists and seniors, to environmentalists, people of color, and artists. They include historic facilities, green buildings, and new construction. They are located in small rural towns, on reservation lands and in national parks, inner-city neighborhoods and major downtown centers. They house direct service advocacy and community organizing agencies. As different as they might seem, they are all building a stronger, more effective nonprofit sector and helping to ensure vibrant and just communities.

Shared Spaces share 3 basic features:

  • They exist as a physical site (one or more buildings).
  • They are composed of multiple (two or more) primarily nonprofit tenant organizations. Often, they share space with retail, for profit offices or housing.
  • They typically provide office space, rental rates and lease terms oriented to the nonprofit sector, and provide services, meeting space, and opportunities for collaboration and cost sharing.

Tides creates and operates green shared spaces. Its Thoreau Centers for Sustainability fit into the national and global trend to set up shared nonprofit centers. Tides is at the forefront of that trend because in addition to operating the Thoreau Centers, Tides leads a program which helps people start their own green nonprofit centers.

Through investing in green nonprofit centers, Tides offers values-based investors an opportunity to earn a strong financial return while supporting dozens of nonprofit groups.  Organizations sharing space realize cost efficiencies and increased efficiency  and gain access to new ideas, potential partners and expanded opportunities. Tides helps create environmentally sustainable workspaces for nonprofits and communities to come together.