20060514 KDDC May 16, 2006 is the Carroll Non Profit Center Dedication

Tuesday, May 16, 2006 is the dedication the Carroll Non Profit Center

May 10^th, 2006 by Kevin Dayhoff ©

My column in this week’s Westminster Eagle is: “Celebrating the dedication of the county's splendid new guinea pig: Carroll's Non-Profit Center .” Please be aware that the Westminster Eagle does not use permalinks, so if you may need to find the original column in news archives: http://news.mywebpal.com/news_tool_v2.cfm?show=archivelist&pnpID=978&om=1

Below please enjoy the unedited, album-cut long version of the column:

After more than four years in the making, the “Carroll Non Profit Center” in Westminster will have a grand opening dedication on Tuesday, May 16, 2006.

Many have wondered about the $4 million, 40,000-square-foot three-story brick building built by Anverse, Inc., that is located on a 3.15-acre parcel on Clifton Boulevard (near Wal-Mart and the Westminster Post Office.)

Once again, Carroll County, Maryland is on the cutting edge.

The idea seems simple enough; however, multi-tenant nonprofit centers like the Carroll Non Profit Center (Center) are a new concept. There are only one or two other such centers in the country.

As a matter of fact, Marty Sonenshine, the executive director of Anverse calls the project “our guinea pig.”

According to the “Nonprofitcenters Network,” multi-tenant centers increase visibility, lower overhead costs, enable cross-organizational collaboration and synergy and create new hubs of economic activity in the community.

Audrey Cimino, Executive Director of the Community Foundation of Carroll County, Inc. one of the grateful tenants of the Center, expressed it this way:

“The gift that Anverse, Inc. has given our community will have ramifications far into the future. They have provided a platform for growth, enrichment, cooperation and partnerships that we are only beginning to realize. The clients who receive services and benefits, the donors who support our various projects and the general public of Carroll County are the beneficiaries of a most extraordinary good deed.”

Many of the non-profits that are located in the Center receive support for their operations and work in the community from the Community Foundation of Carroll County, Inc.

If you would like to contribute to this great community based organization or learn more about the Center, please call (410) 876-5505 or visit their Web-site at: http://www.carrollcommunityfoundation.org/.

Anverse Inc., a Cartersville Georgia-based foundation was formed in 2000 and purchased the property in 2002 for $690,000. According to published accounts, the foundation reported $871,317 in expenses on its 2002 tax return “for the purchase of land and initial planning for a ‘non-profit center in Westminster.’’’

However, much of this story begins when in around 1984, Prestige Communications began a new era in the quality of life for a coach potato and cable television service in Carroll County was born.

After sixteen years of operation, the company “and its 118,250 subscriber accounts in North Carolina, Virginia and Maryland were sold to Adelphia for about $700 million.” (This, according to a 2003 Baltimore Sun article written by Mary Gail Hare and Jennifer McMenamin.)

Wanting to give back to the community from which it had so profited, Anverse, “the country's eighth-largest grant-making operating foundation in 2001;” was formed from “4,000 shares of stock in Prestige Communications, valued at $191.1 million, according to Anverse's 2001 tax return.” (Baltimore Sun 2003.)

Once the decision to build the Center was made, Anverse hired Mark Krider, who had worked for Anverse family for a number of years to be the mid-wife for the project.

“Mark Krider has been patient, hard working, diligent and effective in making this innovative community investment happen,” complimented Ms. Cimino. “Our community owes Mark a debt of gratitude.”

The Carroll Non Profit Center broke ground in November 2004 and opened its doors to approximately 20 tenants in January 2006.

Some of the tenants include: Carroll Technology Council; Catastrophic Health Planners; Child Care Choices; Community Foundation of Carroll County; Habitat For Humanity; Head Start of Carroll County; Carroll County Branch # 7014 of the NAACP; United Way Community Partnership of Carroll County; and the Joanna M. Nicolay Melanoma Foundation.

The non-profit organizations in Carroll County are the conscious of our community and play a vital functional and leadership role in the social fabric of our society.

Like many areas of the country, non-profits in Carroll County have an increased presence in our community for various reasons including decreased public support for services.

According to an article in the Daily Record, last fall by Kara Kridler: “Maryland nonprofits added more than twice as many jobs as their for-profit counterparts in 2003, part of a five-year run during which the nonprofit sector has largely kept the state's job market afloat, according to a new study.”

“A Johns Hopkins University report found employment growth among nonprofits was nearly 2 percent in 2003, the latest year for which data is available. Meanwhile, the larger for-profit sector, which employs nearly 1.8 million people, grew just 0.1 percent,” wrote Kara Kridler.

Carroll County has always been a generous community and in the past. Much of the generosity was the result of individual community stepping up to the plate to extend a helping hand.

Examples of individual generosity in difficult times are numerous and the stuff of legend in Carroll County.

In the very early 1950s, when the Ward Avenue apartments in Westminster, burned to the ground, local business leader and Westminster city councilman, Scott Bair Sr., let it be known to the displaced tenants that they could go to Mather’s on Main Street and buy clothes - and he paid the bill.

In days gone by, many of the community leaders that were members of the service clubs or the fire company, for example. They were also the captains of local industry and elected officials.

Increasingly, many elected officials, not all to be sure, are disconnected with the rest of the community as they squabble over issues of “inside baseball” and bitter partisan politics which has little relevance to the day-to-day quality of life of Carroll Countians.

“Who said what to whom and when,” “white hats” and “black hats, accusations of “secret meetings” and who has the latest version of some bizarre conspiracy theory fills the pages of the local papers as local families struggle to raise their children, put food on the table, pay their utility bills and provide meaning to their lives.

Ay caramba.

Meanwhile a new leadership class is evolving in Carroll County. It is the folks like the executive director of the Community Foundation of Carroll County, Audrey Cimino; Jeff Sprinkle, director of the Carroll County YMCA; Carroll County Children’s Chorus director, Diane Jones; president of the local NAACP Branch President Charles Harrison, Virginia Harrison, with Carroll Citizens for Racial Equality, the local scout leader, and PTA/PTO president...

But getting back to more of the positive and Carroll’s experiment with a multi-tenant nonprofit center; often real estate is not a core competency for non-profits. Most do not own their own space, which leaves them vulnerable to the vagaries of the real estate market. This eats away at financial resources and impedes the efficiency and effectiveness of the organization.

According to Nonprofitcenters Network, “more than 80% of nonprofits do not own their own space. These organizations typically must allocate 20% (second only to personnel) of their expense budget to rent, thereby exposing over 1/5 of their cash assets to the profit driven fluctuations of the real estate market.”

Carroll County United Way director Pam Zappardino agreed, “In terms of importance, not only does it give the non-profits low cost space for their offices but this allows the organizations plow more money back into the community where it is needed.”

“And the center also gives the non-profits a chance to work together, network and be more effective in delivering even better services to the community. “For the United Way the center provides a much more visible place for us to do our work,” elaborated Dr. Zappardino.

Dr. Zappardino said that she “expected to enjoy the better space but has found it fun to be there.” Instead of being in an isolated office all to herself, she “enjoys talking with the other folks in the hall.” Recently she stayed late into the evening to help another organization. “The people here are just great.”

Charles Harrison, president of the CC Branch of the NAACP #7014 called the Center:

“Terrific. This unifies our efforts. Because we are all volunteers, for many years the local branch operated out of homes and we had meetings where we could. Now we have one place to maintain our files, records and documents. This provides stability and community focused point of contact.

“Everyone in the community knows where we are. This provides credibility as a viable part of the CC community this is evidence by increased memberships community based inquires.

“Being in the Center allows us to network to be around other nonprofits and community leaders who have the same concerns. The NAACP’s issues are the community’s issues. Diversity continues to be a hidden asset in our community and the NAACP is taking a leadership role in exploiting this asset to move the community forward.”

Not only does the Center provide stability, it also facilitates all the advantages of one-stop shopping for targeted populations, increases visibility and allows individual organizations the strength of numbers to work together and accomplish more than they could by themselves.

The Center serves as one big incubator of ideas, efforts and cooperation in order to help other nonprofits throughout the county and ultimately serve the community better.

A written statement provided by Ms. Cimino highlights that “Anverse’s commitment to the nonprofits of Carroll County is not limited to the occupants of the Center.”

“Anverse maintains both the building and the property on which it sits and has provided a Project Manager and Maintenance Engineer who are available daily to the tenants.

“Seminars on various non profit topics are being planned and will be offered to tenants and other Carroll County non-profits as well, to build and improve skills,” wrote Ms. Cimino.

Everyone interviewed for this column raved about the two thousand square foot meeting room and the grant research library for organizations that typically have little access to professional advisers, accountants and lawyers.

The resource library and meeting room are available to all Carroll County non-profit organizations and are already being widely used.

A recent Harvard Business School article discussed “the factors that contribute to successful high-performance social enterprises.” It established “a connection between enterprises that link economic value with social value.”

To take a picture of this success, one need look no farther that the Carroll Non Profit Center at next Tuesday’s dedication - the guinea pig that could.

Kevin Dayhoff writes from Westminster Maryland USA.

E-mail him at: kdayhoff@carr.org

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