New Public Governance and the Growth of Co-Located Nonprofit Centers

Abstract

New Public Governance urges public services to collaborate with other relevant organizations in order to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of provided services. A relevant venue for such collaborations are co-located nonprofit centers, facilities that offer affordable, shared space workplaces for nonprofits and other social-benefit organizations. Many of these centers actively encourage collaboration among their tenants, especially in facilities organized to house related service-providers. They also provide comfortable space for meetings with public sector agencies and other funders. Such centers have been growing in the twenty-first century; nearly 400 have been identified in the United States and Canada (Nonprofit Centers Network 2015a), and they now house hundreds of various nonprofits organizations. This article describes these centers' goals, history, and trends that encouraged their development, and aspects of their architecture and design. Examples of co-located nonprofit centers that provide an array of social services are presented, from the U.S. and Canada. In sum, these centers help advance the quality of life for clienteles and communities; and the collaborations and networks that they establish promote a key goal of New Public Governance.