The Nonprofit Management Center found a new home near downtown Odessa four months ago and are busy making it home.
The Nonprofit Management Center received the 10,000 square foot two-story building as a gift from West Texas Insurance Exchange.
Laurie Johnson, the executive director at Nonprofit Management Center, said the Nonprofit Management Center is slowly settling into its new office space, located at 1000 Maple Street, that is split into 6,000 square foot and 4,000 square foot areas.
“It’s a tremendous thing for the Nonprofit Management Center,” Johnson said. “… It’s something that nonprofits in Odessa need. Odessa doesn’t really have meeting spaces for nonprofits. Large or small. We needed something that’s central.”
The Nonprofit Management Center will focus on the 6,000 square foot space initially as it features office spaces, a large meeting area on the first floor and a large meeting area on the second floor. There are also conference rooms on the first and second floors.
Johnson said the Nonprofit Management Center doesn’t have the first and second floors furnished, but she hopes to have that accomplished before it hosts its first event on June 30.
“There’s a lot of things that come with ownership that didn’t come with being a tenant,” Johnson said. “The payoff is so worth it to what we are going to be able to do with the center and the community as a whole.”
Dianne Williams, the board of directors president for the Nonprofit Management Center, said it can be a little overwhelming to see a vast amount of space that is currently being unoccupied.
Yet, Williams shared a story about when the board of directors was touring the space and it was a no-brainer that they wanted the space that will ultimately help them assist other nonprofits.
The Nonprofit Management Center’s website details it’s committed to helping area nonprofit organizations operate effectively to ensure a stable future. The Nonprofit Management Center provides services that include information and assistance, organizational assessments, startup assistance, training workshops and seminars, personnel surveys, board/committee training and strategic planning.
“The fact that we were gifted a building is a testament to the philanthropy and volunteerism of Odessans,” Williams said. “Mr. Rea could have sold the building, but gifting it to the Nonprofit Management Center is truly a gift to the whole nonprofit organizational group in the Trans-Pecos area. That’s how we approached this. We are going to do it right or we aren’t going to do it. We made that commitment. We are going to follow through with it.
“Is it scary. Yes,” Williams added with a smile.
Erika Chavez, a consultant for Nonprofit Management Center, said the two-story building provides the nonprofit with a large physical footprint in Odessa.
The Nonprofit Management Center assists nonprofits from San Angelo to Abilene to Lamesa to El Paso and down to the Mexico border. The Nonprofit Management Center website detailed it became an independent organization in 2014 and relocated to Midland Shared Spaces. The Nonprofit Management Center will keep its location at MSS.
“The theme amongst nonprofits is the need for bigger meeting spaces and places that we can convene and have conversations and talk about the challenges that leadership encounters,” Chavez said. “The Nonprofit Management Center has been really great in providing programming that meets nonprofit directors where they are at but also create a culture of safety and inquiry that when someone is trying to seek assistance there isn’t embarrassment or shame. Those things are really important because it’s hard sometimes to seek out assistance or help.”
Johnson said to honor West Texas Insurance Exchange president Jeff Rea for choosing the Nonprofit Management Center as the recipient of the building that it would be named “Rea Family Building.”
The first phase of the renovation will be to ensure the 6,000 square foot space is ready for a June 30 event and then the second phase will be fundraising to help the Nonprofit Management Center install an elevator and expand kitchen and bathrooms on the second floor.
Johnson explained the 4,000 square foot space can be used for additional meeting areas, while the small office space could be for rent. There’s a fish tank that splits two office spaces and Johnson said depending on who is asked the fish tank might stay or go.
“We want to make (the second floor) the most usable for anyone who is using this space,” Johnson said.
