H2H is an organization that works with kids who are at risk of not graduating high school and offers programs for their families.
Many small local nonprofits like H2H Teens face a similar dilemma — they are unable to keep up with rising commercial rents, which have jumped 38% in Silicon Valley over the past five years, according to Colliers International.
Now, the nonprofit can have ease of mind thanks to being gifted a de facto headquarters through the All Good Work Foundation.
“We fill those [coworking] seats with social impact organizations that we’ve interviewed and vetted and made sure they’re doing great work,” said Nate Heasley, executive director at the All Good Work Foundation.
Executive director Aimee Lopez and one other H2H Teens employee have now taken up residence at The Pad, a coworking space in Sunnyvale apart of a 16-location network of shared office spaces.
All Good Work focuses on pairing nonprofits and coworking companies in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties.
The negative impact of rising real estate costs is real, with a survey showing 74% of 180 nonprofits concerned about their financial sustainability.
Notably, of the nonprofits surveyed, 19% said they paid no rent at all, which is a higher amount than in other Bay Area regions according to Sarah Frankfurth, manager of collaborative philanthropy at Northern California Grantmakers.
This number is so high due to The Sobrato Family Foundation, a charitable branch of The Sobrato Organization, one of the most recognizable Silicon Valley developers, donating 333,000 square feet of office space to nonprofits.
Although coworking companies won’t see any monetary or tax benefits, it is a way to simply give back to the community, according to Gerald Pascual, sales marketing manager at The Pad.
“We had a desire to do this type of work in the past, but I think the main obstacle has always been we don’t really have the resources that we can dedicate to make this an effective program,” said Pascual.
