Capstone Co-location Research Shows Benefits to Organizations and Clients

It’s been an exciting semester for the Co-location capstone team!  We completed our research and presented our findings to MCCOY last week.  I’m happy to say that we delivered a report that achieved our project goals.  As a reminder, co-location occurs when two or more organizations share space to provide services either temporarily or permanently.  We surveyed 100 organizations about current co-location trends.  Thirty organizations were kind enough to complete our survey, and the results show that co-location offers many benefits to both clients and organizations.

Benefits to Clients
Access to multiple services in one location

• Better programming because organizations are more efficiently staffed & have more financial

resources

• Limits the amount of time and money clients spend on transportation between services

• Successful use of referrals to other agencies

• Access to relaxation and recreation activities in addition to services

• Familiar environment over time creates a relationship where clients want to return

• Client privacy (no one can tell which services someone is accessing)

Benefits to Organizations
• Reduces operating costs
• Reduces duplication of services
• Increases the number of services delivered and the number of clients served
• Facilities and equipment are available to organizations who could not afford it alone
• Ideas are shared between organizations
• Physically co-located partners do not have to worry about building maintenance
• Partners can draw on each other’s expertise
• Common mission and vision offers an opportunity for organizations to participate in likeminded activities
• Co-location appeals to funders because of stability and opportunity to fund multiple organizations at once
• Provides opportunities for joint fundraising initiatives and events
• Community awareness of all the organizations in the project
• Volunteers can find opportunities with multiple organizations

Despite all the benefits, organizations who want to co-locate have to be mindful of pitfalls such as inter-organizational relationships, organizational identities and branding, competition for space and funding, and conflicting visions or missions.  To help MCCOY deal with these potential problems, we developed a general cost-benefit analysis, a SWOT analysis, a matrix showing the potential types of co-locations, and an adaptable business plan.  During our project, we recommended that MCCOY become a co-location convener, which means that they should become experts in starting these types of projects and bringing partners to the table.  These tools will help MCCOY analyze possible partnerships and site locations for a new co-location project.  We hope our project will provide a foundation for MCCOY to begin sharing valuable resources and knowledge about co-location with the Indianapolis nonprofit community.