By Anna Upchurch, JVA Consulting

Great organizations with great ideas need a great space – a home that reflects their unique story and where they can truly grow and thrive. Across the country, entrepreneurs, nonprofits, and small businesses are increasingly using a variety of shared space approaches to meet this need.  Denver is recognized nationally as a leader in this smart approach to commercial real estate, and Denver Shared Spaces works to keep this region on the leading edge. Effective shared spaces aren’t just great places to work. They also serve to accelerate community impact and support social purpose organizations in better achieving their missions.

Denver Shared Spaces is a collaboration between the Denver Office of Strategic Partnerships and the Urban Land Conservancy.   DSS offers consulting, professional development, and policy advocacy to creating new shared spaces, improving existing centers, and championing the shared space movement.  DSS  partners with a range of sectors to provide expertise to blend the for-profit, nonprofit and public sectors and maximize opportunity in the turbulent commercial real estate market.

Megan Devenport is the program manager at Denver Shared Spaces, where she provides planning, management and logistical support as the project continues to expand. Megan attended Social Enterprise BaseCamp in 2014 with the idea of providing a more comprehensive and compelling consulting offering, and her idea has already taken off!

Since BaseCamp, Megan decided to incorporate a commercial real estate brokerage to Denver Shared Space’s consulting program in order to provide a turn key solution for people wanting to create, improve or manage effective social impact shared spaces. This year, Denver Shared Spaces is piloting six different consulting projects and trainings to see what works best to meet market demand and make an impact. In addition, it has an evaluation plan in place to assess client satisfaction, outcomes and capture the process used for each project to allow for process improvement.

Megan credits the market and industry research information she learned in Social Enterprise BaseCamp as particularly valuable.  “I loved walking through the process of identifying our industries of focus and exploring the data that’s out there in order to make informed decisions.”  Megan also appreciated the emphasis on rapid prototyping and testing out new ideas.  “We have intentionally integrated that into our work plan for the year, calling 2015 The Year of Learning for DSS,” she says.

Megan is not alone in her quest for innovation. The spirit of entrepreneurship has taken off in Denver. According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Colorado was ranked the second-best state for entrepreneurship and innovation in 2014, but Denver has also become a mecca for social entrepreneurship. Many local resources are available to help social entrepreneurs grow and thrive. In fact, the Social Enterprise Alliance will hold its Summit15 in Denver this year (September 16-18). For more details, visit the Social Enterprise Alliance website.

Do you have an idea for a social enterprise or are you interested in learning more?

Then join JVA June 8-11 for our next Social Enterprise BaseCamp. Our upcoming session will help you:

  • Create a lean business model and plan
  • Learn how to conduct industry, competitor and market analyses
  • Develop a stakeholder communication plan
  • Learn how to find customers and how to sell
  • Understand the types of financing available
  • Confidently pitch your idea to investors
  • Create metrics to evaluate success

During our previous sessions, we have worked with social entrepreneurs from all over the country (and Canada) who have come with a wide range of ideas, which we have helped them launch into successful social enterprise businesses.

Learn more about the upcoming Social Enterprise BaseCamp, June 8-11.