Portland’s Non-Profit Incubator Future

Portland, OR has done a great job getting itself noticed on the global stage of cities to watch. We’ve got green cred, bike cred, creativity cred, willingness to change, social justice, activism, sustainability, livability, diy, small business, self organizing cred, etc etc etc. We can learn to take bigger steps though, to really put a stake in the ground for Portland’s future as a hub for organizations that want to make the world a better place.

Portland’s Memorial Coliseum is the ideal facility for the nation’s (world’s) premiere incubator for, and center of, critical non profit activity. Think of it as Sand Hill Road for the 501c3 set. Offices, workshops, symposiums, conferences, events, rallies, classes, and more will take place in this global center for change. Interaction with the general public on a daily basis, as well as with business and movement frontiers-people will stimulate the city of Portland like nothing else.

Incubators will get a lot of attention in the coming decade as we all search and strive and hope for new ideas and new solutions for the future. New models for business focused incubators are already in the works in places like SF. Let’s take the next big step and innovate in social entrepreneurship, and not for profit work.

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This entry was posted by fekaylius on Friday, January 8th, 2010 at 1:22 PM. It is filed under thoughts and has these tags: , , , . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

  • http://www.breteban.com Bret Bernhoft

    While I would completely agree with you that there is a need to have a much “cleaner” or substantial system for the incubation of Portland area, even National, Non-Profits, I would disagree with your suggestion for turning the Memorial Collesium into a facility for that. For there to be an effective linkage between Non-Profits and their longterm success there must be a smaller, but firmer network of facilities around the city. I will be very interested in your response to my comment.

  • fekaylius

    Hi Bret, sorry for the delayed reply here.
    If the core of your statement is that a lump of non-profits huddled together in one semi-isolated venue could limit the long term efficacy, I can see that being the case for some types of organizations with certain types of missions.

    Many non-profits are locally viable because they draw support from, and deal with issues centered in, a real physical location, a city, a neighborhood, a region. These kinds of entities do require a more integrated relationship with current and future supporters. They could end up suffering, as you suggest, a form of social elitism, by entering adding several layers of glass and concrete, plazas, and social pretense, between them and the people they are meant to work with.

    There are though other kinds of organizations that have centralized offices, or that do not share the localized integration issue mentioned above, who could enjoy continual benefit from the campus like insulation of such a location.

    I guess it turns on the needs of the organization, the long term needs. Sometimes, the short term wants can feel like long term needs, and the creation of such a venue would certainly be a shiny distraction and promising temptation to many an outfit.

    The proposal was not what I’d call totally serious, but was rather a small gesture to perhaps inspire a higher bar of expectations for Portland.

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