Non-Profit Social Enterprise Aims at Raise Funds for Economic Opportunity, Early Childhood Education

OAKLAND, CA, NOVEMBER 8, 2010 -- The East Bay Community Foundation’s “Conference Center with a Conscience” is one of the Bay Area’s newest examples of a trend in which charities are deploying social enterprise to raise funds in the wake of the worst US recession in decades.

Since it opened in 2003 as a result of a grant from the James Irvine Foundation, the “James Irvine Foundation Conference Center at the East Bay Community Foundation” has been used by non-profit organizations at below-market rates – and sometimes free. The conference center is now being offered to the for-profit sector in competition with other for-profit conference center facilities.

(For access to photos of the conference center and a video tour, click here.)

“We call it the ‘Conference Center with a Conscience’ because all proceeds support the work of the East Bay Community Foundation and our efforts to advance economic opportunity and the education that leads to it,” said Nicole Taylor, the Foundation’s President & Chief Executive Officer.

“The conference center provides business organizations with an opportunity to book a value-priced, quiet, state-of-the-art, conveniently located facility for a meeting or a conference of up to 120 people – and to give back to the community, all at the same time,” she said.

A number of experts have recently said that charities should build their revenues by turning a profit instead of relying solely on seeking donations.

Over the past few months, The Foundation renovated the center, including complete interior repainting, improvements to the kitchen and kitchen equipment, and new electronic audio-visual equipment – as well as complying with environmental measures to prevent pollution and to save water, energy, and other materials that gained the conference center certification by the Bay Area Green Business Program.

In the past, the center has periodically been booked for use by the business community, but this is the first time the Foundation has actively and specifically marketed it to the for-profit sector.

“Of course, we will continue offer the conference center to non-profit organizations on the same terms as we have previously,” said Taylor. “At the same time, our capability to continue being one of the largest sources of philanthropic support to worthy causes in the East Bay depends not only on our success at attracting donations, but also on maximizing all potential sources of revenue and operating as efficiently as we possibly can.”