Today’s headlines could make even the most optimistic person, like me, a little weary. But my optimism was restored when I watched the documentary about the 50-year anniversary of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood called Won’t You Be My Neighbor? It transported me back to my childhood. Mr. Rogers made it cool to have an imagination. He also addressed tough subjects, such as racism.
My favorite part of the film was about an early episode of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, in which King Friday, the ruler of the Neighborhood of Make-Believe, decided to build a wall around his kingdom because of his fear of change. Mr. Rogers explained that building walls, literally and figuratively, is an easy solution when you are scared. But those who have courage find ways to join with friends and make new friends to develop solutions that bring the neighborhood together. This meaningful scene provides a simple answer to a complex issue in our often-divided world.
One of my favorite quotes comes from Mr. Rogers. He said, “We live in a world in which we need to share responsibility. It’s easy to say, ‘It’s not my child, not my community, not my world, not my problem.’ Then there are those who see the need and respond. I consider these people my heroes.”
This belief is one of the reasons I feel at home in the social sector. I’m surrounded by courageous heroes, but I’m also more convinced than ever that we need to join together to tackle our communities’ biggest challenges.
And the need for collaboration has never been greater. According to the Nonprofit Finance Fund’s 2025 State of the Nonprofit Sector Survey, 85% of nonprofits expected demand for services to increase, 86% said inflation was affecting their organizations and clients, and 36% ended the prior year with an operating deficit. More than half had three months or less cash on hand.
Nonprofits cannot solve these problems simply by working harder. We need to find ways to work smarter, and one promising approach is shared services. By sharing resources, expertise and infrastructure, organizations can reduce costs, strengthen operations and devote more attention to their missions — all without giving up their individual identities.
What Are Nonprofit Shared Services?
Shared services allow two or more organizations to jointly access staff, expertise, technology, purchasing power or other resources they might struggle to afford independently. Unlike traditional outsourcing where an organization hires a vendor, shared services involve collaboration among organizations to address common needs.
These arrangements may take many forms, from sharing office space or administrative staff to jointly purchasing employee benefits or accessing specialized expertise. The participating nonprofits maintain their own missions, boards and identities while benefiting from the resources they share.
As Mr. McFeely might say, shared services can lead to “speedier delivery” for the people nonprofits service.
What Are Different Types of Shared Services Models?
Sharing Physical Resources
One of the most established shared-services models involves nonprofits sharing office space, meeting rooms and other physical resources. Ascend Nonprofit Solutions in Charlotte, North Carolina, is a great example. Originally founded as the Children and Family Services Center in 2003, Ascend began by providing shared space for nonprofits and later expanded to offer finance, human resources and information technology services. Today it estimates saving its nonprofit partners more than $34 million in rent and administrative support since its founding.
And the model is growing. According to Community Spaces Network 2024 research, 92% of tenants received below-market rent, while 90% reported cost savings and 84% had access to better resources than they could secure on their own. Those savings were then often redirected into programs, staffing and organizational reserves.
The growth of remote and hybrid work makes this model even more attractive. Organizations that no longer need a full-time office still need professional places to meet with clients, staff, funders and boards. Sharing those spaces can provide flexibility without the financial burden of maintaining an entire facility.
Community Spaces Network is also a great resource for organizations exploring this model. We regularly share its research and data with our clients considering shared space.
Sharing Administrative Services
Nonprofits can also collaborate on administrative functions such as finance, human resources, information technology, compliance and marketing.
One example is Keystone Alliance, which grew out of a collaboration founded in 2009 by six Chicago-area nonprofits serving individuals with disabilities. Today, Keystone provides centralized administrative services to its affiliated organizations.
In 2025, Keystone moved those organizations to the same Microsoft 365 environment to improve security, collaboration and efficiency. This is an important shift in shared services. Organizations may begin with a desire to save money, but they can also gain access to stronger technology and expertise than they could afford on their own.
Other organizations take different approaches. For example, Support Kansas City provides accounting, fiscal management, database, governance and development support without making physical space the center of its model. OneOC has evolved from a volunteer center into a broader platform that provides human resources, accounting, fiscal sponsorship and other nonprofit support. And Midland Shared Spaces in Texas combines affordable workspace with technology and back-office support.
These examples raise an important question: Which services should an organization provide itself, and which should it partner on, curate or simply connect? The best model is the one that meets the needs of the participating organizations.
Sharing Purchasing Power and Benefits
Nonprofits can also pool their purchasing power to negotiate better pricing on supplies, software, insurance and professional services. By negotiating as a group (typically through a member-driven management support organization or “nonprofit center”), smaller organizations may gain access to better pricing, stronger service and options normally available only to larger employers.
This approach can also extend to employee benefits. Nonprofits may be able to join pooled retirement plans or work through an association to access health, dental, vision, life and disability insurance.
For example, Nonprofit New York offers its members a pooled 403(b) retirement plan designed to reduce administrative work and provide professional plan management. The Nonprofit Association of the Midlands has offered pooled employee insurance to its members for more than 20 years.
Employee benefits are particularly important as nonprofits compete to attract and retain talented staff. According to the Nonprofit Finance Fund, only 41% of nonprofits surveyed in 2025 could pay all full-time employees a living wage, and only two-thirds offered health insurance. Among nonprofits with annual budgets below $250,000, only 12% offered health insurance.
However, joining a pool does not automatically guarantee lower costs or better benefits. Organizations still need to compare fees, coverage, service and long-term stability. Health insurance pools can also involve complicated federal and state requirements, so nonprofits should seek qualified benefits and legal advice before moving forward.
Sharing Expertise
Not every nonprofit needs — or can afford — a full-time chief financial officer, human resources director, data analyst or cybersecurity expert. A shared or fractional model gives several nonprofits access to this expertise without bearing the full cost individually.
The Nonprofit Center of Northeast Florida, for example, has been developing a fractional financial-management model for mid-sized nonprofits that need strategic financial leadership but cannot sustainably support a full-time CFO.
This approach is particularly relevant as technology becomes more complex. Nonprofits are responsible for sensitive employee, donor and client information, yet many lack the staff or resources to manage cybersecurity risks alone.
AI presents another opportunity for shared services. Rather than having every nonprofit research tools, develop policies and train staff, organizations could collaborate on these activities or jointly hire specialized expertise. A 2026 NTEN and Bridgespan survey found that 45% of nonprofit respondents use AI daily, but only 18% of executives said their organizations had staff training in place and just 17% had a designated AI budget. With AI evolving so quickly, sharing knowledge and resources could help smaller nonprofits keep up.
What Are the Keys to Successful Shared Services?
Shared services can create significant benefits, but they also require planning, trust and a willingness to do things differently.
Based on our experience helping nonprofits explore collaborative models, here are 11 recommendations for getting started:
1. Start With the Need
Before you decide on a shared-services model, be clear about the problem you are trying to solve. Is it cost? Lack of expertise? Staff turnover? Technology? Limited space? Too much administrative work falling on the executive director? The answer should drive the model.
2. Understand the Work Before You Share It
Shared services work best when an organization understands its current processes. If the work is undocumented, inconsistent or dependent on one person’s memory, moving it to a shared provider can create more confusion rather than less. Before making the transition, document what happens now, what information is needed and where important institutional knowledge lives. You cannot successfully hand off a process that no one can explain.
3. Enlist a Third Party to Help With the Process
Having a neutral third party that has no affiliation with any of the organizations facilitates honest conversation about each organization’s commitment to shared services, capacity, responsibilities and concerns. We recommend conducting a feasibility assessment, which objectively reviews the options and ends with a go/no-go decision. Not every group of interested nonprofits will be ready to share services, and that is important to know before making a major investment.
4. Conduct Due Diligence
Before committing, each organization should understand the financial condition, reputation, leadership, systems and potential liabilities of the other partners and the shared-services provider. This is particularly important when sharing finance, employee benefits, technology or confidential data. Ask for references, review insurance coverage and understand who will be responsible if something goes wrong. It is important to note: each board still has a fiduciary responsibility to protect its own organization, even when the work is being shared.
5. Find a Lead Funder to Subsidize Start-Up Costs
A vast majority of shared-services collaborations in the nonprofit sector have a lead funder that subsidizes the start-up costs, which can be more than most nonprofits can afford, especially those with a heavy reliance on government funding. Shared-services collaborations come in many forms and have diverse financial models. Some utilize the excess capacity of one organization, some form a cooperative and others hire an intermediary (which can be a for-profit) to provide services.
No matter what, the upfront costs are often a barrier to moving forward, so an investment by a funder or donor is crucial. This may include the cost of a feasibility study, legal support, financial modeling, technology integration and staff time.
6. Build a Robust Financial Model
Ensuring that the collaboration will generate savings or improve impact through shared expertise and data requires a robust financial model. It should include a realistic estimate of start-up costs as well as ongoing operating costs.
And like any startup, it may take two to three years to realize savings (both in time and money), and that often requires a critical mass. It is important that the model includes the number of nonprofit participants the collaboration needs to reach that critical mass.
The model also needs to answer some practical questions. What happens if an organization leaves? How will future costs be divided? What services are included? How will unexpected costs be handled?
For pooled purchasing or benefits, compare the proposed arrangement with current costs, coverage and service. A lower premium or fee may not be a bargain if the network is smaller, the coverage is weaker or leaving the pool is difficult.
7. Put Expectations in Writing
Shared services are based on relationships, but they still need clear agreements. Determine who will make decisions, what each organization will pay, what level of service it can expect and how confidential information will be protected. The agreement should also spell out response times, reporting expectations, how service problems will be escalated and how an organization can leave the arrangement. Organizations also need to agree on how to handle problems. Even neighbors who like one another occasionally disagree over the fence.
8. Be Willing to Standardize
Shared services are difficult if every organization insists on keeping a completely different process, platform and schedule. This doesn’t mean organizations have to give up their identities. It does mean they may have to give up a favorite system or way of doing things to gain the benefit of working together.
9. Start Small and Learn
Organizations do not have to share everything at once. They might begin with one purchase, one benefit or one administrative function. Set expectations, agree on how success will be measured and give the arrangement enough time to work.
A pilot process can help the partners find problems, make adjustments and build trust before expanding the model. It is much easier to fix one shared process than five of them at the same time.
10. Think in Phases
Shared services do not have to be the first step. Our recent research on nonprofit centers suggests a practical progression for communities to consider:
1. Create useful and affordable shared space.
2. Build community and relationships among the organizations.
3. Add capacity-building programs and selected shared services.
4. Develop broader infrastructure that benefits the entire nonprofit ecosystem.
Not every organization needs to move through all four stages. The important question is what nonprofits need and what role the shared-services organization is prepared to play.
11. Measure More Than Cost Savings
Savings are important, but they are not the only benefit. Shared services can give nonprofits access to better expertise, stronger technology, improved financial reporting, better employee benefits, more reliable systems and greater capacity. The goal is not simply to make administration cheaper. The goal is to create stronger organizations that can devote more time and resources to their missions.
Shared services can be a great way for smaller nonprofits to reap the benefits of larger institutional players in the sector while achieving savings they can reinvest in the programs that help those they serve.
We are confident that Mr. Rogers would endorse shared services and say, “It’s a good feeling when you are able to find people that like to play the kind of things you like to play. It helps to make friends — playing together.”
Shared services help nonprofits play and stay together and find new walls to break down together. We would love to hear your ideas and experiences with shared services. What has worked, what hasn’t and what practical insights have you gained along the way?
