BY KADIE TAYLOR
THE OBSERVER
EAST ALABAMA — Supporting nonprofits that serve East Alabama, the Nonprofit Center of East Alabama’s building houses multiple nonprofits and regular events, helping create opportunities for organizations to support community members in need.
“The Samford Cannon Foundation had the vision for this building,” said Carrie Thomas, director of the Nonprofit Center of East Alabama. “They actually had a relationship with a local nonprofit, the Esperanza House, and in conversations with the director there, asked what their biggest challenge was outside of fundraising, and the director expressed the actual need for physical space, for programming, for offices, because at the time they were having to move a lot of their programming around, so it was not consistent. About that time, this building, which is formerly the Elks Lodge, came up for sale.
“Once seeing the size and the scale of this building or property, the foundation realized that it could be for more than just serving one nonprofit. So half the building is office spaces for nonprofits, 501(c)(3) organizations. There are 16 offices here that nonprofits can use, and then we also have the other side of the building, which is set up for meeting event space. All of the office space and all of the space here in this building are set at below market rate at affordable rates, so that nonprofits can take a little of the stress off of the overhead expenses and be able to put more towards their mission and community impact.”
Thomas said the foundation purchased the building, completely renovated it and the nonprofit center moved in during February.
“Our mission is to strengthen the organizational capacity of nonprofits, so we also have some programming here,” she said. “We plan to bring in some seminars and some educational opportunities for nonprofits, not just for our tenants that are here, but any nonprofit in this community. [We want them] to be able to have an access to free or very affordable networking and professional development opportunities to help them be able to build their organizations and be able to serve the community even better.”
With nonprofits supporting those in need through a variety of expertise and offerings, Thomas said she is excited to support the work done in East Alabama by nonprofits.
“I strongly believe that when you have strong nonprofits, you have a stronger community,” she said. “I think many times people don’t understand the importance and the value that nonprofits have in communities. They’re helping one particular cause or one group of people that need help, they’re actually helping raise the community strength overall, and they could be serving the people who need these services that may be struggling with various challenges in their lives, and don’t know where to turn. Nonprofits fill that gap and step in to serve a purpose in helping people or animals, through whatever challenges there are.”
Lucinda Cannon, board member for the Samford Cannon Foundation and sister of Jimmy Samford, for whom the Foundation was established in memory of, said she sees the center as a space for nonprofits from Auburn and Opelika to meet near their city lines and work together as one.
“I was born in Opelika, and Jimmy was born in Opelika,” she said. “So we grew up loving Opelika, then we both went to Auburn and it’s been a sister city for so long, and really it’s almost the same. If you bring somebody new in here they don’t know whether they’re in Opelika or Auburn, but we think that’s one of the things that makes this work, because it’s right on the city limits line.”
As the Nonprofit Center of East Alabama has had multiple nonprofits move in since opening, Board Member Race Cannon, son of Lucinda Cannon, said he sees the center growing to fit a range of nonprofit needs and to use the additional space on the property.
“We have about nine acres that are half in Auburn and half in Opelika, and one day I think we envision this whole thing coming to be a campus for nonprofits,” he said. “Someone who needs a more customized facility than what we have can build their own facility out here. It can blur the distinction between Auburn and Opelika as cities having a central location for organizations that support lots of people.”
Heather Cannon, board member for the Samford Cannon Foundation and wife of Race Cannon, said she sees the Nonprofit Center of East Alabama as a space for nonprofits to collaborate and network to build connections and confidence.
“I think it helps with connections too, because the more people that come together for an event, [they can meet each other, where before] one group may not know about the other, even though they’re in that world,” she said. “It can create moments of conversation that make the community stronger and show people that it might not be reasonable for a lot of people in this economy to be donating money when they need their money to have a fulfilling experience, and strengthening the community is good for everybody.”
As she has watched nonprofits move into the center and events hosted to support nonprofit growth, Lucinda Cannon said she sees her brother’s legacy live on in the Nonprofit Center of East Alabama.
“I just felt his spirit in here,” she said. “We were both raised giving, and it didn’t just happen; it was over a lifetime. He did a lot of [giving] during his lifetime, and so we are just continuing his memory and adding to it with the present and the future.”
For more information, visit the Nonprofit Center of East Alabama on Facebook, Instagram @nonprofitcenterofeastal or on the website nonprofitcenter.org. Community members or organizations can contact the center at (334) 749-8481.
