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Nonprofits in Syracuse get “green” working space

Image of the Philanthropy Center.
Ryan Morden
/
WRVO
The Philanthropy Center in Syracuse is now open for (nonprofit) business.

A renovated Gregorian Revival-style building in downtown Syracuse is now the new home of a center for nonprofits in the region.

The Philanthropy Center (as it’s been dubbed) will be run by the Central New York Community Foundation (CNYFC), a grant making organization that’s been around for nearly a century.

Other cities have centers like this, but the Syracuse area was lacking one, according to Katrina Crocker, communications manager for the CNY Community Foundation.  The facility will also be the foundation’s new headquarters.

CNYCF president and CEO Peter Dunn tells the Post-Standard that the center will help "bring folks together:"

“This creates a storefront presence in a prominent place downtown,” said Peter A. Dunn, the foundation’s president and chief executive officer. “It also raises the visibility of philanthropy and giving in general in the community. ”

In addition to meeting rooms, a ballroom, and other amenities for non-profits to use, the center is applying for LEED certification to establish the building's environmental bona fides.

Any non-profit in New York can use the space, though usage guidelines haven't yet been determined.

Innovation Trail alumnus Ryan Morden is originally from Seattle. He graduated from the University of Washington with a bachelor's in journalism, minoring in political science and Scandinavian studies. Morden was Morning Edition producer and reporter at WRVO before moving over to the Innovation Trail project. Before landing at WRVO, Morden covered the Washington State legislature as a correspondent for Northwest News Network (N3), a group of nine NPR affiliates in the northwest.