An overview of the sharing tree

The experience I had at interning at The Sharing Tree was one that I felt was truly unique and special and I do not know if I will ever get the chance to do something like it again. I walked into The Sharing Tree not really knowing what to expect. I knew I had real estate experience and that they needed a new building, and I knew they were involved in providing art to folks that typically cannot receive art supplies, which I liked. I did not know that I was walking into essentially the full re-vamping on a successful non-profit. We were getting a new facility, building a new business model, building a new website, many of the factors of a non-profit were being built from the ground up when I stepped into my internship. I felt extremely lucky and blessed to hopefully say that I played a part in helping all of these efforts, and I couldn’t have done that without some of the incredible people at The Sharing Tree. Carly Sinnadurai, Ken Baldauf, Mari Therrien, Tessa Shreiner, Devan Leavins, Shara Bankston, just to name a few. There were so many incredible, hardworking people on the team at The Sharing Tree and I feel grateful to have worked with them.

We accomplished everything that we wanted to from the start of my internship. We got a new facility and are working on making it the play lab that Carly envisions it to be right now. We built a new website thanks to the amazing Ken who put it together and is incorporating some really awesome things into it. We built a new business plan thanks to Ken and Devin and Carly and Tessa and many others using detailed research and estimates. We determined how much we can realistically expect to make versus how much it will cost to operate and made it very accessible and easy to use which was something I really wanted to make happen. More recently, we have re-engaged the Tallahassee community to spread awareness of our organization which is receiving a lot of positive support. Along with that we have made strategic collaborations with both the private and public sector to help with our rollout and continued popularity in the community. All in all, I enjoyed a ton about this internship and I’m glad I got to be involved.

— Dan Francis

So close to the sharing tree’s biggest announcement yet!

As of right now, The Sharing Tree is in the best spot I’ve seen it be in since becoming an intern at this incredible organization. First and foremost, and definitely most importantly, we’ve secured a new building!!! While I can’t yet reveal the location, I can tell you that it is going to be an absolutely incredible new play lab and facility. And because of this, the ideas and creativity are rolling! The Board of Directors are meeting frequently and as often as they can to find the best ways to use the space, how to finance the space, and how to spread the word. As of right now we have a top 20 donations needed list on our Facebook page, but more information about how to help will be provided soon. I personally have been shifted in my position in a few ways. The committees of the board have been adjusted a bit now that the vision is a little more clear as to what we want to accomplish. I have been assigned to the Business and Finance Committee as well as the Exhibit Design and Operations Committee. My goal in the Business and Finance is to use the information I’ve gathered on the market of Children’s Museums and similar organizations as well as the skills I’ve developed as both a researcher and a revenue estimator to best decide how to leverage the assets that The Sharing Tree provides, while still being self-sustainable, while still being a non-profit that gives back to the community. My goal in the Exhibit Design and Operations Committee is just to help in the building of exhibits using my previous knowledge of being a handy man in a real estate firm, as well as my connections in the Tallahassee community to find potential materials to build with.

I’m very excited to keep up the work and look forward to reporting what’s to come next!

– Dan Francis

The Grind Continues at The Sharing Tree

The Sharing Tree is still in the process of re-starting back up, but I think in the last few weeks, we have made some major strides in the right direction. We now have a trained and experienced real estate team working with us on finding a new location. We are visiting more and more facilities every week, zeroing in on a place to call home. Along with this, we have found some collaborations that might provide us with a temporary home, if we choose to take this route. I personally have also seen my involvement in the organization grow. I think I just needed the opportunity to prove my worth and skill set to the Board of Commissioners, and I got to do that with my research report on other Children’s Museums in the country. Many of the members of the board told me it was phenomenal work, and as no good deed goes unpunished, I was immediately tasked with more work that would require more time and effort, but I was happy to do so as it felt like it provided an exciting learning opportunity. As of now, The Sharing Tree is still working on their location, but as I said, the process is progressing by the day. Along with this, the other main goal that has emerged is establishing a realistic, strong, well-researched business plan that we can use as leverage in both facility and financial discussions. The Sharing Tree was last operational in 2017, and while the business plan from 2017 is good, it needs a lot of revamping and updates to bring it into 2019. This business plan also needs to reflect the new business model and the new facilities. All in all, the moral at The Sharing Tree and within myself is at an all-time high. We are looking forward to getting back to cultivating the creative and artistic culture within Tallahassee.

I’ll have more updates coming soon

— Daniel Francis

My First Weeks With The Sharing Tree

Hey everybody!

The start of my semester interning with The Sharing Tree has been a fascinating and wonderful experience. First of all, everyone that I have met within the organization has been fantastic. They have been incredibly helpful and impressive individuals. And although the semester got off to a slow start, we are now getting into the rhythm of working towards shared goals and missions through everyone utilizing their best talents.

            Briefly, I’ll go over what The Sharing Tree is and how I contribute there. The Sharing Tree is a local Tallahassee non-profit that has been growing steadily in the community for the last few years. We work as a place for children to use recycled art materials to create and expand their creative skill set. Along with this, it serves as a community for children and families to interact with one another and build social and collaborative skills. My specific role within The Sharing Tree is to help with the search for a new location. I am also responsible for doing research for the company in regard to financial information, business models, and potential grant opportunities.

            As I said, the semester got off to a slow start. First things first, I came down with a pretty bad illness that all but put me out of commission for about a week. Then on top of this, The Sharing Tree was going through a bit of a transitional phase in discovering everyone’s best skills and finding the best way to use those skills. But once these were out of the way, the company hit the ground running. We developed the mission statement “To inspire creativity, innovative thinking, and collaborative problem-solving while nurturing children, families, communities, and the environment.”. We’ve had multiple meetings to discuss a future location and have visited some locations. We have also brainstormed with some of Tallahassee’s best and brightest to find solutions to our current issues. I think as a whole the company is making fast progress towards finding a location, and from there getting back to what we ideally want to be, a space for creativity and fun.

            I will continue to make these updates throughout the semester and look forward to reporting more good news soon!

— Daniel Francis