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For the last three years, the Community Foundation for San Benito’s Epicenter building in downtown Hollister has been a hub for nonprofit work and organizing. It houses offices for the Community Foundation and the other nonprofits it hosts.
The building opened in 2022 and has hosted an estimated 29,092 people in the three years since its opening. It can accommodate up to 16 permanent nonprofit offices and has four multipurpose meeting rooms that vary in size and technological capabilities.
Epicenter Manager Carly Zanger said the various organizations the building has hosted have grown to include youth sports, nonprofit leagues, the Office of Education, and the San Benito County Board of Supervisors. She emphasized the importance of a hub for in-person or online meetings for nonprofit workers.
“If someone’s in need of Wi-Fi,” Zanger said, “or is just in need of a space to drop into between clients that they’re meeting off-site, this is a hub for them.”
The Epicenter’s Community Relations Manager, Nikita Johnson, said the building hosts nonprofits with a wide range of goals and sizes.
“We can handle a larger nonprofit with more sophisticated needs,” she said, “just as easily as we can accommodate a nonprofit with three people and a scanner.”
Catholic Charities is one of the nonprofits with permanent offices at the Epicenter building, and Disaster Case Manager Julie Roybal said her organization is lucky to have the space.
“Catholic Charities did not have a full-time location,” Roybal said. “We were at Sacred Heart Church at the rector for one day a week, maybe. So it was very limited communication with the clients.”
Zanger said she hopes Epicenter can fill up its remaining offices and continue to expand the number of organizations it serves.
“I think me coming into this role in the whole nonprofit world,” Zanger said, “and realizing how many nonprofits there are in the community was eye-opening. So I’m sure there are people who can benefit from this space.”
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