A downtown Sarasota building is now the host for a dozen local nonprofits, giving a significant boost to community collaborative efforts.

The Resilience Incubator, an office space located second floor of the Suncoast Blood Center at 1760 Mount St., opened its doors June 28. The space will house almost a dozen local environmental nonprofits in hopes of fostering collaboration in addressing local issues.

The collaborative effort comes as the Sarasota County Commission grapples with its relationship with local nonprofits, breaking ties with United Way and voting to withhold funding for the Early Learning Coalition as next year’s budget takes shape. Local leaders and advocates have urged the commission to reconsider the cuts.

More: Sarasota’s Selby Gardens turns on solar panels to generate its own energy

Amber Whittle, executive director of sustainable building nonprofit Southface Sarasota, proposed the center when she noticed her organization frequently working with others but lacking a place to gather. The collaborative space was three years in the making, with the collection of nonprofits shopping the idea around to prospective landlords until it secured the space at Suncoast Blood Center.

“There were dozens of small environmental nonprofits that were all working out of their homes and having to meet at coffee shops,” Whittle said. “We had sort of gravitas for having a space.”

The office will host Southface as well as Community Harvest SRQ, Suncoast Stargazers, Florida Veterans for Common Sense Fund, Minorities in Shark Sciences, Rebuilding Together Tampa Bay, Recycling Partnership, Sarasota Baywatch, Southeast Sustainability Directors Network, Suncoast Waterkeeper and Sunshine Community Compost. The organizations will collectively promote projects addressing affordable housing, sustainability, hurricane preparedness and more.

The center’s nonprofits are all geared toward protecting local water sources addressing climate change and fostering other environmental projects. Jasmin Graham, the president and CEO of Minorities in Shark Sciences, said each organization’s mission is related to the others and that collaborative projects will benefit Sarasota’s overall environmental landscape.

“I was really excited about having a place where all of these environmental nonprofits could gather and we could work together on some issues,” Graham said. “Everything is connected.”

Contact Herald-Tribune Growth and Development Heather Bushman at hbushman@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @hmb_1013.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Local environmental nonprofits move to new collaborative building