What We Do
Do you know what the William & Janet Strickler Nonprofit Center (WJSNC) is? It is a building; a center that houses a coalition of nonprofits whose mission is to serve our community. WJSNC does not distribute food; Community Compassion Network does. WJSNC does not distribute toilet paper; The Care Store does. WJSNC does not give away clothing; Clothing INC does. The Strickler Nonprofit Center pays utilities, plows a parking lot, pays insurance, provides a conference room where its nonprofit agencies can meet together and find synergy to provide the best services possible for our community. WJSNC provides space to its nonprofit agencies at a cost lower than anywhere else so that those agencies can spend their resources on their missions, not on overhead expenses.
Our Mission
Foster strong collaboration among key social service agencies by developing a shared physical space and cooperative interactions to address the most pressing needs of the large proportion of citizens in Isabella County living in or near poverty.
Our Vision
Using the Nonprofit Center as a cornerstone, create synergies throughout the community to reduce poverty levels on an ongoing basis.
Our Story
The story of the Strickler Nonprofit Center is the story of a community; a community that came together to share time, ideas, creativity, frustration, and financial resources. This community team was devoid of individual ownership, and politics, while willing to take risks, innovate, and build on the ideas of others, all with a simple goal: help reduce poverty in Isabella County.
Starting about 2015, a convergence of needs drove the Community Compassion Network (CCN) and the Isabella County Restoration House (ICRH) to join forces to seek permanent space for their activities. Finding such a home in our community proved difficult especially where commercial rental space was often well above $17 per square foot and unaffordable for the agencies.
CCN and ICRH realized early that by joining forces with each other and ultimately additional nonprofits, it should be possible to reduce overhead and negotiate lower rents.
Kaye and Jim Peasley at Clothing INC (CINC) were also searching for a new facility as the space at the Nazarene Church was saturated. Likewise, Kim McBride at the Community Church was launching a new agency, The Care Store (TCS) to make various sundries available to neighbors in need.
This team of four agencies and other concerned community members, led by Charlie and Peggy Burke, began searching for a building/location to create a community nonprofit center. Dozens of locations were visited. Following a community-wide public meeting at MMCC the agency team was joined by the United Way of Gratiot and Isabella Counties (UWGIC) and the Mount Pleasant Area Community Foundation (MPACF). This expanded team gave a powerful sense of stability and urgency to the search.
Eventually, the team zeroed in on the vacant Victory Church building on High Street which appeared to be vacant. Instantly things switched into high gear! Forward progress resumed at an accelerated pace.
CCN, ICRH, TCS and CINC all agreed that this was excellent space with sufficient room and an excellent location. Tom Olver and The United Way negotiated a three-year lease with the option to buy at a predetermined fixed price and agreed to be the center’s legal landlord. Without this commitment, the center would not have happened.
These four organizations – Clothing INC, The Care Store, Community Compassion Network, and the Isabella County Restoration House – became the founding tenants of what is now the William and Janet Strickler Nonprofit Center. Today, three of these organizations, along with the AARP’s Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP), continue to share one roof to provide coordinated services to our community.
It was now time to raise money for the purchase and renovation of the building. Mt. Pleasant Area Community Foundation offered to hold the funds and stepped up to help spearhead fundraising and worked with the tenants to establish an organization to legally hold the property’s title. In 2018, the fundraising effort was culminated with a generous donation honoring William Strickler, thus creating the naming of The William & Janet Strickler Nonprofit Center (WJSNC).
The center fundraising was sufficiently successful in 2018 to meet the purchase price and establish a renovation fund. In 2019, steps were taken to create the ownership organization, set up a board of trustees, apply for non-profit status, and negotiate the purchase and renovation of the building.
By the end of 2019, the new organization, WJSNC, was approved as a 501c3, the purchase finalized, and the renovation plans moving forward. The tenant organizations had been operating and growing exponentially for almost a year in the building. Following completion of the renovation project in 2020, the agencies moved into their new spaces where they will continue to meet the needs of our community and helping to reduce poverty.
The William & Janet Strickler Nonprofit Center (WJSNC) is a tax-exempt, non-profit organization which owns the building at 1114 West High Street and provides low-cost space to non-profit agencies who are dedicated to reducing poverty in our community. The board of the Center is tasked with maintaining the building and property to meet the needs of the tenant agencies and to assist in the collaboration with the tenant agencies.