What a surprise – we’ve moved to New York, reduced our rent, and our staff cost! How? And why move anyway?

A long time ago the Imago Board concluded that New York would be a better long-term location than Orlando, Florida. It’s a well connected international city, so it makes it easier for members to pass through and visit. But it is also a center for nonprofit work, making it easier to recruit experienced staff, and also easier to connect with the donors and foundations who will support our expansion.

It seems to make sense, because already we are looking forwards to hosting a visit from David Mills, head of Imago Africa. And we’ve been able to meet in our offices with the head of a large New York social services agency who is interested in bringing our work to the inner city. (It helps that Tim was giving her son a science tutoring session…) These connections help to spread the news of Imago.

We found space in downtown Manhattan, right next to the World Trade Center site. Rents are low to attract people back to the area, and on top of that we qualify for government incentives. That’s nearly half the rent we were paying in Florida!

We also took the opportunity to streamline our operations, and create a very lean and focused team. Much staff time was caught up in handling product sales, such as books and audio. These are now sold through a website link, either to the author’s own site, or for Imago products to a fulfillment house. That means we in the office can focus more on our member’s needs.