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Shared office space company Quest Workspaces provides free office
space to more than 50 nonprofit organizations.
What do Style Saves, Miami Allstars, Unity Coalition, Re-Entry One and National Voices for Equality, Education and Enlightenment (NVEEE) have in common? Yes, they are all Florida-based nonprofits. But, more importantly, they all benefit from a program called Quest Cares, an initiative that provides free and discounted workspaces, meeting rooms and business services to qualified organizations.
Quest Cares is the philanthropic arm of Quest Workspaces, the largest female-owned shared workspace company in the country, operating 11 high-quality co-working office locations in Florida, one in Manhattan, and two more on the way in 2023. The company was founded in 2010 by Laura Kozelouzek, an industry veteran with over 30 years of experience in the hospitality and flexible workspace industries. Quest’s mission is not just to provide office space to its clients (affectionately called “Questers”); it seeks to enable them to thrive in their businesses – and their well-being.
Quest boasts commercial office space in some of South Florida’s most coveted business locales, including Brickell (Miami’s “Wall Street South”), Downtown Miami, Coral Gables, Doral, Fort Lauderdale, Palm Beach and beyond. As the company extends its footprint (in 2022, Quest added more than 106,000 square feet of office space to its existing locations, expanding its total portfolio to more than 310,000 square feet), it seeks to help even more organizations through Quest Cares. Since the program was established in 2014, Quest has donated more than $411,000 of private and virtual office spaces and meeting rooms to 52 nonprofit organizations.
“Giving back and serving are core Quest values,” says Kozelouzek, a visionary business builder who was recently recognized with the South Florida Business Journal’s 2022 Influential Business Woman Award. “By sharing the same resources as Fortune 500 companies, the nonprofit organizations in the Quest Cares program can better leverage our community and infrastructure to help as many people as possible.”
Rent is one of the biggest expenses for nonprofits, and many organizations cannot afford to have a physical address, leaving them to operate out of living rooms or nearby coffee shops. Thanks to Quest Cares, these organizations are able to set down permanent roots, enjoy professional space to do business, meet with potential donors and partners, and access essential business services that many take for granted, like Wi-Fi, printers, office supplies, virtual meeting technology and more.
“Without a Miami home base and a meeting location, we would not have been able to apply for our original grant of $15,000 from The Miami Foundation,” says Jowharah Sanders, founder and executive director of NVEEE, which provides bullying, violence, and suicide prevention education and mentoring to K-12 school communities, including students, parents, teachers and administrators. For almost 10 years, the organization has had an office at Quest, where it holds fundraisers, including one that raised funds to send 30 students to the White House during Anti-Bullying Month. “In 2020, we moved offices from Quest’s Biscayne location to its Plantation location to accommodate more students in Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties,” Sanders adds. “Thanks to a bigger office space and virtual meeting technology, we grew our ambassador program from 30-40 students to 85 students.”
Re-Entry One is another local organization benefiting from Quest Cares. Founded in 2021 by South American-born, Miami-raised Giovanni Sairras, the South Florida nonprofit provides citizens released from jail or prison with transitional services such as food, clothing, makeup for women, housing referrals, assistance with healthcare enrollment, substance abuse counseling and management, job skills and more. Sairras now has office space at Quest’s newest workspace location in Downtown Miami, where he can meet with, and be close to, the hundreds of participants he serves in the community.
With its mission, “Freedom to work the way you want,” Quest Workspaces has established a recognizable brand that attracts clients from fast-growing startups to multinational corporations. The company hosts at least two community events per month at each location and facilitates networking and cross-industry collaboration among tenants. Customer service is also a top priority, as each location staffs full-time team members dedicated to serving individual tenants. “Helping nonprofits is just another way that Quest is dedicated to giving back to those around us,” Kozelouzek says. “Through the program, we hope to continue to enrich the lives of those we serve in our workspaces and our greater community.”
