Merging Community Organisations

Group-of-businesses-Innovation-croppedAre there other community organisations operating in your space?  Are you spending more time competing for funding than delivering services?    Are you looking for a merger but don’t know how to go about it?  Or have you found a potential partner but are not really sure how to proceed?

In the Not-For-Profit and Community Sectors, there is increasing pressure from public funding and private philanthropic organisations to reduce the number of organisations seeking funding.  The question of mergers is becoming increasingly common in commentaries in the blogosphere, in the sector press, and in Government policy.

Mergers can be very rewarding, but require significant time and resources in order to be
done successfully.  The merger argument is that doing this will improve the focus and concentration of resources, harvest synergies across organisations with similar challenges, reduce the unit cost of administration, and make organisations more effective, efficient and sustainable.  A key point here is that the merger will only be successful if it is in the best interests of the community in need not the charity itself.

The Hub will help you explore a progressive Transition to Merger Process by looking at, for example:

  • Your motivations for merging
  • Selection criteria for potential merger options
  • Merger management and the fate of the Boards
  • Communicating with your stakeholders, especially employees & volunteers
  • Due diligence on potential partners
  • Aligning your missions, visions and objectives
  • Merging (equal), acquiring (unequal), or co-creating something new
  • The best legal entity structure to meet your needs
  • Sharing administrative policies & practices, assets, and ICT systems
  • Co-locating offices or staff
  • Regulatory notifications and deregistrations
  • Wrestling with the culture monster
  • Designing & implementing new services, programs and activities

When you’re ready to talk, we’re ready to listen – so contact the Hub!