Go Gentle Into That Merger

In the banking industry, merger means one big bad thing: the big one gobbles up the smaller one and jobs are lost. Now, as the nasty "m" word highlights the headlines about nonprofit organizations, the automatic assumption is that the bigger organizations are going to swallow the smaller ones which will lose their identities in the process. This is not how mergers need to happen. It certainly doesn't serve communities to have more giant-box nonprofits.

Communities are better served by a series, a network, of smaller, well-connected nonprofits working at the local level, managed by passionate citizens who care about the outcomes.

Consider this article in the Davidson News about three nonprofits that are sharing resources....a merger of sorts....to raise awareness of their work through social media. Each retains its own identity, mission, leadership, and fiscal responsibilities while helping each other. Check here.

“It’s innovative because we are asking the public to understand that our strength lies in cooperation and not just in the individual work we do as agencies.”
Kathryn Firmin-Sellers, United Family Services/Tell Two organizer.

A merger is not a case of "We win - you lose," although it feels like that if you're the smaller nonprofit. Again, this interpretation of merger is a hold-over of a by-gone era. A smaller organization is usually more nimble. They can adapt quicker. They may not have the debt that a larger organization with its own building carries.
The element of creativity of smaller nonprofits is a valued asset. It's intangible and easily overlooked, but in a rapidly changing and economically volatile environment, creativity is a key to problem solving.

To reach a new level of effective organization, a re-ordering comes when the value of all parties around the table is fully understood and when the re-ordering emerges from mutual discussions about how all parties are served, rather than from a mandated process with a bigger-is-better mentality.

This natural re-ordering perspective was explained another way in an email arriving this morning: "Pirate societies, in fact, provide evidence for Smith's theory that economies are the result of bottom-up spontaneous self-organized order that naturally arises from social interactions, as opposed to top-down bureaucratic design. Just as historians have demonstrated that the 'Wild West' of 19th-century America was a relatively ordered society in which ranchers, farmers and miners concocted their own rules and institutions for conflict resolution .....(delanceyplace.com 10/2/09 - pirates and anarchy)

An open and creative approach to merger may produce a new and unexpected outcome: nonprofit leaders must be open to the possibilities. This means releasing the outdated modes of thinking that declare A winner and A loser. We can all win if we choose it.