In 1999, La Piana Associates, in collaboration with the Chapin Hall Center for Children (a policy research institution at the University of Chicago ), conducted the largest ever national study on strategic restructuring in the nonprofit sector. The study was funded by the Nonprofit Sector Research Fund of the Aspen Institute and the Lilly Endowment.

Phase II of the national study was completed in 2002. It involves in-depth case studies of six strategic restructuring partnerships, as well as a survey of a random sample of nonprofits in two different cities to look at the prevalence of strategic restructuring in those areas. In addition, the research team conducted interviews with 20 national leaders in the nonprofit and philanthropic sector, asking them to share their reflections on the implications of the preliminary results for the future of the sector.

The findings of this research are included in a book — Strategic Restructuring for Nonprofit Organizations: Mergers, Integrations, and Alliances — by Amelia Kohm and David La Piana, published by Praeger Publishers in November 2003. The book provides nonprofit managers, board members, consultants, and foundation executives with research-based information to use in making tough decisions about whether and how to pursue a range of organizational partnerships — from jointly managed programs and consolidated administrative functions, to full-scale mergers.

Strategic Restructuring for Nonprofit Organizations is available for purchase at Amazon.com. http://www.amazon.com

Download a PDF copy of the Phase 1 report from the Chapin Hall Center for Children website http://www.chapinhall.org

By Bill Coy and Vance Yoshida

This article about strategic restructuring describes three types of nonprofit administrative partnerships and the steps leaders can take to determine which type of administrative collaboration is the right decision for their organization.

Are you considering a new strategic plan or contemplating partnering with another organization? Robert Harrington describes how you can use the La Piana Consulting methodology, Real-Time Strategic Planning, to evaluate whether a merger or collaboration is right for your organization. His article describes the basics of RTSP in the context of nonprofit collaboration.

http://www.fieldstonealliance.org/

Deciding to merge is only the first step in a long process. All too many organizations successfully negotiate their merger agreement, but fail to realize the full benefits of the partnership. Having focused on the execution of the merger, organizations overlook the critical need to put energy and focus into the post-merger integration.

La Piana Associates’ latest book — The Nonprofit Mergers Workbook, Part II: Unifying the Organization after a Merger — can help take you the rest of the way clearly, manageably, and planfully. Using a practical, hands-on approach, supplemented by numerous examples from La Piana Associates' research and experience, the Workbook Part II addresses how to effectively integrate organizations that have merged.

Written for the nonprofit leader, this book helps organizations create a comprehensive plan to achieve integration — bringing together people, programs, processes, and systems from two (or more) organizations into a single, unified whole. It addresses large strategic issues, as well as small practical ones — providing a roadmap to successful post-merger integration.

Included with the book is a free CD-ROM which provides a detailed template for an integration plan, as well as sample integration plans, worksheets, checklists, tips and quotes from leaders of merged organizations, all of which will help organizations in implementing their own merger integration process.

The specific topics covered in the Workbook Part 2 are as follows:

Section I: Going the Distance

Provides a broad view of integration, its challenges, and how to meet them. Topics include:

• The basic tenets of organizational change
• What success looks like in a well-implemented merger
• The purpose and content of an integration plan
• How to address people issues through leadership and planning
• The relationship between effective leadership, effective communication, and their combined contribution to integration success

Section II: Creating an Integration Plan

Takes you step-by-step through each facet of this essential process. You'll learn about:

• Integration of the board, management, staff and volunteers, culture, programs, communications and marketing, and systems--one by one, in detail
• Common challenges, roadblocks, and crises that will arise, and how to respond when they do
• Processes, procedures, and interventions likely to be most helpful and necessary