A few months ago, Janet Camarena of the Foundation Center’s San Francisco office asked me to join her for a podcast interview on strategic restructuring.  I have known Janet for many years and always find her to be an astute observer of the sector, so it was no surprise that she is a very good interviewer.  We talked about the current land-rush mentality around nonprofit mergers, some of the cautions the sector should consider, and many other things.

More recently, my colleague Bob Harrington, Director of our firm’s Strategic Restructuring practice was invited to blog about the role strategic restructuring can play in arts organizations.  Bob’s blog highlights our recent case study on administrative consolidations.

I recently did a workshop for funders in New York City, hosted by Philanthropy New York, on the current state of nonprofit mergers. The group included about 20 foundation and corporate philanthropy staff.

In addition to my presentation, the workshop featured a panel with Don Crocker discussing a failed merger attempt the Support Center for Nonprofit Management undertook and Ralph Rogers describing a successful one the Food Bank of New York City engineered.

Presenting a balance of examples was a great way to stimulate good discussion. Too often we focus just on the success stories but it is just as critical for us to understand why sometimes a merger is not the right move.