A few years ago the Chicago chapter of the American Lung Association left the national organization to form its own independent entity: the Respiratory Health Association of Chicago. At the time it was an unusual move.
Yet in recent weeks we have seen two more major affiliates of well-known national nonprofits leave the fold. Planned Parenthood Golden Gate, in Northern California, is now Golden Gate Community Health, and KCET, the PBS affiliate in Los Angeles, recently announced its intention to leave the PBS family in January 2011.
Each of these situations is unique and involves a combination of differing perspectives, financial tensions and interpersonal conflicts, but I wonder if economic pressures are increasingly going to drive large affiliates of national organizations to leave behind their household brand name in favor of independence.
KCET will lose access to crucial PBS programs such as Sesame Street, while the two health organizations named above will continue to offer the same service but without the benefit of instant name recognition.
Given the demands of participation in a national organization (financial, programmatic, quality review, brand usage and the like) we may see additional large affiliates deciding they can do better on their own.
In the short run that may be true, but it remains to be seen whether they can replace the instant name recognition and credibility of their former national partners with local support. And of course there is always the possibility – indeed the likelihood – that the national organization will establish a new franchise in the same area, providing a high profile competitor who will build on the previous organization’s name recognition, now abandoned.
Stay tuned.
Under health reform legislation, community health centers were to have received $11 billion over five years to expand their capacity to care for the 32 million people who will be newly insured as of 2014. However, federal budget deals have effectively gutted the expansion allocation for 2011 – and 2012 is looking equally grim. With just three short years to prepare for a dramatic increase in demand, community health centers can no longer be certain of the funding necessary to build or upgrade facilities, or to hire additional staff, to ensure that the millions of newly insured have a place to go.