Submitted by Jean Butzen on November 3, 2007 - 11:50

A former CEO's view of merging two nonprofits: 1+1=3


After leading a wonderful nonprofit
organization for almost 19 years, I concluded that in order to grow, we would
need to merge with a larger nonprofit. That merger between Lakefront Supportive
Housing and Mercy Housing, Inc., was completed in December 2005.   A press release about the merger is found here (in Microsoft Word format).
I made the
decision to leave Lakefront and the merged entity before we concluded the
merger, in order to pursue new professional interests.  Recently, BoardSource, a national nonprofit dedicated to helping nonprofit boards become more effective, asked me to write about my merger experience.

The article, entitled "Merge to Advance Mission," was published in the November/December 2007 issue of BoardSource's journal, Board Member.  The full journal is available only to members of BoardSource, but you can download a PDF of my article here. 
Please share your reactions to it and your questions about it in the comments section below.  (Or, if you're shy, feel free to email me.)