There is a lot of exciting and creative work occurring with nonprofit co-locations around the country and I thought I would write a series on the topic in my Stanford Social Innovation Review blog. The first posting was published Jan. 11th. It's about a really interesting co-location project in Charlotte, North Carolina which houses nine separate nonprofit organizations called the Children and Family Services Center of Charlotte.

Mission + Strategy would like to announce the consolidation of The Emergency Fund and The Chicago Alliance to End Homelessness, effective Oct. 1, 2011. This unique strategic partnership brings together the two largest systems-level nonprofits addressing homelessness in Chicago.

I'd like to announce a merger of Changing Worlds and the Shanti Foundation for Peace, completed with the assistance of Mission + Strategy's consultant Cinda Rierson, among many others. Congratulations to the Executive Directors Mark Rodriguez and Indira Johnson for a job well-done!

There has been so much discussion about the push to merge nonprofits that I thought it would be good to shift the focus to another form of strategic integration: Shared Service Alliances, or what some people refer to as management service organizations.

Northern Illinois regional planning organization leads the way in restructuring services through the American Recovery act.

The Tribune wrote a piece in the business section yesterday about some local activity about nonprofit mergers and partnerships. In case you missed it, you can go here to link to the article.  The piece mentions BOC, the Back Office Collaborative, and the Alliance to End Homelessness in Suburban Cook County. Oh, and also I get a few quotes in, as well.

In August, I wrote a blog entry about three nonprofit in Maui, Hawaii who came together through a merger announced in June of this year: Maui Youth & Family Services, Aloha House