Dear Friends of CRC:

 

Cooperation, Collaboration and Mergers... what are they and why should I care? In this time of economic chaos and struggle these words become more than just terms they are actionable items that every leader needs to be prepared to review, research, and implement for the betterment of the community that is served.

Integration is known by many names such as "collaboration", "cooperation", "coordination", "consolidation", and "merger". Different scholarly fields define integration differently. In the business field, integration is defined as "working together for market advantage" (De Jong, 2001). In health care, integration is defined as "coordination or linkages of services lines within or across stages in the production process of health care" (Conrad, 1990).

Integration represents a continuum of interrelationships among organizations that range from a very loose form such as information sharing to a very tight form such as merger. Konrad (1996) identified the following levels of integration: information sharing and communication; cooperation and coordination; collaboration; consolidation; complete integration or merger.

There are different reasons for integration. Organizations may move toward integration to meet more complex customer needs, compete for limited resources, maintain survival, pool resources, ensure seamless continuity of care, achieve organization goals that cannot be achieved without a partnership with other organizations, and enhance accountability.  One of the main reasons for integration is "synergy" that is by integrating; organizations can combine their resources, perspectives, and skills effectively and produce outcomes greater than the sum of outcomes produced by each individual member (Conrad, 1990).  Synergy is achieved through communication and coordination of activities among organizations.

For the purpose of this article I am using the following definitions.

 

Cooperation = knowledge and acknowledgement of other program or programs in the community serving the same populations.

 

An example of this is the cooperative training calendar that Community Resource Center, Metro Volunteers, and Colorado Nonprofit Association produce.

 

Coordination = more formal relationship between other programs serving same populations, often a relationship between administrator or program personnel.

I have seen this in action when I operated the program for expelled students, in Longmont Colorado, often the youth we worked with were receiving other services from other youth serving organizations and the program staff work meet informally to help insure the client's needs were met. This often occurs through a verbal agreement between the program managers or executive directors; I would suggest that if you do have these types of strong working relationships that you put them into a formal written agreement so that should there be staff turn over you have a guideline and document that will help continue these important relationships.

 

Collaboration = sharing goals, results and resources and responsibilities among organizations, in order to serve the population better.

Most organizations that enter into what they call a collaboration however, is more of a coordination or cooperation; a true collaboration takes a significant commitment of time, resources (both financial and staff) and a clear written agreement between each of the organizations involved. Some collaboration has more than 30 organizations involved.  Many grant makers ask about collaboration efforts, yet they do not always understand that resources needed to keep an effective collaboration working. It is our responsibility to educate the funders or potential funders about the true cost of forming and maintaining collaboration.

In my experience as an executive of nonprofits for more than 25 years, I have been involved with ten collaborations and attempted five more. Of the five that didn't take root there were many reasons. The key reasons were because the dedicated resources needed to make the projects take wings were not allocated. Many of the organizations did not have the key staff time that they could dedicate to the project, one effort did not have the lead staff that could manage the project, and one while the design was effective the funding was not secured.

 

Of the ten that I was involved in over the span of 25 years, two of the collaborations ended in a merger.  Several years later both organizations are still operating and growing to meet the needs of their communities. Four of the ten are still operating as collaborations to best serve their communities. The remaining four have fulfilled their purpose and are no longer operating as a formal collaboration.

 

The term merger is the legal combination of two organizations when dealing with nonprofit mergers, one 501c3 dissolves and re-emerges as part of another. Nonprofit mergers are different from corporate mergers or takeovers for several reasons. The initial questions usually have little to do with revenue profits, capitation, or equity owners value and more to do with mission capability, organizational leadership both volunteer and professional, where will it be headquartered, what programs will survive and how will our clients, donors, volunteers, and supporters be effected.

While you are trying to decide how to face the opportunities that this economy brings to the organization you are leading consider the power of a strong and successful partnership with another organization in your community. 

A good resource to find and connect with others in your community that might be a potential partner, contact your local United Way, your local nonprofit resource center, your local chamber of commerce, your local chapter of SCORE (Senior Corps of Retired Executives), and as always CRC as it is our mission to help provide you with tools, opportunities, and strategies to strengthen Colorado communities.
 

Respectfully,

 

Carol Lynn Nickell

Executive Director 

 

"To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly." Henri Bergson, French philosopher, 1859-1941