The topic of mergers comes up frequently. Many organisations have either been through one, have thought about one or are mid-transaction. For example, in the disability sector over half of the 30 highest revenue disability service providers in Australia have gone through a merger or acquisition in the last seven years.
To be clear, mergers aren’t always the right strategic option for an organisation. Evidence from the for-profit sector indicates that a third of all mergers destroy value. However, if it is the right option to enable your organisation to deliver more impact and better outcomes for your clients, it is important to remember that mergers are challenging. And because mergers happen rarely in the life of a single organisation, many don’t have a team of merger experts on staff.
Mergers are hard for lots of reasons (see the how-to guide in the article if you’re interested in the elements of an not-for-profit merger) – and they require all parties to have tough conversations, internally as well as with each other.
To view the ProBono article in full, click here.