More Mergers for the Nonprofit World

According to Lucy Bernholz, president of Blueprint Research & Design, a consulting firm for philanthropic institutions, a top buzzword for nonprofits this year is "mergers." "Mergers are picking up in pockets across the country as nonprofits, which spent most of 2009 cutting their capacity as much as they possibly could, have to start getting strategic in looking for alliances with other organizations," Bernholz recently told NPR's Market Place. To hear the entire NPR interview click here.

Aware of these economic realities, First 5 LA has provided two programs to assist nonprofits develop strategies for survival well into the future. The Sustainability Project (offered three times between 2006 and 2009) was a seven-month training, planning and coaching process at First 5 LA. It helped agencies strengthen and maintain their ability to achieve positive outcomes for children and their families by creating a comprehensive sustainability plan that included financing plans and strategies.

Introduced in 2008-2009 in collaboration with the Social Enterprise Institute, the First 5 LA Social Enterprise Academy supports organizations' development of mission-based earned income strategies. Among the success stories from this program was the launching of the Child Care Information Services' (CCIS) Training Institute last summer.

After conducting market research and calculating financial projections, the staff at CCIS determined that they could earn additional income and influence the quality of child care in the San Gabriel Valley. They formalized the many workshops, site visit services and mentoring activities they were already offering and packaged these services into the Training Institute, creating both an important service and a new source of revenue.

First 5 LA is hopeful that these training programs along with a broad range of technical assistance and professional development programs will leverage and strengthen the excellent work of the nonprofit sector, translating into new ways of assuring that communities are well-served and organizations are sustained despite the economy. 

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