Mergers, Partnerships and Collaboration

Claudia McVie May 17th 2012

The voluntary sector today

• £56 billion income

• £54 billion spend

• 941,465 trustees

• 828,089 employees

• 2,894,340 volunteers

• 189,000 charities in England & Wales

• 95% have income less than £500,000

• The voluntary sector delivery of public services rose from 20% to 31% between 2010/11

• Cut in public spending, competition in tendering process

• Competition for limited resources, reduction in real terms in individual giving

Oxford Dictionary Definitions

Merger A combination of two things into one

Partnership An association of two or more people

Collaboration The action of working with someone to

produce something

2002

=

2008

=

Who do you want to merge with and why?

‘Desire to reduce duplication and allow the organisation to speak with one voice that can better

serve the needs of older people than

the existing two.’ - Age UK

Reasons• 58% of mergers are conducted to improve service

delivery

• 37% for solvency

• 5% combination of the two

• 50% of commercial mergers fail

Steps

• Discussions between Chairs of the Boards• Secrecy and due diligence... is this right! • Will we be stronger not weaker together?• Set clear goals, be realistic • How is it all going to work?• Do our grass roots supporters believe in it?• THE NAME?

=

Watch out! Post merger integration

• The culture- what do you want it to be? spend time getting to know each other

• First 100 days are key • Trustee Board- are they brave, will they work to their own

demise?• Resources, systems mergers• Who will lead the organisation?• Clear strategic communication• Keeping staff motivated………..grass roots• Retain the day to day business

Post merger integration• Competing for roles – 1 Chair, 1 CEO, 1 FD. The

recruitment process needs to be open, fair and transparent. Whoever is at the top sets the culture – watch out!

• Location – Where is Head Office? How many outreach centres are there? What are the true costs of taking your eye off the ball during negotiations during critical times? How do you merge financial information? Systems and resources, costs of TUPE?

• Will it really make a difference to your beneficiaries?• Legacy income – do you hold aims and objectives in

common? A lady leaves all her money to an environmental charity- would she be happy for it to go to a religious charity?

Mergers• Culture – What do you want it to be like? Spend

time getting to know each other

• Trustees imagination – will they work to their own demise? Does it need external support and help?

• Discussions over the merger between Help the Aged and Age Concern started 3 times in the last 10 years, recent ones started in 2006 and took 2 years

An association of 2 or more people

partnership/collaboration

• Why are you doing it?• Invite involvement from the beginning• What’s in it for me? Be clear• Establish leadership roles and responsibilities• Communicate• Establish clear joint vision at the start • Be flexible and get to know your partners• Don’t choose partners whose interests conflict with

your own• Never agree to deliver something you know you

can’t do!• Review and laugh a lot!!!

Partnership/Collaboration

Increases capacity

Provides insight

Shares experiences

Adds new dimension

Inspires great ideas

Helps reach new audiences

Provides expertise

Provides opportunities

No Smoking Day 2011

• Tenovus, Communities First, Stop Smoking Wales, Health Alliance and health visiting teams.

Why?• Smoking is the largest preventable cancer killer in

Wales – one death every 20 minutes

Where?• Target audience: residents in poorest area of

Merthyr in South Wales Valleys

• Tenovus Mobile Unit, Health Check and volunteers

• Communities First links and access to local community – Asda vouchers and packs

• Stop Smoking Wales trained Advisors

• Health Alliance stop smoking kit and free sports passes

Impact

• 100 people attended on the day• 20 signed up for the stop smoking group• 15 people have given up• Group sessions now being run on a weekly basis• Follow up taking place• This model is now being used to design other

initiatives • Radio, TV and newspaper coverage

Ssssshhhhh!!!!!!!!

Takeover • An act of assuming control of something

• Dirty word in the voluntary sector, be honest it is easier in the long run

• Childline and NSPCC- financial instability of Childline sorted by Takeover, and led to survival – they have learnt about the things that are worrying children and are able to shape their service delivery and Childline retain their name

Final thoughts

Partnerships and collaborations, if planned well can be great fun and achieve a lot!

Take overs can save something very precious

Mergers………

In my world

The cancer patient is at the heart of everything we do….

0ver 800 cancer charities in England and Wales

Surely there is duplication but are we brave enough and is big really the best?