Strategic Restructuring for Nonprofit Organizations: Mergers, Integrations, and Alliances

Drawing on the findings of the most ambitious national study to date on nonprofit strategic restructuring, the authors provide nonprofit managers, board members, consultants, and foundation executives with research-based information to use in making tough decisions about whether and how to pursue a range of organizational partnerships—from jointly managed programs and consolidated administrative functions to full-scale mergers. The authors investigate two widespread assumptions—that strategic restructuring leads to greater organizational efficiency and that nonprofit consolidations are similar to corporate consolidations. Six in-depth case studies of actual nonprofit restructurings highlight the costs and benefits associated with this increasingly adopted course of action, a trend that is expected to remain on the upswing for the foreseeable future.