Chicago Nonprofit Merger Study
In 2016, Mission + Strategy commissioned “Mergers as a Strategy for Success,” a study to explore how nonprofit organizations can use mergers as an effective and powerful tool to achieve their goals, advance their mission, and increase their impact. Analyzing 25 nonprofit mergers that took place in the Chicago metro area, the study highlights the diverse paths these organizations took to arrive at positive outcomes, as well as key findings, insights, and recommendations for merger strategies.
The study analyzes 25 successful nonprofit mergers across a range of services and sectors including I/DD, youth services, healthcare, housing, job training, literacy, arts, legal aid, and more. With the mergers taking place in the Chicago metro area between 2004 and 2014, the study offers analysis of each of their entire merger processes, covering:
Why the organizations sought to merge
How the participants went about finding an appropriate partner
How they conducted negotiations
How they met the challenges that occurred along the way in order to achieve positive outcomes
What their post-merger organizations look like
Organizations included in the study:
With the goal of helping organizations learn how to better use merger strategies, the study also includes comprehensive analysis of key insights, including:
