Follow-up: Too Many Nonprofits

My post last week on the subject of "too many nonprofits" (I came on the side of defending duplicate services) has received a bit of attention on other sites. Leila Johnson of Datascribe says:

Here in New Mexico, there are over 7,000 nonprofit organizations. We are a fairly small state, so I know that services are being duplicated. We've encountered that with some of our clients. Sometimes nonprofit organizations have to close due to lack of funding. Could that be because of the duplication of services?

She agreed with me that mergers are not always the answer, and then offered a solution that I'm embarrassed to have not mentioned:

Forming an Alliance It would be great if more nonprofits were willing to band together to achieve their missions. They could market cooperatively to reach similar individuals. What a great way to save money and increase your reach.

I wholeheartedly agree with this suggestion. Somewhere between complete autonomy and independence and a merger that eliminates one organization's legacy are a world of possibilities.

From the cooperative marketing that Leila mentions, to sharing office space, to setting up one-stop program intake for multiple agencies, strategic alliances offer opportunities for both cost savings and program gains.

Tags: nonprofit, mergers, alliances, strategic