Philanthropy Front and Center-San Francisco

Listen! David La Piana Discusses How Nonprofits Should Approach Strategic Restructuring

David La Piana, author of Strategic Restructuring: Mergers, Integrations and Alliances, recently sat down with Janet Camarena, Director, Foundation Center-San Francisco, to talk about best practices in how nonprofits should approach collaborations, mergers, and other types of partnerships. Listen>>

David La Piana, author of Strategic Restructuring: Mergers, Integrations and Alliances, recently sat down with Janet Camarena, Director, Foundation Center-San Francisco, to talk about best practices in how nonprofits should approach collaborations, mergers, and other types of partnerships. Listen>>

Two Special Events for Arts Organizations: On Partnerships and Real Estate Acquisition

We would like to draw your attention to two unique upcoming events for art organizations in celebration of Funding for Arts Month at the Foundation Center - San Francisco:

Thursday, October 8, 10am-12pm: Popping the Partnership Question: What Arts Organizations Need to Know about Partnerships, Collaborations, and Mergers  Bob Harrington of La Piana Consulting will describe the various partnership options available to nonprofit arts organizations, discuss the benefits and challenges of restructuring, and provide examples of arts organization partnerships. Register>>

Thursday, October 15, 3-5pm: The Upside of a Down Economy: Real Estate Acquisition for Arts Organizations Learn from the Berkeley Repertory Theatre, which has been taking advantage of the real estate market to expand. We will also feature advice from the Nonprofit Finance Fund, who will discuss best practices in planning your facility project and the impact this can have on an organization's mission, programs, structure, operations, fundraising and financial health. Register>>

Both of these programs will take place at The Foundation Center-San Francisco, 312 Sutter Street, San Francisco. Directions>>

Be sure to check out our October Funding for Arts Month Calendar for a complete list of upcoming free programs.

Thanks to Our Funding for Arts Month Sponsors: James Irvine Foundation and Walter & Elise Haas Fund.

Thursday, October 15, 3-5pm: The Upside of a Down Economy: Real Estate Acquisition for Arts Organizations Learn from the Berkeley Repertory Theatre, which has been taking advantage of the real estate market to expand. We will also feature advice from the Nonprofit Finance Fund, who will discuss best practices in planning your facility project and the impact this can have on an organization's mission, programs, structure, operations, fundraising and financial health. Register>>

Insight on Nonprofit Mergers

Is your nonprofit considering merging with another organization to help weather the current economic crisis?

Then you may want to review a recent post by Clinton O'Brien on Frogloop, the blog from Care2. Titled Nonprofit Mergers and Alliances - Don't Try This at Home?, the post summarizes a discussion with Guidestar CEO Bob Ottenhoff and Network for Good CEO Bill Strathmann held here in DC last week.

During the discussion, Strathmann talked about his own experiences when Network for Good merged with Groundspring in 2005. He noted, “Mergers are made for financial reasons but fail for people reasons” -- a view shared by other management experts.

The two speakers addressed issues that merging organizations may face, including "culture" clashes, difficulties in uniting different technologies, and the impact of layoffs. They also suggested that assistance from a third party, such as a charitable foundation, can help foster trust and cooperation -- and possibly provide bridge funding during the process.

A list of resources on the topic of nonprofit mergers and collaborations can be found on the Lodestar Foundation web site. We also found some interesting articles available online:

• The Reality Underneath the Buzz of Partnerships: The Potentials and Pitfalls of Partnering by Francie Ostrower. Stanford Social Innovation Review, Vol. 3 (Spring 2005)
• Merger Mania? National, Regional Groups Continue Negotiations to Join Forces by Don McNamara. Nonprofit Times, Vol. 19 (1 September 2005)
• Multi-Agency Planning: Working Together Just Makes Sense by Thomas McLaughlin. Nonprofit Times, Vol. 16 (1 December 2002)

You can find additional resources on nonprofit mergers and alliances in our library, including:

• The Nonprofit Mergers Workbook: The Leader's Guide to Considering, Negotiating, and Executing a Merger by David La Piana
• Forming Alliances: Working Together to Achieve Mutual Goals by Linda Hoskins and Emil Angelica
• Nonprofit Mergers: The Power of Successful Partnerships by Dan H. McCormick

To locate more resources on this topic, search the Foundation Center's Catalog of Nonprofit Literature; you could start by searching on "Nonprofit organizations--mergers" in the subject field.

(This post is from Trina Brown, reference librarian at the Foundation Center's Washington D.C. library/learning center.)

A Crisis is a Terrible Thing to Waste!

That was the resounding theme today at “The Economy: A Forum on the Realities and Opportunities for Bay Area Nonprofits” presented by CompassPoint and Citi at the San Francisco City Club.  True to title, the program in a mere three hours ambitiously outlined the state of the California economy, the state of the Bay Area nonprofit sector, and practical steps that nonprofits can take to respond to current insecurities.  And the message was that we cannot go back to old way of doing business, period!

Thought leader Jean Ross from the California Budget Project  opened the day with some grim figures about the state of the Californian economy.  In essence, it is not clear how California will crawl out this hole with a 40 billion budget gap.  To put that in perspective, that is roughly equivalent to the total budgets of the university system, the prison system and health and human services combined.  We simply do not have the revenue we need to meet the demand for services and our current measures do not come close to plugging the hole.  As everyone knows, the great irony of times like these is that, inevitably, this is when safety net services are most needed.  Ms. Ross concluded with a couple suggestions on where we could focus our energy to take advantage of this crisis by examining:

1. tax policy that benefits the few at the expense of the many and specifically tax cuts to corporations
2. inefficiencies in “ballot box budgeting”
3. federal bailout as an option since she believes that “
   California is too big to fail”

Following Ms. Ross was James Head from the San Francisco Foundation (SFF) who talked about some of the changes the foundation has made in response to the economy.  First, SFF is increasing funding for “safety net” services including efforts to prevent housing loss and domestic counseling.  Second, they have made a substantial one year contribution to the Northern California Grantmakers Association emergency loan funds. And lastly, SFF has initiated a new fund for strategic restructuring of organizations that are pursuing mergers and formal collaborations.

Next, Kim Klein beckoned us all to take advantage of this time to question economic assumptions about the status quo and to challenge some of our more ingrained taboos around money.  Most notably, she challenged us to get involved in understanding and examining our tax policy.  She encouraged us all talk about money and rekindle a philosophy of who should be paying for the services we provide instead of chasing the dollars that are out there.  Only then, she argued, can we reshape our role in the field and become the agents of change we aim to be.

The last portion of the program was a panel discussion with technical leaders in the field:  Paul Connolly, TCCgroup; David Greco, Nonprofit Finance Fund; Jeanne Bell, CompassPoint; Priscilla Hung, Grassroots Institute for Fundraising Training and moderated by Jan Masaoka, Blue Avocado.   

This lively discussion yielded several noteworthy suggestions for all to consider:

1. We must focus on our leadership capacities and evaluation systems.
2. Diversify:  funding sources, leadership and constituency.
3. When the storm does blow over, we must not go back to business as usual and keep fundraising and programs separate.
4. We must understand what programs feed the bottom line of the organization’s mission.
5. Simultaneously, we must consider dynamic funding models that account for programs that may not be a central but that fund the core.
6. This is not the time for 5 year strategic plans rather for rolling projections and contingency planning.
7. Focus on shared leadership opportunities.
8. Be nimble as an organization.

As a final note, if you want to participate in this conversation, please join us on Wednesday, May 29, 2009 for a Meet the Grantmakers: The State of San Francisco's Nonprofit Sector.

Posted by C. Davis Fischer, Training Coordinator, Foundation Center- San Francisco.

SVCF Regional Meeting

Yesterday, in the company of more than 1,000 people, I attended the first regional meeting of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation (SVCF) at the Flint Center in Cupertino. The new foundation was formed in January 2007 through the merger of Community Foundation Silicon Valley and Peninsula Community Foundation.  Several board and staff members spoke about the complexities of the merger, SVFC's current progress and remaining work, and the opportunities and challenges in building the foundation's reputation for leadership both in the community and among philanthropic institutions.

For me, and I suspect many others in attendance, CEO Emmett Carson's speech highlighted the event. (Download the transcript of his remarks.)  After giving some background on SVCF's new grantmaking strategies, Carson used the opportunity to launch the Strengthen the Safety Net campaign. With this $1-million challenge grant for every $1 donated SVFC will send $2 to nonprofits in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties that provide food and shelter. Overall it was an inspiring program. SVCF titled this meeting "A new tradition" and I hope it does become a recurring event.

SF Film Groups Merge

After 32 years of service, the Film Arts Foundation announced yesterday that it will no longer be able to sustain its current services, and that a decision was made by its board and staff to merge with the San Francisco Film Society.  We have referred many a filmmaker over the years to the services of the Film Arts Foundation, so I write this eulogy of sorts with more than a little sadness.  However, upon reading the announcement further I was more than a little relieved to see that many of the services the Film Arts Foundation was known for, such as film production classes, assistance with marketing and promoting films, and fiscal sponsorship would be continued or expanded by the merger with the San Francisco Film Society. 

At a press conference yesterday about the merger, the San Francisco Film Society also announced four new initiatives designed to promote independent filmmaking in the Bay Area:

• FilmHouse Residencies, a 2,800-square-foot space at Pier 27 on the Embarcadero that will be available free of charge to selected Bay Area filmmakers;
• Herbert Filmmaking Grants, currently with $25,000 to award to Bay Area filmmakers to provide critical support at various stages of their projects (calls for entry will be published in November 2008);
• the Filmmakers Advisory Board, an active group of established Bay Area film professionals whose role is to aid in further developing SFFS Filmmaker Services ; and
• a new large-scale monthly evening screening/conference/networking event that brings together and showcases Bay Area filmmakers and filmmaking. (Full details will be announced in September.)

For more information about the new initiatives or the merger see the following sources:

• San Francisco Film Society press release
• Film Arts Foundation web site
• San Francisco Chronicle article