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Tips and Answers
to Your Questions
Deciding to Restructure
Why do you feel it is necessary today for nonprofit
organizations to consider mergers, partnerships or collaborations?
Is the case the same for art nonprofits as it is for other nonprofits?
There are many factors that motivate nonprofits to consider mergers,
partnerships or collaborations: economics (both in the positive sense
- to achieve economies of scale, for example, or increase access to
certain kinds of funding - and the negative sense - to address a financial
crisis or deal with increasing costs); new opportunities; leadership
challenges; a tired board; to better serve the community; to gain access
to certain kinds of expertise; or for reasons specific to the organizations
involved (an ED leaving, for example). The environment in which nonprofits
operate is constantly changing, and for many organizations continued
success is dependent on the ability to be flexible and to work with
other organizations.
This is just as true for arts organizations as it is for others. What
we have seen, however, is that arts organizations are somewhat less
apt to pursue mergers than those in other sub-sectors, and more apt
to look to other, less integrative options for partnership or collaboration.
We have seen many excellent examples of arts organizations working
together on administrative consolidations, for example - sharing staff,
marketing, performance space, ticketing operations, back office functions,
etc. We have also seen examples of joint programming between arts organizations
- jointly created exhibits or productions, for example.
For more information on why nonprofits consider strategic restructuring,
take a look at the 2000 study Strategic
Restructuring: Findings from a Study of Integrations and Alliances
Among Nonprofit Social Service and Cultural Organizations in the United
States. The findings in that study are based on a survey of 192
organizations, 18% of which self-identified as arts and culture organizations.
The discussion of "Organizational Characteristics" (page
13-14) may be of special interest to you, as it includes a reference
to the non-merger orientation of the arts organizations in the study.
There is also a detailed case study of an administrative consolidation
between two arts organizations in the publication.
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