Strategic Restructuring:
Partnership Options for Nonprofits

Announcing the Decision to Merge

As soon as both boards have approved the merger, you will want to announce the decision publicly. The announcement phase is comparatively short in duration, but takes a significant amount of planning. A well-planned and executed announcement sets the stage for a successful integration. (See Communication in the Post-Merger Integration Phase.) It is important for the organizations involved to coordinate their announcement, both in content and in timing.

Who needs to know?

In planning the announcement you need to consider who your stakeholders are, both internal and external. Make a list of these.

In addition to board members (who presumably will already know about the merger decision), internal stakeholders include:

• Management
• Staff
• Volunteers

External stakeholders include:

• Clients/customers
• Funders
• Donors
• Members (if applicable)
• Community leaders
• Members of the press
• Collaborators / partner organizations
• Government agencies
• The community and public at large

When do they need to know?

Internal stakeholders should be informed before external stakeholders. Management should be informed immediately after board approval. Staff should be informed next, and then volunteers.

What do they need to know?

You will then need to ask yourself: What are the information needs of these stakeholders? What questions will they have? What will they want to know? What concerns will they have?

For staff, the key concern will be how the merger will impact them. Specifically, they will most want to know how the merger will impact their job, pay and benefits, and role and responsibilities. These questions will be on people’s minds during the negotiations process, but will come to a head in the post-merger integration phase. Because these answers may not be fully known at first, responding to them will require significant time and effort over a period of time. (For more on this, see Communications in the Post-Merger Integration Phase).

Talking Points: A useful tool for supporting external communications

A Talking Points document is a very helpful tool in developing communications for the various stakeholders, especially external ones. This document is a concise distillation of the reasons why the organizations are merging. It addresses the benefits and impact of the merger from the perspective of the merging organizations and, most importantly, from the perspective of their stakeholders. It is important to disseminate the Talking Points widely in the merging organizations. This assures that everyone has the same information, and that external communications are consistent. Key components of the Talking Points document include:

• The rationale for the merger (case statement)
• The vision and mission of the new, merged organization
• The value each merging organization brings to the table
• The population that will be served by the new organization
• How the community will benefit
• The strengths of the new organization
• The changes that are anticipated (to the degree that they are known at this point)
• What will not change (to the degree that this is known at the time of the announcement)
• The timing for integration (as much as this is known)
• Who to contact for more information (name, title, phone number, email address)

Anticipating and responding to questions

People will have many questions. Some of these you will be able to anticipate in advance, others you will need to respond as they arise. The Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) document that you developed in the negotiation phase (see External Communications in the Negotiation Phase) is a great starting place. This document should be added to over time, as new questions arise. Responses should be documented so that everyone has consistent information. It is particularly useful for internal communications, as it typically addresses all the key questions that staff has: e.g., How are our benefits affected? Will we have to move to a different building? If the answer hasn’t been decided yet, it’s important to note this and update the FAQ when the answer is available. The FAQ, like the Talking Points, should be distributed widely throughout the organization. It is supportive of external communications, but because many questions address internal issues, it should not necessarily be distributed externally.

How should the announcement be communicated?

It is always best to communicate in person. While this may not always be possible, especially with external audiences, it is very essential to meet face-to-face with staff and key volunteers. If this isn’t possible (e.g., if a staff person is on leave or a volunteer can’t come to a meeting where the announcement will be made), it’s important to contact them by phone. For others (e.g., if your organization has a large number of volunteers), you may need to send a personalized letter as it will be impossible to meet with everyone in person or by phone.

For external audiences, you will need to implement a tiered strategy. For major donors and funders, an in-person meeting would be best, but is not always feasible, especially given the need to make the announcement as simultaneously as possible to all. Since you will have already informed these stakeholders of your negotiations (see External Communications in the Negotiations Phase), a phone call, possibly followed by an in-person meeting later on, should be sufficient. For other key stakeholders (e.g., community leaders, key media/press contacts, collaborating agencies), a phone call, followed by a personalized letter, is a good approach. For others, a letter or other written statement (e.g., a press release) should be used.