Speaker at CFG's Annual Conference 2012

1. Mergers, Partnerships and
Collaboration
Claudia McVie May 17th 2012

2. The voluntary sector today
• £56 billion income
• £54 billion spend
• 941,465 trustees
• 828,089 employees
• 2,894,340 volunteers

3. • 189,000 charities in England & Wales
• 95% have income less than £500,000
• The voluntary sector delivery of public services
rose from 20% to 31% between 2010/11
• Cut in public spending, competition in tendering
process
• Competition for limited resources, reduction in real
terms in individual giving

5. Oxford Dictionary Definitions
Merger A combination of two things into one
Partnership An association of two or more people
Collaboration The action of working with someone to
produce something

7. 2002
=

8. 2008
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9. Who do you want to merge with and why?
‘Desire to reduce duplication and allow the
organisation to speak with one voice that can better
serve the needs of older people than
the existing two.’ - Age UK

10. Reasons
• 58% of mergers are conducted to improve service
delivery
• 37% for solvency
• 5% combination of the two
• 50% of commercial mergers fail

11. Steps
• Discussions between Chairs of the Boards
• Secrecy and due diligence... is this right!
• Will we be stronger not weaker together?
• Set clear goals, be realistic
• How is it all going to work?
• Do our grass roots supporters believe in it?
• THE NAME?

12. =

13. Watch out!
Post merger integration
• The culture- what do you want it to be? spend time getting
to know each other
• First 100 days are key
• Trustee Board- are they brave, will they work to their own
demise?
• Resources, systems mergers
• Who will lead the organisation?
• Clear strategic communication
• Keeping staff motivated………..grass roots
• Retain the day to day business

14. Post merger integration
• Competing for roles – 1 Chair, 1 CEO, 1 FD. The
recruitment process needs to be open, fair and
transparent. Whoever is at the top sets the culture –
watch out!
• Location – Where is Head Office? How many outreach
centres are there? What are the true costs of taking your
eye off the ball during negotiations during critical times?
How do you merge financial information? Systems and
resources, costs of TUPE?
• Will it really make a difference to your beneficiaries?
• Legacy income – do you hold aims and objectives in
common? A lady leaves all her money to an
environmental charity- would she be happy for it to go to
a religious charity?

15. Mergers
• Culture – What do you want it to be like? Spend
time getting to know each other
• Trustees imagination – will they work to their own
demise? Does it need external support and help?
• Discussions over the merger between Help the
Aged and Age Concern started 3 times in the last
10 years, recent ones started in 2006 and took 2
years

16. An association of 2 or more people
partnership/collaboration

17. • Why are you doing it?
• Invite involvement from the beginning
• What’s in it for me? Be clear
• Establish leadership roles and responsibilities
• Communicate
• Establish clear joint vision at the start
• Be flexible and get to know your partners
• Don’t choose partners whose interests conflict with
your own
• Never agree to deliver something you know you
can’t do!
• Review and laugh a lot!!!

18. Helps reach new
audiences
Provides insight
Inspires great
ideas
Provides
Partnership/ expertise
Adds new Collaboration
dimension Provides
opportunities
Shares experiences Increases capacity

20. No Smoking Day 2011
• Tenovus, Communities First, Stop Smoking
Wales, Health Alliance and health visiting teams.
Why?
• Smoking is the largest preventable cancer killer in
Wales – one death every 20 minutes
Where?
• Target audience: residents in poorest area of
Merthyr in South Wales Valleys

21. • Tenovus Mobile Unit, Health Check and volunteers
• Communities First links and access to local
community – Asda vouchers and packs
• Stop Smoking Wales trained Advisors
• Health Alliance stop smoking kit and free sports
passes

22. Impact
• 100 people attended on the day
• 20 signed up for the stop smoking group
• 15 people have given up
• Group sessions now being run on a weekly basis
• Follow up taking place
• This model is now being used to design other
initiatives
• Radio, TV and newspaper coverage

23. Ssssshhhhh!!!!!!!!

24. Takeover
• An act of assuming control of something
• Dirty word in the voluntary sector, be honest it is
easier in the long run
• Childline and NSPCC- financial instability of
Childline sorted by Takeover, and led to survival –
they have learnt about the things that are worrying
children and are able to shape their service
delivery and Childline retain their name

25. Final thoughts
Partnerships and collaborations, if planned well can be
great fun and achieve a lot!
Take overs can save something very precious
Mergers………

26. In my world
The cancer patient is at the heart of everything we
do….
0ver 800 cancer charities in England and Wales
Surely there is duplication but are we brave enough
and is big really the best?