Walking Away

Letting Go of Your Nonprofit: Mission-Centered Leadership During a Merger

Jean Butzen

106 pages, Independently published, 2021

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In my career as a collaboration consultant, I have encountered many people who started exploring a merger strategy, but in the end, could not let go of their nonprofit organization. I have encountered a smaller number who could, who helped further their organization’s mission and created a stronger nonprofit as a result.

I am sympathetic to those who decide they are unable to take their nonprofit through a merger. I know it is hard; I have done it. There are many very good reasons not to complete a merger, like financial debt or cultural misalignment. In these cases, I advise my clients to either consider a partnership or go their separate ways. However, when the business strategy, governance, and culture of multiple nonprofit organizations appear to align, sometimes the leader of one of the nonprofits reacts emotionally and refuses to participate—thus putting to an end to what might otherwise have been a positive outcome. 

Why is it that some leaders can let go and find ways to address and resolve these issues and others cannot? Who are the leaders who are able to let go, and do they have any characteristics in common?

I decided to write a book about these nonprofit leaders who could let go. There are many excellent “how-to-merge” books available, but nothing that addresses the emotional aspects of letting go from the perspective of the leader who is taking their nonprofit into another. I wanted to explore any similarities and differences among those who decide to, and are able to, let go. What are their motivations, desires, beliefs, and actions? Letting Go of Your Nonprofit: Mission-Centered Leadership During a Merger highlights the stories of six leaders who have let go of their organizations as part of a merger strategy and then identifies the patterns in their behavior that others could learn from. I wanted my book to support these individuals and others who might follow them.—Jean Butzen 

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Are there leadership patterns among people able to let go of their nonprofit organization in a merger? I went over the recorded interviews to identify the characteristics of each person I had talked to. I then compared these traits from leader to leader to determine if there were similarities. There was remarkable consistency among all six people, even though each one is unique, as was each of the organizations they led.

Despite the small sample size, the results appear to show a pattern for people who lead their nonprofit organization into a merger and give up an executive director or CEO position. In fact, as it turns out, all six of the interviewed leaders initiated the merger discussions with their partner, and all six willingly, sometimes enthusiastically, participated in a merger while understanding that it would bring their leadership job to an end.

Despite the reservations that leaders often have about what might happen to them professionally if they leave their position due to a merger, the mission-centered leaders highlighted in this book were each employed immediately following the merger, and went on to hold a new professional role that was as good if not better than the one they left, as shown on the following chart. The people interviewed for this book were very happy with their new professional positions, which would not have been possible if they had not let go.

Leaders’ Professional Positions Before and After Their Mergers

The Mission-Centered Leader

Based on the characteristics the six leaders had in common, I am suggesting a new leadership type, the mission-centered leader, with the following definition:

Mission-centered leaders are people who are able to focus on the mission when they make decisions, while refusing to be ruled or biased by fears about their own career.

Being a mission-centered leader can be easier for some people and harder for others. Becoming one is a process of learning and changing that has little to do with any talent one is born with. The mission-centered leaders interviewed for this book shared these three overarching qualities:

1. Leadership experience: Each person had acquired practical knowledge developed over years of managing nonprofit organizations.
2. Value-based decision making: Specific tried-and-true values guided each person’s decision-making process.
3. Emotional control: Personal emotions did not overwhelm organizational circumstances.

This chart lays out in more detail the similar characteristics that mission-centered leaders have.

Let’s discuss the three categories individually.

Leadership Experience

Mission-centered leaders are experienced leaders who have led their organization successfully. They have worked hard to strengthen their nonprofit over a period of years and have put their heart and soul into the organization. Mission-centered leaders have done everything possible with the resources at their disposal—including strengthening the board of directors, boosting fundraising, and creating new programs—to create a stable nonprofit organization that is positioned for the long term. Careful with money, they have thought ahead about the organization’s future revenue needs.

They are team players who constantly think about the needs of the stakeholders—the nonprofit’s employees, board members, donors and funders, community, and especially its clients.

Mission-centered leaders are strategic thinkers, and they like to develop organizational strategies using data-driven strategic planning. They are curious about what their colleagues are doing and what new techniques or strategies are being used in the field. They attend conferences, workshops, and webinars to learn the latest thinking in their fields.

They are willing to try new methods, but only after careful consideration and planning. They do not avoid problems; they usually tackle them head on. Despite all their efforts, mission-centered leaders recognize that so much more is needed to serve their organization’s core constituency; this drives them to form collaborations and partnerships with other nonprofits in order to leverage their efforts and increase their impact.

Value-Based Decision Making

The mission-centered leader’s first consideration related to a merger—or any strategy—is whether it serves the mission best. They use the word “mission” possibly more than any other group of leaders. When a barrier or concern is raised, the first words out of a mission-centered leader’s mouth are usually, “Remember, it’s about the mission.” Mission comes first, second, and third with mission-centered leaders.

Mission-centered leaders hold fast to the vision of the merger and make progress toward meeting the three-year goals of the combined organization.

Honesty is a critical value to a mission-centered leader, who will want to share the information about a proposed merger with the management team and, more broadly, with all of the employees and other stakeholders as quickly as possible. Soon enough, the mission-centered leader will be briefing their entire workforce on a regular basis to bring everyone along and leading teams to design the integration of the operations and cultures.

Such leaders love to learn and see the merger as a wonderful learning opportunity, a chance to learn how to execute each stage of the merger process and then be a conduit of information about the merger to their team members.

They see the whole process as an opportunity, one that is especially exciting when they believe the outcome will be beneficial to the people they serve. They are very patient, and when the process takes longer than expected, mission-centered leaders step up and help alleviate the frustration of their team and board members by reminding them of the mission and vision of the merger. All along, the mission-centered leader keeps the focus on the mission and the programs. As a result, the leader, the board members, and the staff need to remain humble in terms of the impact on themselves of all this change.

Emotional Control

There are many practical reasons why a leader may not choose a merger strategy. But, when business and organizational issues have been resolved, often a leader is afraid to make the difficult decision to take the organization into the unknown and through the difficulties of a transition rather than stay comfortably within the current familiar confines of autonomy. Though fear can be a great inhibitor to making the choice to merge, mission-centered leaders face their fear and are not ruled by it; they move forward despite their fear.

Facing fear is more an ongoing process than a one-time event, and mission-centered leaders help their boards and staff members not to be biased by fear either, by reminding them to focus on the benefits to be gained for the mission as a result of the merger. The mission-centered leader has conquered their fear because they have already determined that, no matter what happens related to their own career, they will be fine. It’s not always clear how they know this, but they aren’t anxious about finding their next job. As Chris Bunch said, “I was looking for a job when I got this one.”

Knowing that their nonprofit will be better off after the merger is very important to mission-centered leaders’ ability to move on. “Moving on” is a personal process that usually isn’t accomplished overnight. Instead, it happens in steps, starting with early contemplation about their postmerger permanent position and determining how they can best assist with the merger process and transition. Leaders don’t always know how they will feel, when the time comes, about staying at or leaving the merged organization, but they can postpone that decision until the merger is completed. And they know it’s all right to change their mind down the road.

Decision-Making Steps for Mission-Centered Leaders

Just knowing the characteristics of mission-centered leaders is not enough, however. You may be wondering: How exactly do leaders select a merger strategy knowing that it will have significant implications for them personally and for their organizations?

The process of selecting a merger strategy is not the same for every nonprofit leader. Some leaders who have never experienced a merger will immediately get it, jump on board, and never look back; others will find it much more difficult to accept a merger strategy (much less proactively choosing one) with the knowledge that they will have to give up the position they have loved for years.

When choosing to pursue a merger, most leaders generally follow the steps in the following list. As you read this outline of the merger process, consider the type of leader you are—one who lets go easily or one who will need time to work through the implications of your choice. What steps would you add to these?

1. Your organization has grown steadily for a while and is strong in a number of areas. To maximize the nonprofit’s impact, you and your team have done everything you can to strengthen the organization further, including partnering with others. You realize your nonprofit is unable to overcome certain weaknesses and advance on its own.
2. Introduced to a merger strategy, you explore it privately at first. You think through its implications, possibly with a few managers or board leaders you are close to and are convinced the strategy has merits.
3. You privately struggle with the potential downside for yourself and possibly your nonprofit, such as the loss of your organization’s name or board positions. At this critical point, you privately decide to accept the necessity of sacrificing your position for the larger goals of the organization. You look for governance, branding, and merger models that might address the needs of your nonprofit. When satisfied you have addressed every possible downside of a merger and you nevertheless decide to move forward, you have become a mission-centered leader.
4. You discuss the merger concept with your board. Your role is to educate your team and board on the merger strategy’s importance to the nonprofit’s mission and to assure them that it’s the right path to take.
5. You work with a representative group of board members to design a process for exploring the possibilities with another nonprofit, and you carry out a negotiation. Throughout the process, you calm nerves, explain the vision and benefits of the merger strategy, and keep everyone supportive.
6. After the merger votes take place, you move into assisting with the transition and helping everyone settle into new roles, a new structure, and a new culture before you move on to your new postmerger role.

It is important to acknowledge that sometimes it is the board of directors, not the executive director or CEO, whose fears can bring a merger to a halt. Many of the reasons the board might oppose a merger are similar to the executive director or CEO’s reasons, particularly when the board is led by the person who founded the nonprofit; founders often have a particular attachment to the organization, almost a sense of ownership of the nonprofit. Other board members can also be extremely protective of the mission (and generally opposed to merger strategies). Despite board directors’ wonderful contributions to the nonprofit and the community, it’s critical that they maintain objectivity when it comes to evaluating strategies and the strategies’ impact on the mission, the employees, and the community the nonprofit serves.

In my experience, however, more mergers are stopped by reluctant executive directors or CEOs than by boards—and the leader can incite the board to oppose the proposed merger. In one merger I facilitated, a merger of three nonprofit human-service agencies, all three of the nonprofits’ boards and two of the executive directors were very eager to merge. However, one of the executive directors absolutely refused to merge—but didn’t say anything until it was time to sign a letter of intent. Suddenly, at the instigation of this executive director, all hell broke out among the staff. There was so much friction that the board had to pull the plug on their part in the merger talks and withdraw from the process. The other two nonprofits eventually went on to merge with each other.

A merger will never take place unless the executive director or CEO, the board chair, and the majority of the board members are all aligned in its support.

Bringing the Board of Directors Along

One of the most important skills any leader can develop is the ability to gain the support of the board and executive team for a merger. Each of the six mission-centered leaders interviewed for this book had their own method for bringing along the board of directors to support the merger process. Generally, however, all six nonprofit executive directors or CEOs here—as well as others I’ve worked with—have some things in common, including the following:

1. Each person was highly respected and trusted by their board, particularly by the board chair, before the process began.
2. Each leader identified a clear need for the merger strategy that could be met by no other means and would result in a definite benefit to the mission, and they shared this need with the board.
3. The leader involved the board early in the review of a merger strategy—a strategy that might have arisen from the organization’s strategic planning process or because the leader had attended a training.
4. The leader made sure that, before the merger process began, the board identified the issues that were not up for negotiation—for example, the name of the postmerger organization.
5. A representative subgroup of the board participated in a negotiation with the potential merger partner and then regularly reported back to the full board.

When presented with a merger proposal, not every board of directors votes to proceed. I have seen multiple instances of the CEO and the board being divided about whether to continue with a merger process. Many times, a worried CEO has asked me for advice about how to approach the board with the proposal. The boards of all the executive directors and CEOs featured in this book strongly supported a merger strategy. Why? In addition to the five reasons listed above, I wonder if, in part, the professional sacrifice these leaders make by giving up their position makes a deep impression on board members and helps to silence, or at least minimize, any objections they may have.

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We experience fear whenever we step toward the unknown—and of course those whose stories are told here didn’t know what the outcome of their merger efforts would be. All of them experienced fear and anxiety, but none of them embraced or surrendered to it.

Fear is a powerful emotion, but I believe that these leaders were able to contain their personal apprehension by focusing on their nonprofit’s mission. Listening to these leaders, I realized that, in mergers, fear is linked to the potential loss of power—which is the true source of the fear. However, these executive directors and CEOs reframed their situations by accepting the simple reality that the merger represented a move into the unknown. Their healthy, balanced reaction and attitudes liberated them from crippling emotions, thereby energizing their commitment to the merger.

What distinguishes mission-centered leaders from other leaders is their uncommon ability to act on two ideas at the same time: they could focus on the mission even as they were letting go of their position. Crucially, this ability allowed them to evaluate the merger objectively, make good decisions, and carry the strategy forward. They had a strong connection to something bigger than they were, something more meaningful than a title or role. They were guided by something more important than themselves—a true skill that is rarely exercised in this world.