In a series of articles here and here we discussed the importance of protecting a charity’s assets and organizing its activities to achieve maximum efficiency in operations and effectiveness in engaging with donors and volunteers.
Long established charitable organizations sometimes find that they have a number of entities carrying on various roles in their overall operations. Sometimes, as a result of legacy organizations created generations earlier, a charity will find that it has one or more legal entities that are no longer needed and that either one or more mergers can take place or new organizations with updated objectives are required to meet current needs and purposes.
We are currently working with a client that through the course of its history has ended up with five different non profit organizations, four of them with charitable status. A thorough analysis and discussion is taking place with the professional and lay leaders of the umbrella/parent organization to determine what would be the optimum end result to rationalize the number of organizations thereby creating greater efficiency in operations and renewed focus on the overall objectives of the client organization.
The plan being formulated will see the reduction from the five organizations down to three by transferring the assets and merging two of the organizations into two of the remaining organizations and keeping the parent in place.
The implementation plan is being developed and will entail several steps to complete the entire process. Legal documents effecting the transfer of assets will be required and meetings of the board of directors of each organization will take place to approve the restructuring plan and the elements that pertain to it.
Once completed our client will have achieved a more effective organizational structure to achieve its objectives while maintaining all of its activities and fundraising programs in support of its purposes.