Alzheimers Auckland and Counties Manukau – Moving Forward Together
Alzheimer Auckland Inc and Alzheimers Counties Manukau Inc
have joined together to form one united organisation – to be called
Alzheimers Auckland Charitable Trust. For twenty five years the
two organisations had operated separately, however in June last
year the boards of both organisations started discussions about
how we could work together more closely for the benefit of our
clients. As a result we merged operationally in November 2010,
and we will be legally one within the next few weeks (just waiting
on Charities Commission approval of our new Trust deed).
The aim of merging was to release money from management and
administration and refocus this into front line services to clients.
We are already seeing the benefits, with more staff employed, and
increasing client numbers. We have been able to more than
double the number of carer education programmes we offer to
family members caring for a person with dementia. We will also be
able to strengthen some of our infrastructure such as IT and phones
through savings made once we have merged two systems into one
more modern system. Merging has also increased our fundraising
capacity, which will hopefully result in greater financial stability and
service capacity in the future.
So the benefits of merging are definitely there. Getting there was a
lot of work, and it has been important throughout the process to
have a long term focus so that we didn’t get bogged down in the detail.
Some key learnings from our experience are:
- Get professional advice from the beginning of
the process - Good communication with all stakeholders,
including staff, and clients, is critical - You will need extra capacity to manage the
merger – you might need to buy this in for a time - Merging is as much about culture as it is about
legal status – each partner’s organisational culture needs to be respected in
the process - Merging is change management
- It takes lots of time and lots of talk and a
good plan - You can operate as one before you become legally
one - Keeping focused on the big picture and the
mission is key
We would be happy to share our experience with any other organisations
thinking about joining together in some way.
Bonnie Robinson
General Manager