By Denise McCann from NICVA
Published on 26 Oct 2007
NICVA’s seminar on Collaboration & Mergers was a great success with those who attended on the 25 October. The aim of this morning session was to equip those organisations embarking on a merger or collaboration, with the “need to know” elements of these type of ventures.
Paula Reynolds, Member Services Director at NICVA, gave an overview of the wide spectrum of collaborative working in the sector citing a recent Viewfinder report which found that 82% of organisations surveyed stated that they are currently working on projects with other organisations.
She highlighted the drivers for collaboration and outlined the benefits as well as the risks.
View the slides
The practical side of mergers
Alan Gordon, Chair of RNIB gave a very insightful talk on the practical side of mergers from a charity trustee’s point of view. He outlined the drivers for the merger with the Blind Centre NI as well as highlighting the lessons learned.
He strived the importance of communication with stakeholders at various stages throughout the process. Whilst he said the whole process was very time consuming and sometimes stressful he emphasised that the main driver for them was to improve services for their beneficiaries and they knew that the merger would achieve that.
Legal aspects
Legal due diligence is a crucial part of the merger process. Jenny Ebbage of Cleaver Fulton Rankin Solicitors explained the purpose, objectives and scope of legal due diligence relating it specifically to the voluntary and community sector.
Her colleague Aisling Byrne highlighted the employment law issues that arise on a merger. Both solicitors were involved with the RNIB merger so it meant that both Alan’s practical experiences tied in with the legal side giving participants a great insight to the impact that a merger has on all who are involved with it.
Participant feedback
The feed back from participants who attended the seminar was very positive. Brenda Kelly from Community Change thought the seminar was excellent citing that it was:
"really useful and delivered in a very user friendly way…delivered in plain English"
Other participants enjoyed the informal atmosphere of the seminar which prompted questions being asked throughout.
Participants felt that it was really beneficial to hear first hand from Alan about the practical experiences for a charity of going through a merger and then to have the legal side explained by the legal professionals.
Some participants said that they hadn’t fully appreciated or understood the legal process of merging with another organisation before this seminar.
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