A new BEAM of light for nonprofits

Three-way merger consolidates help for organizations

Mergers can be so hard. Egos get bruised, toes get stomped, feelings get hurt. This can be true when two entities become one. It is pretty much guaranteed when three become one.  

But that is not what happened this summer when three organizations focused on helping local nonprofits merged  to form the BEAM Center for Nonprofits – a name reflecting the wish to provide support, to focus attention and to shed light. 

OneSource Center for Nonprofit Excellence, Leadership Council for Nonprofits and Social Venture Partners Cincinnati came together to create an organization designed to work more efficiently with the nonprofit community.

A merger of these organizations can have serious implications for the community’s quality of life. The goal is to help organizations increase capacity, develop strong leaders, find new funders and create a more robust network of organizations working together to make our community healthier, more beautiful and more just.

Beth Benson is the inaugural CEO of the organization, and she has a ready answer for why this is the right time for a reorganization. “Why not now? Or, now more than ever,” she said from BEAM headquarters in Queensgate. 

After having served in the nonprofit world for more than 35 years, she knows how vital these organizations are. The gap between what the government can provide and what people need has always been there. 

“If the market or government could take care of these needs, the nonprofit sector wouldn’t exist,” Benson said. “That gap is historic, and wide. Racial inequality has not gone away. Poverty has not gone away. Our need for joy and beauty and education, none of these things are going away. And the nonprofit sector steps into that void to fill it.”

BEAM will help.

Helping nonprofits face challenges 

Before the merger, OneSource Center, Leadership Council for Nonprofits and SVP Cincinnati all helped nonprofits, but in different ways. And the help is desperately needed.  

The people who run nonprofits run into challenges endlessly, but they do not always have the resources or the scale to address the problem. They might need leadership development or accounting help or they may have human resource questions. They may need help telling their story in a way that helps people understand their mission.  

The first board chair for BEAM is a man well known in the nonprofit sector. Rob Reifsnyder was the chair for the OneSource Center when the merger happened. Before that, he spent 43 years with United Way, including his final 17 years as the CEO of United Way of Greater Cincinnati. To put it simply, he knows where nonprofits get into trouble, and he knows how to help them get out of it. Putting three organizations together under one roof only makes sense to him.

“There is such an opportunity to strengthen services, to expand services, to really get beyond what we’re currently able to do as three organizations, to a kind of a new vision,” Reifsnyder said. “If they want to develop a strategic plan, or if they need products from the Common Goods Store, or if they need to dive deeply into a new project or opportunities that they want to try to achieve, now there is one place to come.”

Reifsnyder and Benson both know intimately that the directors of nonprofits have limited staffs and tight budgets. Being able to help these organizations in a better way matters.

The organizations that formed BEAM have been working with nonprofits for years. They know the obstacles people are experiencing.

“It starts with money, right?” said Benson. “Everyone is  struggling for money. Corollary to that, especially with early-growth-stage nonprofits, is the need for specific services. They all come in wanting to know who can do things. Who can help with accounting, with HR, with payroll? Basically they are looking for someone who understands their needs.”

Susan Ingmire understands these needs intimately. She was board chair of Social Venture Partners Cincinnati during the merger. SVP worked to connect philanthropists with nonprofits, essentially, connecting people doing the work with people who want to support the work. Now, she expects BEAM will have the pulse of the entire nonprofit community.

“We will have a chance to be the voice of the nonprofit sector,” Ingmire said. “We can advocate and help educate funders and community leaders and get to the root causes of our community’s problems. The education will make all the difference.”

The potential of the merger was something of a low-level whisper for a number of years. All three were helping nonprofits, but they were working in different areas in different ways. When the talk got a little louder, they turned to Lisa Nolan of Collab. Nolan is an attorney who formerly ran the nonprofit Dress for Success. Collab is her firm designed to help organizations explore partnerships or merge altogether. 

Nolan met with the leaders from all three organizations every other week for months. There were working groups and countless meetings, studies and surveys and complicated conversations. 

Eventually, it came together seamlessly because the leaders of all three nonprofits put their egos aside for the greater good.

“This was not easy, but they were all willing to focus on the organizations they serve first,” Nolan said. “That always leads to a better outcome.” 

Experience certainly helped. Between Benson, Reifsnyder and Ingmire, there were just about 120 years of nonprofit experience. They have seen what works, they have seen what does not work. And they knew they had a chance to model good structure when forming a new nonprofit.

A startup with experience 

“We consider ourselves a startup,” Benson said with a smile. Just a startup with over a century of experience. Early on, after a study of the programming their organizations were providing, the merger steering committee realized they were in fact not duplicating work. 

They also learned they were staffed leanly enough that nobody would need to lose their job, which is always a concern in a merger. A couple of people left, but nobody was asked to leave.

The people involved in the merger were able to spend a lot of time focusing on governance and leadership. They decided that the new board would not be created so that each of the old organizations had the same number of board members for the new organization. Instead, they designed a board based on the needs of the new organization. Board members who did not join the new board were asked to volunteer for committee work. It says something that they all said yes.

Additionally, board members involved in the transition made an important decision. While thrilled to lead BEAM during its launch, they also recognized the importance of new leadership going forward.

“It’s very important that we have a leadership transition from people like Rob and me in the not too distant future,” Ingmire said.

But that does not mean they do not have big plans and ambitions for their new organization. In five years, Benson said, BEAM will already be helping nonprofits in new and exciting ways. But it can be more than that, too. 

“In five years, I think we can be an advocate and a spokesperson for the nonprofit sector. A booster for the sector,” Benson said. “This will be the front door for nonprofits that need a little help.  And the front door for volunteers and the front door for new donors.”

beamnonprofits.org