Eight Northeast Ohio human services organizations announce plans to merge | cleveland.com

Eight Northeast Ohio human services organizations announce plans to merge | cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Eight Greater Cleveland human-services organizations announced Tuesday that they will merge or affiliate as a way to cut expenses.

The announcements, made at the Ballroom at Park Lane in University Circle, are evidence of a growing cost-cutting trend among nonprofits facing a tough economic climate. About 60 nonprofit and foundation leaders attended the event.

The biggest partnership involves the Center for Families and Children, with its hefty $23 million budget and 325 full-time employees, and theWest Side Ecumenical Ministry, with 132 employees and an $8.7 million budget.

The two Cleveland organizations gravitated to each other because both serve low-income families with top-notch services. Both have highly rated Head Start programs, but fear federal and state budget cuts are coming.

"There's strength in numbers. We'll be better off facing these challenges together than we would as competitors going after scarce dollars," said Sharon Sobol Jordan, Center for Families and Children president.

The affiliation became effective Tuesday.

The new partners introduced Tuesday all were wooed to the altar by the Funders Collaborative, a coalition of 18 foundations headed by Deb Vesy of Deaconess Community Foundation and Denise San Antonio Zeman of Saint Luke's Foundation. Facing dwindling endowments themselves in 2008, the funders began urging nonprofits with similar services to merge.

Officials from the eight nonprofits explained the at-times tricky process of blending their agencies.

In a ballroom often used for wedding receptions, several speakers kept the marriage metaphor going.

"At points in this courtship, we tried to give the ring back," quipped Judy Peters of West Side Ecumenical Ministry. "But we're now looking for a honeymoon" spot, she added, laughing.

Jordan becomes president of the new entity and Peters will be executive vice president.

Nonprofit mergers, which can reduce costs, are becoming increasingly popular in an era when government dollars for social service programs are shrinking. Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald has made it clear he'd like to reduce the number of nonprofit groups competing for limited county funds, and eliminate duplication of services.

Since 2009, the collaborative hosted several get-togethers, to let nonprofits investigate potential mates.

Other mergers include:

• The Domestic Violence Center and Bellflower Center for Prevention of Child Abuse. The 50-employee Domestic Violence Center had an annual budget of $2.5 million; Bellflower had a $1 million budget and 17 employees. A new name hasn't been selected yet.

• Youth Opportunities Unlimited, an agency with a $3 million budget that provides job exposure and training to youths, on Jan. 1 absorbed E-City, a much-smaller organization that teaches entrepreneurship and life skills to at-risk youth.

• Crossroads, a Lake County provider of adolescent counseling with a $6 million budget and 75 employees, has joined with New Directions Inc., a Cleveland-based nonprofit with a $4 million budget and 50 employees that provides addiction and mental health treatment to teens. Mike Matoney, formerly of New Directions, heads the combined agencies.

Leaders of the merged nonprofits said their newfound partners bring fresh synergy to their work.

"The more we learned about Bellflower, the more we realized this makes all the sense in the world," said Linda Johanek, former Domestic Violence Center head and now chief executive officer of the combined agencies. Together, the two will provide a continuum of care to abuse victims of all ages, she said.

Neville Arjani, Y.O.U.'s board chair, said E-City's strong volunteer corps is a welcome asset. "With cuts in public funding looming, we must do more with limited financial resources."

Just about all employees of the eight agencies were retained in the mergers, officials said.