Giving Compass' Take:

• The Power of Possibility describes how two Boston homelessness organizations merged to create a more impactful organization to assist their target population.

• How can organizations identify potential partnerships? Are their drawbacks to consolidation?

• Find out why Prince William is calling for charities to collaborate and consolidate.

hopeFound and Pine Street Inn were two organizations with missions to end homelessness for men and women in Boston. hopeFound primarily provided emergency shelter, while Pine Street Inn was more focused on permanent supportive housing. When the board of hopeFound, as a part of its ongoing strategy and planning process, acknowledged that permanent housing, rather than emergency shelter, was critical to ending homelessness, it began actively considering options.

After hopeFound identified its need to expand its strategic scope into permanent housing, it realized that Pine Street Inn could be a strong partner. In addition to having a permanent housing program, Pine Street Inn had a job-training program that would complement hopeFound’s job-placement program. The two boards entered conversation and decided that a merger would be the best way to leverage the complementary strengths and programs of the two organizations.

The combined organization, under the name Pine Street Inn, offers a broad range of services, including permanent housing, emergency shelter, job training, street outreach, and substance abuse treatment. It serves 1,900 homeless men and women each day, compared to 1,200 before the merger. These new programming realities would not have been possible without the creativity and openness of the two organizations’ leaders, and their shared vision for what might be possible for the men and women they served.

Strategy and planning is about determining what’s most important for your organization to do and figuring out the best way to get it done. For some organizations, the best way to get things done is in partnership with another organization. That’s why strategic thinking and planning can serve as a powerful moment to identify opportunities to strategically align or restructure with another organization.