Why charity mergers can be a great thing to do

In her January 2026 Third Sector Podcast Kate Lee, Chief Executive of the NCVO encouraged charities to be more open to the idea of mergers, to stop treating this as a “taboo” subject. She postulated that some charities feel that even approaching the question of a possible merger is an “an accusation that one board or the other has failed”. She also suggests that things are changing as financial pressures become ever greater but, rightly in our view, feels mergers should be seen more positively; as an opportunity to do more and better for beneficiaries.

What a breath of fresh air.

Mergers need not (and usually should not) be about responding to financial crisis (though sometimes that is an important driver to avoid complete and sudden loss of services).

Equally, mergers should not be about rationalisation and consolidation for the sake of it. It is a very public sector oriented view of the charity sector to think there are “too many charities'“. It fundamentally misunderstands what makes the charity sector work and we should challenge it robustly. It is an argument based on an accountant's view of efficiency and fails to grasp the very real human factors that drive the sector. Many charities make a real difference for their beneficiaries not because they have the best ideas (though sometimes they do) but often because of the passion, dedication and loyalty of their staff, volunteers and supporters; people who go the extra mile because they care. If mergers between charities are forced they often break that special bond of loyalty and commitment between a charity and its workforce/supporters.  

In our view mergers should be "purposefully organic"; emerging naturally from a deepening relationships between two or more charities (most often the relationship between the leaders, be they staff or Trustees) with leaders actively looking for opportunities as relationships deepen.  Trust is a critical factor in making mergers work, as is post merger integration.

Good mergers should be about grasping opportunities to increase the impact that the charities involved have for their beneficiaries. Not just by realising efficiency gains (important though that can be). A positive merger should enable enhanced impact in many ways including:

• Innovation: bringing services together should lead to new ideas and creative solutions. Focusing on how services can combine to maximise impact for beneficiaries is a great way to hone what’s on offer.

• Increased reach: by offering each merger partner’s services to the beneficiaries of the other partner(s) more people will benefit from the merged charity’s offer and duplication can be reduced to enable resources to go further.

• Plugging gaps: as well as reducing duplication, bringing together services from two or more charities can help identify gaps in services that the merged charity can bridge to generate impact for those who are currently missing out.

• Maximising profile: the merged charity should have a bigger voice than the combined voices of the pre-merger partners and the very fact of the merger will generate publicity and profile for the merged charity.

• Fundraising: the merged charity should be more competitive for funding and volunteers in an increasingly challenging market.

Of course we recognise that some mergers happen from necessity (e.g. because one partner is struggling financially) and that in those cases they sometimes need to proceed quickly. That's ok but the risks inherent in such speed and necessity should be recognised by all involved and real care taken with post-merger integration work to maximise the chances of the merger being a positive benefit for everyone concerned, particularly beneficiaries.

But the potential for increase public benefit that mergers present is why we are a passionate advocate for mergers being an outcome that emerges from deepening relationships and for taking time to build trust and do it properly. If you do that, beneficiaries are much more likely to reap the rewards. Moreover, the inevitable downsides to any merger (opportunity and actual cost, reputational risks etc.) are much more likely to be outweighed by the benefits, particularly if you take the time to embed the merger through purposeful and effective post-merger work to generate a new culture that is more than the sum of the parts of the pre-merger organisations.

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Want to find out more? Contact us at julian@almondtreeconsulting.co.uk to discuss your organisation’s needs. You may also want to read our previous blog on how to merge charities, to give you a flavour of what’s involved.