I'm sure we've all heard much talk about the need for mergers and
acquisitions in the difficult funding landscape of the last 18 months It's been a classic conversation starter at nonprofit gatherings whether at the water cooler or at national sector-wide conferences.
Mobilize.org has just gone through an M&A process of sorts with Generation Engage. Both organizations had similar capacity mission, Millennial leadership and reputations. You might be forgiven for assuming that this was a case of two competing organizations duking it out for resources and teaming up to share a shrinking pie. However, you’d be wrong.

We’ve been collaborating for years in various ways and in the last 12 months partnered on several initiatives, including the coalition steering committee for 80 Million Strong for Young American Jobs. It became clear to the leadership of each nonprofit that a natural next step was to make more of our commonalities while bringing our unique strengths to the joint effort. Together, we have a proven model for engaging large groups of Millennials in deliberation and collaboration to address the major issues of our time; a strong record of grassroots outreach through the community college networks of Generation Engage and Mobilize.org’s work on campuses across the country; and a vision for an upgraded democracy that includes all voices in our generation – Democracy 2.0.

Just as Mobilize.org makes democracy work better by investing in Millennial-driven solutions, foundations are stepping up to invest in this Millennial-driven organization, and this effort has been strengthened with the support of the Knight Foundation. The decision to join forces, to invest in that decision, and to recognize that we are stronger together than the sum of our parts is a prime example of how some of us are moving forward in challenging times.

There’s no right answer for all organizations in the social sector.Sometimes there should be multiple groups campaigning for human rights in differing ways. In other instances, groups can achieve phenomenal progress by joining up in coalition, like Service Nation. But perhaps we need to take a moment to consider whether there isn’t an answer staring us in the face for many of the organizations we work for and to which we contribute our time, talent and treasure.

I’d like to pose one central, obvious question that ought to be asked in any conversation about nonprofits (whether in M&A talks or not) – “What are we trying to achieve for the greater good through this institution?” For Mobilize.org and Generation Engage, the answer crystallized the need to join together in a more permanent way. The answer wasn’t that we’d be bigger, or more impressive, or more attractive to our peers and the funding community. The answer has to be, and it was for us, that our common vision came a couple of steps closer to being realized. Now, we have a team that can take ourexisting programs to the next level, reaching and investing in a deeper cross-section of Millennials who want to make our democracy work better, their way.