The board of directors of MAP for Nonprofits, the 36-year-old nonprofit strategic advisor that assists other nonprofits, has voted to merge into Nonprofit Assistance Fund (NAF) at the end of the year to coincide with the retirement of long-time MAP CEO Judy Alnes.
In a recent website statement, Alnes said MAP's funders and other stakeholders support the merger and "MAP and NAF programs are complementary and all the more impressive when lined up together."
CEO Kate Barr of Nonprofit Assistance Fund, a former community bank executive who took over in 2000, said the merged, 28-person organization will work well because NAF focus more on financial vitality and runs what has grown to be a $22 million loan fund for nonprofits that gets top grades, and occasional capital infusions, from the U.S. Treasury's Community Development Financial Institution.
NAF also is supported by area banks, businesses, foundations and individuals who contribute to operations and the revolving loan fund.
MAP does training, accounting and consulting for nonprofit, board training, so there's little overlap," Barr said. "They advise nonprofits how to be strategically smart and their board took their own advice through this [pending] merger.
The organizations, which are social enterprises that also charge fees, are walking the talk because both have advised other nonprofits to merge under the right circumstances, shed lesser initiatives, or go out of business.
The two each have annual budgets of around $2 million.