The 75-year-old Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Vancouver has merged with the 50-year-old Boys and Girls Clubs Community Services of Delta/Richmond to create the new Boys and Girls Clubs of South Coast BC.
The two organizations, best-known for their kids’ clubs, have long existed as neighbours, said Carolyn Tuckwell, president and CEO of the new organization and former head of the Greater Vancouver organization. But she noted that a number of factors have been driving the merger.
“Increasingly, because of roads and infrastructure we were kind of bumping into each other and the general public thinks we’re one,” she said. “Also, in times where there’s increasing scrutiny of the work of non-profits, there’s always lots of encouragement for us to look for new efficiencies and look for ways to do things better with less money.”
While the merger is creating some new efficiencies, such as eliminating one executive role, she said the merger’s key benefit comes from strengthening its administrative functions.
“It was a little bit like putting puzzle pieces together,” Tuckwell said. “They had a human resources specialist, we had a fundraising department. So what we’ve been able to do is strengthen the way we run our business by bringing them together.”
The new organization will have an operating budget of more than $9 million and will serve more than 8,000 children, youth and families.
In the early stages of the merger, Tuckwell told Business in Vancouver the provincial government had pressured non-profits to merge as a means of survival, but said that complementarity, rather than a funding crisis, was driving the recent merger. (See “Mergers are option of survival of B.C. charities”–issue 1084; August 3-9, 2010.)