Case Study
Project: Catalyze a Strategic Merger to Sustain Nonprofit Capacity Building in New Mexico
Role: Director, Center for Nonprofit Excellence
Date: 2017-2018 (Merger catalyst work began)
Overview:
As Director of the Center for Nonprofit Excellence (CNPE), I led a transformative initiative during a critical turning point. In 2017, the United Way of Central New Mexico (CNPE’s fiscal home) shifted its mission and funding priorities — leaving CNPE at a crossroads: find a new institutional home, spin off as an independent nonprofit or create a strategic alliance.
Rather than accept the default options, I envisioned a bold alternative: merging with the New Mexico Association of Grantmakers (NMAG), the state’s leading philanthropic network. CNPE served nonprofits. NMAG served funders. Together, we could unify the state’s social impact infrastructure to be more connected, strategic and sustainable.
What I Led:
Interpreted deep organizational data (Business Model Canvas development and analysis) that revealed CNPE’s value, reach, resource strain and opportunities.
Recognized opportunity for strategic alignment with NMAG as both organizations sought to increase relevance and sustainability.
Initiated and stewarded high-level conversations between CNPE’s advisory board, NMAG leadership, and United Way executives.
Built broad-based stakeholder buy-in by framing the merger as a sector-wide opportunity.
Key Findings That Drove the Decision:
CNPE had become a statewide pillar for capacity-building — offering job boards, training, visibility and resource connection for little to no cost.
The value far outpaced the revenue, making the model unsustainable under United Way’s new focus on family stability in just four counties.
CNPE was the sole provider of multiple services (Encore Fellowships, statewide nonprofit job and volunteer listings, Giving Tuesday NM) and couldn’t disappear without impact.
Impact:
Initiated the groundwork for a merger that would preserve and evolve CNPE’s legacy beyond it’s original institutional home, expand NMAG’s role, and strengthen the connective tissue between philanthropy and nonprofits.
Brought clarity, structure and momentum to what could have been a dissolving program — transforming it instead into a new collaborative model.
Helped unify two sides of the nonprofit ecosystem — funders and community organizations — under one umbrella.
Demonstrated how cross-sector thinking and courageous leadership can preserve institutional knowledge while adapting to new realities.
Reflections:
This project stretched me into new dimensions of strategic thinking, influence and fortitude. The core challenge lay in navigating two divergent narratives: (a) Those who deeply valued CNPE as a statewide, sector-wide resource assumed its importance was universally understood, and (b) Those who viewed CNPE solely as a program of United Way believed its fate was entirely a matter of internal policy.
As CNPE’s Director, I had to bridge this divide — aligning people around a shared understanding of the value CNPE delivered and the potential it held beyond its original structure. I drew on relationships, data and vision to help stakeholders imagine a different, sustainable future for it. I’m proud of the groundwork I laid, and gratified that the merger came to fruition 18 months after I stepped away to pursue entrepreneurship. It affirmed that the vision was sound, the timing was right and the work mattered.