NOTE TO READERS: For convenience, we use the term “merger” to reflect mergers, acquisitions or other business combinations. The actual legal form of your transaction will depend on your circumstances.
Our church merger toolkit is a professionally prepared set of tools and information to help churches “get it done” without having to reinvent wheels, waste time and financial resources, overburden staff or volunteers or risk overlooking important issues that could haunt them later.
Benefits:
- Increase the likelihood of the merger being successful
- Reduce the burden and time demands on staff and lay volunteers so more time can be spent planning to make the combined church more successful
- Reduce the costs and risks of pursuing or contemplating a merger
- Increase the pace at which you can evaluate, plan and execute a merger
- Save hundreds of man-hours and potentially months of elapsed time
- Practical “how to” guidance on the mechanics of an acquisition or merger
- Have more successful communications with your congregation
Key elements of the ToolKit include:
- Organizing “Merger Management Teams”
- Organizing your Due Diligence efforts, including building and grounds, financial and legal
- The role of outside (paid) professionals
- Excel spreadsheets to help analyze and budget for mergers, acquisitions or start-up multi-site campuses
- Explanation/instructions for using the spreadsheets
- “Due Diligence” checklists to assist in examining merger/acquisition candidates. The checklist includes legal, financial and building/grounds components.
- Educational materials to help staff and congregants understand the process
- Template and suggestions for drafting a “memorandum of understanding” between a “Lead” Church and a “Joining” church
- Sample legal document(s) for acquiring the assets of a “joining” church through an asset purchase structure
- PowerPoint templates for presenting specific opportunities and due diligence results to church members
- Communications Support / Suggestions
- Packaging and promoting the opportunity to members
- Communicating with the joining church
- Administrative and tracking tools that includes simple spreadsheets and forms to track committees, committee assignments, Launch Team members, etc.
- A collection of pertinent resources and readings including articles, websites, vendors, consultants, etc.
- Planning for the integration phase