Moving Toward a Merger

JEWSIN THED

Perry Ohren

Eric Adelman Paul Blatt

JFS, JVS and Kadima vote to explore feasibility, eye July 2021 completion.

DANNY SCHWARTZ STAFF WRITER

Jewish Family Service of Metro Detroit (JFS), JVS Human Services and Kadima Mental Health Services have formally voted to begin analyzing a potential merger into one single agency.

The evaluation, to take place in spring 2021, will explore the operational, legal and financial due diligence of a merger. If the merger is approved, the agencies expect it will happen on July 1, 2021.

Key details of the potential combined agency remain unclear, including what it would be called, who would lead it, and how staffing and organization would change. Currently the three agencies offer a combined 125 services, ranging from career counseling to aging services to legal aid and assistance for adults with mental health disorders.

Combined, the three groups have nearly $40 million in assets, according to their most recent reported IRS filings ($18.7 million from JVS, $13 million from JFS and $7.9 million from Kadima).

In a joint interview, the three agency heads said that a potential new organization would not stray too far from the current central mission statements of the social service nonprofits.

“If a new organization happens, it would be a similar mission statement to any one of ours,” Perry Ohren, CEO of JFS, told the JN. “Our mission is to help people within the Jewish community and the broader community with whatever help they might need. And that would be the mission of the new organization, to continue to do that.”

Paul Blatt, President and CEO of JVS Human Services, echoed those sentiments. “One thing we recognized is that the three organizations’ missions aligned very well, which really helped us and guided us as we did our exploratory stage of this,” Blatt said.

This announcement was made following two years of informal discussions, facilitated by the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit (JFMD), which is a partner organization to JVS and JFS.

Blatt said the agencies felt they’d arrived at a point where they could share the next phase with the community.

According to Ohren, the evaluation will be a “big project” that will include about 10 work groups, each focusing on different tasks, such as client records and fundraising. Other evaluation tasks include brainstorming what the possible new board of directors and organizational chart would look like.

“People on our staff will be working on this. We’ll be hiring some outside firms who might have some subject matter expertise, we’ll be working with a consultant, and our boards are going to be involved,” Ohren said.

Ohren said that the merger isn’t being explored as a money-saving initiative, but that staffing cuts and consolidations are still possible.

“In the process of doing it, sure it probably will save some money, and maybe we’ll have one less person over here or over there, but the intent is to put the best work the organizations do and the people who do that work together,” Ohren said. “The intention is social impact: can we serve people better?”

All three said COVID-19 had no bearing on the announcement, as merger talks were already underway.

Eric Adelman, CEO of Kadima, said that there was some thought of waiting until the pandemic was over to continue the discussions. Ultimately, they decided to continue the evaluation.

“There was a lot of momentum behind these discussions, and who knew how long the pandemic would last, so it was important to continue moving this conversation forward,” Adelman said.

Matt Lester, JFMD president, said the move makes sense.

“I applaud the undertaking, particularly since it exemplifies a level of thoughtfulness and selflessness that you don’t always see in the nonprofit world,” Lester said. “I think there’s a long way to go for them to determine if some form of collaboration, whatever that looks like, is prudent.”

Ohren said the pandemic’s demands on all three agencies have shown how impactful they could be together.

To Ohren, whether a new organization comes to fruition or not, these talks will be a step forward for the communities the three agencies assist.

“No matter what happens, the community and the people we serve will be better as a result of the process that we’re going through,” he said. “Regardless of the end result, it’s going to be a better, more informed service for the people that come to us for help.”