Opinion: Dan Pallotta Says Major Nonprofit Groups Should Merge

Nonprofit advocacy, leadership, watchdog, and policy groups such as the Center for Effective Philanthropy, Independent Sector, and the Council on Nonprofits should merge to build a strong, unified voice for the nonprofit sector, Charity Defense Council head Dan Pallotta writes in a piece in the Harvard Business Review.

The former charity-event organizerm who has crusaded against the focus by watchdogs and the media on nonprofits’ overhead costs, argues that unifying these organizations would bring talent and resources together, eliminate redundant work, reduce costs, and bring a sense of pride to the sector. “This is the kind of exciting, courageous, surprising, breathtaking action the people who work in this sector are waiting for its leaders to take,” he writes.

Mr. Pallota notes that the budgets of these organizations is not especially large — under $75 million combined — making the proposition less untenable than it might seem. “If putting together a $75 million merger of 10 organizations is more than we can handle, we should all go home,” he says.