The Multiplier Effect: How One Legal Project Extended PBPO’s Impact Across the Nonprofit Community

When three nonprofit capacity-building organizations began exploring a merger, they turned to PBPO for guidance.

Each organization existed to help other nonprofits succeed by strengthening leadership, building organizational capacity, and connecting resources to mission-driven work. By combining forces, they hoped to increase their impact across the community.

Because PBPO had previously worked with all three organizations, our team understood both their missions and the opportunities the merger could create. What followed was a six-month legal effort involving six attorney volunteers from three law firms and four PBPO staff attorneys.

Together, the team devoted more than 140 hours to reviewing due diligence materials, preparing merger documents, and providing strategic legal guidance throughout the process.

“From the beginning of the merger conversation, PBPO was all in with its support,” said Beth Benson, former Executive Director of Leadership Council for Nonprofits and current CEO of BEAM Center for Nonprofits.

That support helped lay the legal foundation for the creation of BEAM Center for Nonprofits, a new organization dedicated to building nonprofit capacity, developing leaders, engaging philanthropists, and strengthening connections across the nonprofit sector.

BEAM brings together the strengths of three longtime PBPO clients:

• Leadership Council for Nonprofits
• OneSource Center for Nonprofit Excellence
• Social Venture Partners Cincinnati

PBPO extends its gratitude to the attorney volunteers who led this work: Kiley Bizzle-Brown and Mike Moeddel of Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP; J. Michael Hurst, Edward Rivin, and Mark Sims of Keating Muething & Klekamp PLL; and Joe Dehner of JDLAW LLC.