When it comes to acquisitions, affiliations and dispositions, nonprofits must do all they can to be educated buyers and sellers, according to speakers Thursday at the Ziegler Senior Living Finance + Strategy Virtual Conference.
When it comes to acquiring a for-profit operator, for example, nonprofit buyers must understand the seller’s motivation and what role that plays in the negotiation, said Jennifer Blackchief, vice president of Rochester, NY-based St. Ann’s Community.
In some cases, a seller may have a quicker timeline than the nonprofit might be used to, so it’s important to keep the internal team on task and avoid delaying necessary decisions.
Additionally, when it comes to managing a disposition of a nonprofit facility to a for-profit entity, it’s important to take the time to regularly update your board of directors and senior leadership team on the deal — and keep emotions and concerns about a facility’s legacy out of the decision as much as possible, noted Colleen Frankenfield, CEO of Lutheran Social Ministries of New Jersey.
“As nonprofit operators, we tend to wear our hearts on our shoulders,” Frankenfield said. This can cause some operators to get taken advantage of by more business-savvy for-profit buyers. “It’s important to remember that the buyer is not your friend, no matter how nice they are to your staff,” she added.
