Groups helping seniors elect to merge
The weakening economy is pummeling organizations that help people when their services are in greatest demand, but two groups in DeKalb County have found a defense against dwindling revenues: a merger.
Senior Connections, whose popular meals program feeds as many as 2,000 seniors a day, is joining forces with a smaller group that also serves an older demographic.
“It’s getting increasingly difficult for smaller nonprofits to be able to get grants and sponsorships,” said Christi Sizemore Behrend, executive director of Life Enrichment Services near Decatur. Her group has begun a merger with Chamblee-based Senior Connections because “it makes sense during this economy to combine resources.”
Sizemore Behrend’s Toco Hill-based group offers home improvement courses and recreational trips to retirees. When times were good, the group kept fees down by using free classroom space offered by partner churches. Some churches even donated money.
Then, the churches began feeling the pinch of the economy. Donations dwindled, and churches took back their space for their own revenue-generating programs, Sizemore Behrend said.
She knew she needed to get creative. A conversation with Debra Furtado, the chief executive officer of Senior Connections, led to the merger idea.
Both groups serve a similar age group, so why compete for resources and pay extra for overhead?
The larger group, Senior Connections, is absorbing Life Enrichment Services in a merger that should be complete Monday.
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