Coming to terms: a case study of hospice collaboration challenges

Recent research has focused on the growing phenomenon of mergers, collaborations, and alliances among nonprofit organizations and what makes such arrangements work. Examination of failed collaborative efforts is perhaps just as instructive. This case study examines recent attempts at collaboration between 2 nonprofit hospice organizations. The study finds that despite compelling reasons for and significant commonalities on which to base collaboration, the organizations were initially unable to forge any ongoing and substantive collaborative arrangement because of insurmountable cultural factors and past history. Furthermore, without imminent external pressures to collaborate, these organizations had insufficient motivation to attempt to move beyond their differences. The case also reviews the changed circumstances and factors that later facilitated partnering attempts.