How Boundless And Merakey Plan To Scale Without Losing Local Heart

A major affiliation just landed in the human services world, and it raises a bigger question than “who merged with who”: can nonprofits scale up without giving up what makes them trusted locally? We start with highlights from Stacy DiStefano’s conversation with Joe Martz of Merakey and Dr. Patrick Maynard of Boundless, where they frame this move as the start of a new operating model built for the pressure our sector is under right now.

Then we sit down with Jennifer Riha, Chief Strategy Officer at Boundless, to break the idea down in plain language. She offers a clear analogy for how national and local responsibilities can coexist, and we get honest about what is still unknown. We talk about what must remain locally led, including programs, services, and relationships in the community, and what could be shared over time, like technology platforms, HR systems, employee benefits, purchasing power, and data capabilities.

We also zoom out on the bigger forces pushing this kind of collaboration: a healthcare reimbursement system that rewards volume instead of quality, a shrinking workforce, and rising expectations for measurable outcomes. Jennifer explains why scale enables investments in modern tech, leadership development, workforce retention, and policy influence, and why those investments should translate into better access, less burnout, and more stable care for those we serve.

If you care about nonprofit strategy, healthcare innovation, and the future of community-based services, this conversation lays out a practical blueprint.  Subscribe, share the show with a fellow nonprofit leader, and leave a review so more people can find the series.

Transcript

Affiliation News And Why It Matters

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome everyone to the Nonprofit Leaders Guide brought to you by Boundless, the podcast where we explore the ideas, innovations, and leadership strategies shaping the future of human services. Now, today we are discussing a huge development in our field, the recently announced affiliation between Boundless and Merricky. While many affiliations in healthcare and human services are driven by financial distress or organizational necessity, leaders from both of these organizations have been clear this is something different. They describe it as the creation of a whole new operating model, one designed to combine the scale, infrastructure, technology, policy, and resources of a national organization with the local expertise and relationships, culture, and regional leadership that have always been at the heart of mission-driven services delivery. So recently at NYNK Studios in Philadelphia, Consulting for Human Services CEO Stacy DeStefano sat down with Marrike's CEO, Joe Marts, and the CEO of Boundless, Dr. Patrick Maynard, to discuss why they came together, what they're building, and how this model could influence the future of healthcare and human services. Here's

Building A New Operating Model

SPEAKER_00 1:16

a quick excerpt from that conversation.

SPEAKER_04 1:18

Recently, Boundless announced that it would affiliate with Marake USA. And as I've listened to Joe and Patrick describe what they're building, it became clear very quickly that this is not a typical affiliation. And one thing that's become increasingly clear to me is that our field is at an inflection point. Whether it's policy changes, workforce shortages, funding pressures, there's rising expectations and outcomes, increasing complexity in the populations we serve, all of those things are forcing leaders to confront the same reality. The way this field has traditionally been structured is not built for what's ahead. Organizations are being asked to scale and to innovate, adapt faster, manage more complexity while still remaining deeply connected to the people and the communities they serve.

SPEAKER_02 2:08

You need to create a model that has some ability to influence public policy. We've got to be in that conversation. We can't wait for things to happen around us anymore. We need to be in front of that. We need to, and we have literally decades worth of data about the work that we're doing. We need to be able to take that data, shape that data, present it in ways that actually tell a story on behalf of the great work that people are doing all over this country. Having the capacity to do that, I think, is foremost of what drove this entire conversation.

SPEAKER_04 2:43

You know, we talk about organizations, even strong organizations that need greater capacity going forward. And there's sometimes a reluctance to do that. But I and I know you're building these things. Um this really feels different than a traditional affiliation to me in so many ways. So kind of talk about what is it that you're actually building.

SPEAKER_01 3:03

With our experience with mergers, acquisitions, affiliations, there there's some key things that always kind of block or challenges to overcome. One has to do with, you know, your brand. Are you losing your brand and your culture? Are you gonna lose power? Are you gonna it's all about losing something. What we are doing is creating a win-win situation. Emphasizing the fact that, you know, where you're at regionally, locally, you understand that geopolitically, you understand the, you you know the right people, uh, philanthropy, all the things that you've built up in your community, you know that, you know, somebody from New York or Philadelphia, you know, might not know that well. So why try to control it from there? Why not overlay and support your regions to grow and use that strength to enhance the national organization? That's that's the model that that we're implementing.

SPEAKER_04 3:58

Aaron Powell So it really sounds like this national strategy, national thinking with these really intentional anchor points around regional execution of the specific services and those relationships.

SPEAKER_02 4:11

Is that it's incredibly hard to be a national organization and impact locally if you're not closer to it. Yeah. And this model, I think, is unique and it gives us an opportunity to have national strategic policy execute regionally and impact local communities.

SPEAKER_04 4:27

Aaron Powell So how does that work? I mean, when we think about there's dozens of states in Marrick, there'll be uh a baker's dozen now, you know, adding in the boundless team, multiple service lines. Joe, when you think about being sort of the architect for this strategy, because I know you were thinking about this even before you met Patrick, what happens nationally and what happens locally, and how does this really operationalize?

SPEAKER_02 4:51

So my hope is that as Patrick and I go forward, we'll we'll be able to talk broadly about the opportunities to have the independence that Patrick had sought as a regional partner. The goal and the investments that a national partner can provide are all those things, the systems that are necessary, the technology investments that are so costly to our industry. We can provide those tools and we can provide common platforms and gather data collectively that we then can shape policy with. My feeling is that over time, there'll be other organizations that feel that this type of regional, national partnership really makes a lot of sense. And again, I think it works particularly well if it's organizations that are culturally aligned, that are well run, that have solid management teams that can go and do the work that we all want to do well every single day, but do it locally and be successful doing it that way.

SPEAKER_01 5:49

Yeah. Yeah, you think at the local level, how something like this can allow your organization to focus on your operations and services, and then take those other things to go national and apply them nationally with scale. Government affairs, you know, technology, HR, training, things like that. That, you know, the having a national scale applied to that can increase the quality of that and decrease the cost, you know, per person across the board. Sure. So really it's a win-win again for everybody.

SPEAKER_02 6:21

Yeah, I think it's really critical, Stace, that we understand that the pressure on all of us is going to be on those administrative costs to run our organizations in the future. And how we can and how we can use our joint platforms to make that possible to reduce those costs at a time when there might not be cost increases that we can anticipate gives us a chance to be sustainable in the long term.

SPEAKER_04 6:44

Yeah, I love that. I've heard you say many times this is a starting point, you know, not a not a finish line.

SPEAKER_02 6:49

It is, and uh, you know, it's exciting that this is the starting point, and it's exciting to do with somebody that you know I've gotten to know over time. But this is a model that Patrick and I both believe others can be a part of.

SPEAKER_04 7:02

Yeah. Well, and you've said that you think that um Boundless may become the first of many kind of regional points of Merricky, which will change Marrick as it exists today.

SPEAKER_02 7:14

It will forever change Merrakey. We will not be the same organization post-Boundless, and we won't be the same organization in the future.

SPEAKER_04 7:21

So, what is the case you would make to CEOs of leading organizations like Boundless right now to join what you're both building?

SPEAKER_02 7:29

No, I think the case I would make is that I believe that there's opportunities for you to expand and that we can help you do that. We can make investments in national systems that would be very costly for a regional affiliate to make on their own. We're we're doing that right now, and those systems will be available to others. So the administrative cost of doing this is going to be a lot easier. Our ability to help you grow with additional resources, financial resources to make it possible for you to expand your growth within a certain region of the company is there now for you. So all these things together are there. Plus, we have assets to provide people elsewhere in the country so they can manage for us.

SPEAKER_04 8:13

We've also just kind of as we are starting to wrap up a little bit, uh I want to just give you both a little nod because I really believe the true measure of leadership is that you're building something that survives you. And you both are living that. And it's really just been an honor to work alongside of you for the past five years for Joe and a hundred years for Patrick. But you know, that partnership from the position of strength, what you've described really is this model that preserves that local identity, creating greater capacity for impact. Um, and and the future of our industry has to has to evolve. So just kind of in closing, anything, Patrick, you want to add or share, or kind of a hopeful message for others as they start to look at this?

SPEAKER_01 8:54

Yeah, I I would amplify what Joe just said. You know, what we are creating is an opportunity to add, not subtract by coming together. Um to amplify what you do, to enhance what you do, to expand services you already have, to be a part of something bigger.

SPEAKER_02 9:14

But I think we've created together the foundation of something that can be very special in our industry. And I I I Stacy, you and I have talked about this. I know Patrick and I have. I believe this is a model that others will want to replicate, um, be a part of, hopefully, uh with us.

SPEAKER_04 9:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:34

But uh, you know, the legacy to this may not be felt for years to come.

SPEAKER_04 9:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:39

But it is where this industry is going. And it's important for people to realize that sometimes you have, like Patrick said, you have to step back and scan the horizon and see what's coming. And I think, in all fairness, in many people's eyes, it's not going to be as bright as they had hoped it would be. And finding the right relationships and people who are aligned with your thinking and coming together to make something that's strong and can be stronger is critical right now. And I I I'm I'm excited about that. I'm excited for the next generation of leaders who are going to see this uh beyond me.

SPEAKER_00 10:12

So

What Success Could Change

SPEAKER_00 10:13

again, that was Stacy DeStefano speaking with Joe Marts of Merricky and Patrick Maynard of Boundless at MYNK Studios in Philadelphia. So their conversation raises several important questions, right? If this model succeeds, what could it mean not only for these two organizations, but for the entire human services sector? That's what we want to talk about in this episode. This is actually episode two of this series. And I'm joined now by Jennifer Rija, Chief Strategy Officer at Boundless. She's been a frequent guest on the podcast these last several months. Jennifer, it's good to see you.

SPEAKER_03 10:47

Thank you, Scott. Great to be here.

SPEAKER_00 10:49

This is huge. I mean, we're just, we're all smiles right now, right? So for listeners who maybe just heard that conversation or maybe they heard this news, how would you describe this model if you had to just break it down super simple?

SPEAKER_03 11:03

You know, one

Explaining National-Local Partnership

SPEAKER_03 11:04

of the ways that I've thought about it that is simplest for me to think about it is the United States and the ways in which there are authorities and responsibilities that are held at the federal government level. And then there are authorities and responsibilities that are held at the state government level. And so different states make very different choices about how to allocate resources, what to invest in, what to focus on based on the unique culture, demographics, features of their state and their residents. But all states also receive the benefits of the national federal government in terms of things like national debt policy, national security, national research funding, and so on. And I think that might be a really simple way for us to think about this approach.

SPEAKER_00 11:50

Wow. And just so our listeners know, we don't rehearse these answers before this. And Jennifer, I just got to say, as we're celebrating America's 250th birthday, I, you know, as your comms guy here, I kind of got chills. Seriously, I think that's a really great way to button it up.

SPEAKER_03 12:09

Thank you. Uh, it I've thought about it a lot. And to me, that just sort of is the cleanest or clearest symbol of what it is we're trying to build and the level of impact that we're hoping to have on both the sector and quite frankly, history.

SPEAKER_00 12:25

Okay. Let's dive into it. The sector, history, we've got a lot to cover here. What makes this affiliation different from, say, the, you know, the traditional merger, the traditional acquisition that we've talked about on recent episodes here?

SPEAKER_03 12:40

The very clearly stated goal that you've heard both CEOs talk about of preserving and in fact amplifying what makes boundless and future regional affiliates special and unique, balanced with the benefits of shared national resources. That is what is fundamentally different. Many MAs across all sectors, not just health and human services, are entered into with a very specific goal of streamlining or cutting costs to maximize profits. That is specifically not the goal here. The goal here is truly to develop a new relationship approach that creates a future where strong, locally led nonprofits are able to share resources, benefit from shared infrastructure in such a way that they're much stronger long into the future than any one of us could have been on our own. So I think the very fact that the goal, the purpose for doing it is what makes it so different.

SPEAKER_00 13:38

We won't roll out the whole org chart here, but I've got a question when I'm thinking about again what you said off the top about the comparison to the United States. So what elements in all this, again, we're we're talking broad here, but what elements in all this remain local? And then what are the elements that become shared regionally and nationally?

SPEAKER_03 13:57

That is an excellent question. And I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 14:01

I love it when a leader says that. Seriously. I love it when a leader says that. You know, we don't have that answer just yet.

SPEAKER_03 14:07

Yeah. So I only say that somewhat jokingly, because part of both the beauty, and I'm gonna admit it right now, the challenge, what we are building together is that neither of us have figured this out yet. And I don't think there's really anyone who can fully answer what elements remain local, what elements are best shared. What I can tell you is that both of us are completely committed to programs, services are being locally led. And locally, I think this is important, locally decided on based on what do the local communities need. That people who are in those communities understand the culture, understand what's going on on the ground, and that's who needs to be making decisions about programs, services, who needs to be having the relationships with local leaders, local politicians. Something is lost when that's not local. We've theorized that some of the potential ways that we can share infrastructure are shared technology platforms, shared employee benefits, shared purchasing power. But honestly, all of that is theoretical and quite frankly, exactly what we're going to be figuring out together over the upcoming months and years.

SPEAKER_00 15:24

I would also encourage folks, if you haven't listened to episode one and didn't listen to, haven't listened to that conversation between between Joe and Patrick yet, do that because Jennifer, to your point, these are two leaders who share the stage, if you will, and you can tell they have a relationship. And it was a conversation that's 30 or 40 minutes deep. This wasn't uh, you know, you've seen conversations from other CEOs on a cable TV or a CNBC or something like that. And you can tell in the first three minutes if it's stilted and they're, you know, they just don't know who's gonna say what. And this conversation is exactly the opposite between Joe and Patrick. And I and I think it to your point, it just gets to how well thought out this is heading into getting into those challenges. Does that make sense?

SPEAKER_03 16:14

It does. I think that the shared commitments and the shared goal allows us to give a lot of grace in making the decisions. And really, one of the things we we've talked about, sort of looking back on how all of this has gone, is that it's a little bit remarkable how few bumps in the road there were. And I think that that's a testament to both parties because of the relationship, because of the trust that was built, assuming good intentions.

SPEAKER_00 16:44

And we've

Scale And Outcomes Over Volume

SPEAKER_00 16:45

been real honest on these episodes to, you know, we talk, we address problems, we talk about challenges, workforce pressures, reimbursement challenges, increasing regulation, rising expectations for those good, those great outcomes that we want. We're real honest about that, about what the industry is facing. Looking forward, why is scale becoming increasingly important in our field?

SPEAKER_03 17:10

You know, I think about healthcare and human services broadly, and I think you can see it really clearly in healthcare. We have built a system that rewards volume. If people really understand how the healthcare system in the United States works, generally a healthcare provider provides a medical intervention or a certain number of minutes of a medical intervention or a healthcare service, and then they're reimbursed based on that thing. You do one thing, you get one dollar, and so on and so forth. The challenge as we sort of look ahead is especially when you consider the changing demographics of the United States and the aging of America's population and the increasing need for health care and human services that there is going to be as we look forward, combined with the shrinking of the American workforce over these next couple of decades, what we have built is not sustainable. And I would even argue, even if it were sustainable, what we have built is not what we want. We don't want to be rewarding volume. We want to be rewarding quality, we want to be rewarding outcomes. All of us want, whether it's our doctor or our caregiver for our loved one, we want the reward to be based on quality and outcomes. But in order to actually reimburse that way, we need to truly create a different kind of provider infrastructure. And we've incentivized and built an entire system around a different set of rewards. And in order to make that transition, you need scale to be able to invest in the kinds of changes that are needed, whether that's technology, whether that's staff retention, whether that's just looking at being able to attract the best and the brightest minds. We need a different kind of health and human services system for the future. And that requires investment, which requires scale.

SPEAKER_00 19:10

A couple of months ago, I went in for my annual visit with my our family doc. And he comes in. I've been with him for 11 years. And he comes in and he's like, Scott, I see 20 to 25 patients a day. And that's the system I'm in. And he said, I'm tired. And I said, Doc, I've got you by 20 years. You first of all should not be telling me you're tired. But he said, you know what? He said, Um I'm getting out of this rat race and I'm gonna go to that concierge. You know, they call it the concierge model. And I said, How do you make those numbers work? You know, financially. He's got kids, he's got a family, everybody's got a budget. And he said, you know what? He goes, I can see half the patients. I can provide considerably better service, and I'll get to know my patients more, and the numbers work. There's a movement out there brewing, uh, I think to your point about fee for service and volume.

SPEAKER_03 20:04

Yeah. And you know, in Ohio specifically, uh most people don't know this, but we have somewhere between 500 and 700, I'll call them broadly behavioral health. And by that I mean mental health providers, substance use disorder treatment providers, um, intellectual and developmental disability services providers, agencies in Ohio. So think about the infrastructure that it takes to support 500 to 700 agencies. Now, what if those were at least some of them sharing resources? What better systems would they be able to afford? How much more time could they potentially put into programs, services, time with patients, to your point, if we didn't have to spend that kind of money on overhead and infrastructure for all 500 of those or for all 700 of those? And so we truly believe that in collaboration, in partnership, we can deliver better service and we can truly shift the conversation to quality and outcomes versus volume.

SPEAKER_00 21:12

You you teed up exactly what I wanted to mention next, because you talked about um sharing infrastructure, building out bigger and better technological systems, data, expertise, everything. So if if once we do all that, then the outcomes, the quality outcomes that we want, it's it's bound to improve.

SPEAKER_03 21:31

You know, I think about a funny story from my own life earlier over the winter. So I have a very long-haired dog, and he occasionally is a complete mess and needs brushed and all of those things. I probably don't do it frequently enough. And he had little like matted knots. And so I needed to use scissors to cut those out. And I could not, for the life of me, find scissors anywhere in this house. I have no idea where they went. My children, I don't know, eat scissors for some reason. But I did what every logical person does. I went to Amazon. I ordered a three-pack of scissors to arrive in two and a half hours. And then I had my three-pack of scissors and could go on with combing my dog. But the point is that's the world we live in now. Absolutely. Absolutely. Where when we have a problem, we expect to be able to solve it efficiently with quick accessibility. And then people enter our system. And it could not be further from that experience. The system that we have built, it doesn't work that way. And the technology, the systems to get into services, and I'm going to be honest, even at Boundless, it is not great. It is hard. I think I've shared in the past, I'm the mother of a son with a developmental disability, and I struggle with navigating the system. And Ohio has a great system. So I bring that up to say if we do this right, being able to access these services, these services being integrated, being able to offer a broader array, a more personalized service, that is what people should expect as the outcome of this. Like you said, the quality, the outcomes, it should be a natural outflowing of us doing this right.

SPEAKER_00 23:19

And Joe and Patrick were talking, and we've talked other episodes that we've had right here. We've talked about the difference for nonprofit providers. We've talked about the differences between surviving and thriving. And I and I think that's what we're getting to here and what we've been talking about the last couple of minutes. This is what thriving will hopefully look like.

SPEAKER_03 23:39

That's right. That's right. And I do think that that's important because there have been a lot of organizations that have uh come together through mergers and acquisitions because there was a crisis, or because they're uh one of the organizations needed rescued. And the fact that Boundless and Merricky have had the foresight to say, no, we want to have this conversation when we have choices. We want to have this conversation when we can design what we want the outcome to be, I think has put us in a very different place to truly build something that we believe is going to result in thriving organizations versus organizations that just barely made it through because they needed a rescue.

Investing In Tech And Leaders

SPEAKER_00 24:25

We've also talked about, and again, uh I credit you and other leaders we've had here for being brutally honest about profit margins. This is not an industry that that gets double-digit, you know, Apple, Amazon, you know, AI company type profit margins. It's in the it can oftentimes be in the low single digits. And if that, right? So when we do combine and go to scale, what types of investments then become a reality?

SPEAKER_03 24:55

Well, I think technology is an obvious answer. So I mentioned those, you know, five to seven hundred organizations just in Ohio. And truthfully, that is the same all across the country. So we're talking about thousands of organizations who are investing in implementing the technology system they can afford. And I can guarantee that is not the best technology system that is out there. So often what we end up with is every one of these organizations has a probably substandard technology platform that they are trying to run HR on, that they're trying to do recruitment with, they're running financials, they're doing all of their billing, they're doing their electronic health records. What would it look like if that investment were consolidated and we could buy the best product on the market? How much more efficient could we be? How much more money could we then reroute into programs and into services, into coming up with solving societal problems? I also think about training and professional development. And this isn't just our industry, but is definitely a thing in our industry that oftentimes people who are great direct support professionals or great therapists or great case managers end up getting promoted to being managers or might even end up getting promoted to be directors. And as a whole, we don't do a great job in teaching them how to be great leaders, both the management skills, but also the leadership skills. And so I think about that as a huge opportunity to develop people into truly creating exceptional leaders for these organizations. That again, the natural outflow has to be better quality, better outcomes because you are developing, retaining, creating these exceptional leaders within these programs, within these organizations. And then as I mentioned before, just the ability to attract the best and the brightest minds and talent. I mean, think about what it would mean if we were able to compete with the Google and the Amazons and the Apples. Now, I'm not saying we're we're gonna be there tomorrow, but what if that's the level of executive leadership talent and management talent that we were able to attract? How much better could our businesses be run? Again, not because we're trying to get big profit margins. These are nonprofits. We don't take the money home. None of us own this. When there's margins, we get to reinvest it in programs and services and people and communities. And so for me, that is what is so exciting about being here on the ground floor of beginning to build it.

SPEAKER_00 27:47

Retainment is huge. I I've, you know, I've watched and and conducted interviews with with CEOs for a long time, and they they will always say the best thing we can do is retain our people because if you're spending, you know, gobs and gobs of money retraining new people who are coming in, and if there's just a constant in and out flow, you're you're not getting anywhere.

SPEAKER_03 28:10

Well, and it's so critical in our space. I mean, think about this the vast majority of the people that we employ and that Marake employs are people who are frontline services providers. So these are people who are in some cases in someone's home five days a week and they might be the first shift worker, and then there's someone else who's there, you know, for second shift or third shift, or maybe they're at your um child's center providing services all day long with uh these students. When that role turns over, that is so hard for the people that are being served, for the families. And it makes a huge difference in outcomes when those roles are stable. And I will say those are the hardest roles to keep stable. So if we can have the impact of improving stability in those roles, that right there is a direct and obvious huge boost in quality and outcomes.

What Clients And Families Can Expect

SPEAKER_00 29:12

That's an easy tee up to. I was thinking about for folks who are listening to this and they receive services. We all know that it's, you know, it's kind of in our our human DNA to resist change sometimes. And change scares people. And it can be scary sometimes, but it it can also be very exciting, as we've been talking about. So for people who receive our services, what's your message to them?

SPEAKER_03 29:35

If we do this right, the outcome should be uh that uh the people who are delivering care to you or your loved one are the same people, but now they have better tools, better resources, better infrastructure to deliver that care and to provide those services. And there is less burnout. They have the ability to stay in the roles much longer. They themselves have more career opportunities, but then there's that time for them to train other people. And ultimately, if we do this right, if we do this well, the people that we serve should be the biggest beneficiaries of this. Additionally, you know, we talked about all of the problems, all of the challenges, the barriers that are facing our sector right now. Um, Stacy's talked about it. You heard Patrick and Joe talk about it. The truth is the future is a little bit scary right now. When we think about what will services look like in five years, in 10 years, what's going to be available in 20 years? The answer to that question could be um pretty frightening. And this decision is in many ways a direct response to saying that is not the future we are willing to have created. So we are going to work to create a future where there is a thriving, stable, nonprofit sector in 10 years, in 20 years, in 30 years that is solely focused on making sure great services are still available in those communities. I think this gets to the whole survive surviving versus thriving conversation.

From Survival Mode To Innovation

SPEAKER_03 31:23

So I think at some point in the past, we've talked about Boundless's multisystem youth services. Now, the story of those, and I won't go into the full history, is that this was a huge, huge problem in Ohio. There were lawsuits, there were children being sent out of state. It was a terrible situation. And Boundless raised their hand back, uh, it was about 10 years ago now, to say we are willing to try something different, something hasn't been, something that hasn't been done in Ohio before, and essentially created the multi-system youth model in Ohio for children who had intellectual and developmental disabilities along with mental health needs. And that's been a huge investment over the years that we've continued to invest in and develop. And now that model has actually been replicated across the state and in some cases in other states. But Boundless had the resources to try something that hadn't been done before. And to me, that's the difference between just surviving and all of your, you know, whatever it is, 1%, 2% margin getting eaten up every year and just cost of living and increased cost of technology and increased cost of gas next year, versus having the money to focus on solving society's problems and actually investing and truly being innovative and creating what's next for the communities that we're serving.

SPEAKER_00 32:47

Speaking of what's next, Joe suggested that this model could eventually include additional organizations. Um, who would be good candidates here?

SPEAKER_03 32:56

You know, I think that the perfect candidates, if we can find the perfect candidates, are leaders. Leaders, both at the organizational level, but also even at the board level, who have looked at the world around us and see what is happening right now, understand what's ahead of us, and feel compelled, like we both did, to build something better and build something durable. Because I am going to be really honest, I don't have any illusions this is gonna be easy. I already said we don't have all the answers. But we think this is the hard work that needs to be done. So I think that the number one thing that we need in other potential partners, whether that's partners that are wanting to join Boundless as part of Boundless's region or become their own regional affiliate in a part of the country, is people who understand the why. If you understand the why, to me, it makes doing the hard work worth it. And it's what keeps moving you forward, even when it's challenging. And so the why that we've talked a lot about the natural outcome of this being better quality. So it's people who are committed to building that world and who really are focused on that as the North Star. And I think when we find those kinds of leaders, those kinds of organizations, that's who we need involved in this as our partners.

SPEAKER_00 34:24

Well, and I can let our listeners know, because again, Jennifer and I are looking right at each other here, at least, at least virtually. And your your your honesty, your candor certainly comes across. But folks, I can let you know, Jenna's also smiling as she's talking about this. Like you're genuinely excited about this, aren't you?

SPEAKER_03 34:44

Scott, I don't think I could be more excited.

SPEAKER_00 34:46

Uh and it comes across.

SPEAKER_03 34:47

It's great. Yes, I am, I am so passionate about what this could be, what we can build, and truly the impact that we can have on changing the course of history, what we can make sure is truly there decades to come. I am just over the moon about getting to be getting to be able to be part of it.

Final Takeaways And Subscribe

SPEAKER_00 35:14

That's a good place to wrap it up, to put a bow on it. Um, Jennifer, it's been a great conversation. Thank you again for being part of. We're calling again this one episode two of our series here. But again, just some big, big announcements and some big, big goals. It's just gonna be a great ride. And we'll continue to talk about it here. So again, Jen, thanks.

SPEAKER_03 35:32

Thank you, Scott.

SPEAKER_00 35:32

The healthcare and human services sector is entering a period of significant change, as we've been talking about on many episodes really over the last 12 months plus, as organizations face growing demands and tighter resources and increasing expectations. Leaders are being challenged, as Jennifer said, to think differently about a lot of things. Scale, collaboration, long-term sustainability. The affiliation between Boundless and Merricky offers one possible blueprint for how organizations can preserve local impact while gaining the capabilities needed to succeed nationally in a rapidly evolving environment. We thank you as always for listening to the Nonprofit Leaders Guide brought to you by Boundless. And if you enjoyed this episode or all of our episodes, any of our episodes, please subscribe and share it with fellow nonprofit and human services leaders out there. Until the next time, I'm Scott Light.