A marriage of behavioral health nonprofits in California will create an organization with twice the revenue of either individual organization. The combined Pacific Clinics, Arcadia, Calif., and Campbell, Calif.-based Uplift Family Services will operate under the name Pacific Clinics.
During the year ending June 30, 2020, Pacific Clinics reported $109.2 million in total revenue and $8.1 million in net assets, and Uplift Family Services had $105.5 million in total revenue and $38.7 million in net assets for the year ending June 30, 2019, according to the most recent federal Form 990s available on GuideStar.
Kathryn McCarthy, who had been CEO and president of Uplift Family Services, is taking the same role at the new Pacific Clinics. James J. Balla, formerly Pacific Clinics’ CEO, is now chief strategy officer.
“This merger will broaden Pacific Clinics’ reach throughout California at a moment when mental and behavioral health needs have never been more acute and widespread,” McCarthy said in a statement.
According to figures released by Pacific Clinics, 46.1% of adults in California have experienced anxiety or depression, and 21.9% of adults were not able to get counseling or therapy during 2021. Two-thirds of Californians between the ages of 12 and 17 who have depression were not able to access care during the past year. Additionally, 35.3% of the 1.5 million adults who sought needed mental health care during 2021 did not receive it due to cost.
Staff at the two nonprofits had worked together before the merger. In 2020, they jointly operated a certified community behavioral health clinic. Each organization was staffed by around 1,000 employees. No reductions in force are planned, according to Myeisha Peguero Gamino, Pacific Clinics’ chief communications officer.
“Prior to the merger and as part of each agency’s strategic plans, we explored partnerships to support the needs of the communities we serve, Peguero Gamino wrote in an email to The NonProfit Times. “We complement each other across our respective expertise and geographic footprints. By combining our resources, knowledge and experience through a shared vision, we offer a broader array of needed comprehensive programs and life-changing services to people of all ages.”
Pre-merger, Pacific Clinics served Alameda, Contra Costa, Fresno, Kings, Los Angeles, Madera, Orange, Placer, Riverside, Sacramento, San Bernardino, San Francisco, Santa Clara, Solano, Stanislaus, Stockton, Tulare and Ventura counties, while Uplift Family Service had offices in San Jose, Los Gatos, Fairfield, Concord, Modesto, Sacramento, Fresno, San Bernardino and Los Angeles.
The two organizations complement each other. “Uplift Family Services has provided mental health and behavioral health services, social services and foster care and adoptions to meet the needs of children and families,” Peguero Gamino wrote. “Pacific Clinics has offered a full range of mental and behavioral health services, housing, continuing adult education and Head Start early childhood education programs that support individuals of all ages.”
Uplift Family Services was founded in 1867, while Pacific Clinics has been in operation since 1926. The nonprofit chose to retain the Pacific Clinics name because it best represented the combined organization’s expansion, Peguero Gamino added.