KINGS BEACH, Calif. — Four notable nonprofits in the Tahoe-Truckee area have merged together to create one unified organization.

Dubbed the Sierra Community House, the new organization is made up of the Family Resource Center of Truckee, North Tahoe Family Resource Center, Tahoe SAFE Alliance and Project MANA.

“It’s a collaborative relationship (that) has been building over many years. We thought ‘how can we take that to the next level?’” said Paul Bancroft, executive director of Sierra Community House. “Now we won’t have a need for that collaboration because we’ll be one organization.”

Bancroft said the nonprofits will continue to provide the same level of service, just under one name. They hope to increase efficiency across all four organizations by using a shared language and shared staff and administrative team across the agency.

Collectively the organization will now be able to provide hunger relief, domestic violence and crisis intervention, legal counseling, immigration aid and other family strengthening programs.

“We’re taking the strength of every organization and bringing those together into one strong robust social service provider,” said Bancroft. “Someone can come to the organization and only have to tell their story one time; and they’re going to have better access to more services.”

The merge had no negative effect on the employees as they were able to preserve every position. Instead, Bancroft said this will provide an opportunity for employees to be more efficient with projects they are passionate about.

“It’s fairly typical of nonprofits that everybody wears a bunch of hats. This is the opportunity for staff to be able to remove some of the hats they’re wearing and focus on their strengths,” said Bancroft.

Bancroft, who used to run Tahoe SAFE Alliance, said they were only eligible for funding that would aid their specific mission. Not only can they now pool their funding together,but the organization will be eligible for more funding with the expansion of services they provide.

“It’s going to take us awhile to have a clear picture of all the current funding sources,” said Bancroft. “I think it will give us access to new funding stream that we previously didn’t have access to.”

According to a news release, the new organization has received funding from Blue Shield Foundation, SH Cowell Foundation, Tahoe Truckee Community Foundation, Martis Camp Community Foundation, First 5 Placer County, Katz Amsterdam Foundation, Squaw Valley, and all of the board members from the four organizations.

“There’s already interest outside of our area in this project,” said Bancroft. “I think it’s quite remarkable that what we’re doing is being watched from afar.”