How Inperium Enables Nonprofit Affiliates to Thrive on Their Own Terms
Written by Dan Jordan for The Los Angeles Tribune
When questions are raised about Inperium, Inc. and the extent of its role in its wide network of nonprofit affiliates, its leadership is quick to clarify: the organization does not operate programs, nor does it direct the day-to-day work of its partners. Instead, its business model is deliberately structured to preserve autonomy while enabling affiliates to access the kinds of resources, financing, and economies of scale they could not achieve alone. “We are not asking the affiliate to conform to us,” says Ryan Dewey Smith, Founding Executive Chairman & CEO of Inperium. “They can go and do what they do, and we will be in the background to support them.”
That distinction is fundamental to understanding how Inperium operates. Unlike a parent company that takes over management of subsidiaries, Inperium provides infrastructure, capital, and strategic support but deliberately avoids embedding staff in local offices or directing program decisions. There is no Inperium employee deciding the staffing structure of a residential program or determining what is served for lunch in a group home. The affiliates themselves remain fully responsible for their operations, their staff, and ultimately, the quality and safety of their programs. This separation is intentional. “We don’t render any of the services; that remain entirely under the affiliate’s control, and it is their responsibility,” Smith emphasizes.
What Inperium does provide is substantial back-office infrastructure and financial support. Through its structure and its wholly owned subsidiary, Apis Services, affiliates can outsource administrative burdens such as payroll, IT, insurance, compliance, and other essential functions. By centralizing these functions, Inperium enables leaders of affiliated organizations to focus on their missions without being consumed by paperwork and overhead costs. Smith describes the arrangement as creating advantages of scale: “Because of our breadth and experience, we can offer resources that many organizations simply wouldn’t have on their own, while never interfering in the work they do best.”
Inperium’s methodology also emphasizes rigorous evaluation before any affiliation is finalized. The organization has built internal due diligence and integration teams that assess potential partners thoroughly, examining legal, financial, and operational risks. On multiple occasions, prospective affiliations were terminated when the risks proved too high. That diligence reinforces the principle that Inperium enters only into partnerships where mutual confidence exists. In its history, Inperium has never disaffiliated from a partner due to misconduct. The only instance of separation occurred when one affiliate sold a division in a transaction that allowed resources to be redeployed more effectively across the network.
Collaboration among affiliates is encouraged but not imposed. Each affiliate maintains its own board and governance, but the leaders of these organizations are invited to participate in an advisory board established by Inperium. This body provides a forum for sharing ideas, surfacing issues, and fostering collaboration between organizations that may never otherwise have crossed paths. Participation, however, is entirely voluntary. “It’s not a requirement,” Smith notes. “We realize it’s not a one-size-fits-all, because of our scale, the different geographies we work in, and the different sizes of our affiliates. Some affiliates are large, some are smaller, and they all know their communities best.” By maintaining this optional structure, Inperium ensures that collaboration is a resource, not an obligation.
This approach also provides resilience. Inperium’s affiliates operate in diverse regions and across service areas such as intellectual and developmental disabilities, behavioral health, and child and family services. Each one faces unique local challenges and opportunities. By preserving independence, Inperium ensures that solutions remain locally responsive while affiliates still benefit from shared infrastructure and pooled resources. The combination allows for innovation and growth without eroding accountability. Affiliates carry responsibility for their programs, while Inperium stands behind them with financial and administrative capacity.
In recent years, some critics have sought to link Inperium to isolated incidents at affiliate organizations. But the model is clear: responsibility lies with each affiliate’s leadership and board. Inperium neither manages programs nor dictates how they should be run. What it does do is ensure affiliates are better equipped to succeed by reducing their costs, expanding access to capital, and providing optional expertise drawn from its experienced leadership team. “At the end of the day, it’s really up to the affiliate head and their staff to make things work appropriately,” Smith says. “Our role is to help mitigate risk and provide support where we can, but not to interfere.”
That clarity is vital for a network that continues to grow. With new affiliations and an expanding pipeline, Inperium sees itself as building not a centralized system but a federated one: a collective of autonomous organizations, each rooted in its community, strengthened by shared resources, but never diminished by outside control. For Smith, this is the core of the model’s strength. “We designed it this way on purpose,” he reflects. “We are here to provide scale, resources, and stability, but the mission, the day-to-day work, always belongs to the affiliates.”