Board Assessment & Evaluation
Board Health Check
The structured assessment we begin every engagement with, also available on its own.
Instinct vs. insight
The Value of Self-Assessment
You’re here because you want to know how your board is actually doing. What you’ve pieced together from meetings and informal conversations only gets you partway. The full picture is what every board member would say if asked honestly, in confidence, with the structure to answer well. That picture is hard to build from the inside, which is why most boards never seriously try.
According to Leading with Intent: BoardSource Index of Nonprofit Board Practices, only 22.9% of nonprofit boards have completed a formal self-assessment in the past year. Most are governing on instinct rather than data. That’s the problem the Assembled or Built?™ question makes visible: a board assembled over time, without a clear picture of what the organization actually needs from it, won’t know what to look for in its own performance. The Board Health Check is the structured assessment we use to answer that question.
Our Board Health Check is a board evaluation process that gives you an objective look at how your board is actually functioning. Every assessment runs through a confidential online platform with role-tagged questions designed to surface where perceptions align and where they don’t. We translate the responses into a written findings document and walk you through it in a debrief conversation.
Two Versions
There are two versions of our board assessment, and they answer different questions:
The full Board Health Check is a board-wide self-assessment for when you want the whole board’s perspective on its own governance. Every board member plus the ED completes the assessment. The result is a complete picture of how the board sees itself across composition, culture, structure, and the board-ED partnership.
Board Health Check Lite is a fast read for when you need to know whether you and your chair are seeing the same board. Two assessments, one from you and one from your chair, surface where you’re aligned and where you’re not. The chair-ED gap, when it exists, is the most consequential governance dynamic in the organization, and the hardest to see from the inside.
questions?
Not sure which engagement is right for you?
a structured chair/ed assessment
Board Health Check Lite
When the executive director and the board chair don’t see the board the same way, governance gets harder than it needs to be. Board Health Check Lite surfaces that gap, or confirms it isn’t there, through two parallel assessments completed independently. We write up a findings memo and walk you through it together.
Who Board Health Check Lite Is For
• An ED who suspects they and the chair aren’t aligned on the board’s strengths and weaknesses, its responsibilities, or its direction
• A new chair stepping into the role and wanting to compare notes with the ED before their term really gets going
• A board entering a strategic planning year that needs the chair and ED on the same page first
• A board approaching a recruitment cycle that needs the chair and ED aligned on what kind of members to bring on
What's Included
• Two parallel online assessments (one for you, one for your chair)
• A written findings memo covering the data and where you’re aligned or not
• A 30-minute debrief call with you and your chair to walk through the findings together
Investment
$149
Invoiced and paid at booking. Typical turnaround is about two weeks, depending on how quickly the assessments are completed.
A complete assessment of full board performance
The Full Board Health Check
For a clear-eyed picture of how the entire board sees itself, the full Board Health Check delivers it. Every board member plus the executive director completes the assessment. We aggregate the data, surface the patterns and the perception gaps, and deliver a written findings report covering board composition, culture, structure, and the board-ED partnership.
Who The Full Board Health Check Is For
• A board entering a board development cycle and wanting baseline data on its responsibilities and how the board is meeting them
• A board chair or governance committee that wants an honest picture of governance health before a recruitment cycle or strategic planning year
• An organization between strategic plans and using the year to strengthen the board itself
• A board that suspects it’s drifted from its best self but isn’t sure exactly where
What's Included
• An online assessment completed by every board member and the ED
• A written findings report covering perception gaps and governance domains
• A 60-minute debrief call with the governance or executive committee and ED to walk through the findings together
Investment
$299
Invoiced and paid at booking. Typical turnaround is three to four weeks, depending on how quickly the assessments are completed.
questions?
Not sure if the Board Health Check is the right place to start?
Who Board Health Check Isn't For
Boards in active financial crisis
A diagnostic like the Board Health Check won’t fix a cash flow emergency.
Executive directors hoping to use the assessment to build a case against a specific board member
Findings come back as governance patterns aggregated across roles, with individual responses staying confidential.
Organizations where the board chair is actively hostile to outside evaluation
If the chair won’t participate, the data won’t matter.
Boards uninterested in governance
If the board doesn't see governance as part of its job, a diagnostic isn't going to change that.
What's next
What Comes After A Board Health Check
For most boards, the Board Health Check begins something larger. The findings name what’s there. What follows builds from them.
Board Foundations: A 3-month focused engagement on one or two priority areas the Board Health Check surfaces. Includes a Board Health Check Lite as the diagnostic phase.
The Board Build™: A 6-month flagship engagement built around the full picture of governance health. Includes the Board Health Check Full as the diagnostic phase.
The Inherited Board™: A 90-day engagement for executive directors in their first year, organized around the chair-ED partnership. Includes a Board Health Check Lite as the diagnostic phase.
If you book a future engagement within six months of your BHC results, the standalone fee credits forward in full.
The Lite ($149) credits toward Board Foundations or The Inherited Board™. The Full ($299) credits toward The Board Build™. After six months, board composition or context usually shifts enough that we'd start with a fresh diagnostic.