ongoing governance consulting
Board Building
You’ve done the workshops and the orientations. You’ve recruited new members and watch the same dynamics continue to reassert themselves. There’s a gap between the board you have and the board you need. Closing it takes sustained work across months.
Assembled or Built?
The Question Behind Every Engagement
A board can be assembled, with seats filled as openings come up and members chosen because they were available and willing. Or it can be built deliberately, over time, around what the mission actually needs. Assembled or Built?™ is the question that opens every engagement we do. Our Board Building services are how we move boards from assembled to built: through assessment, design, facilitation, and implementation, sustained over months rather than fitted into a single workshop.
work through one or two specific governance areas
Board Foundations
Board Foundations is a focused engagement that takes one or two of those areas and addresses them over three months. We begin with our Board Health Check Lite, working with you and your chair to ground the engagement in what’s actually happening. When composition is part of the engagement, we use the 3 Ws + ACE Qualities™ framework as the lens: the 3 Ws (Work, Wealth, Wisdom) plus ACE Qualities (Ambassadors, Connectors, Energizers). From there, we work directly with your governance or executive committee on the design and direction, then bring the full board into a working session to implement. By the end of your 3 months of targeted board performance consulting, you’ll have meaningful movement on the priorities you came in with and a clearer view of what comes next.
Who Board Foundations Is For
Boards that have identified specific governance work they want to do:
- A recruitment cycle that needs to be more deliberate
- A board/ED relationship that needs new working norms
- A meeting culture that has drifted away from the mission
Board Foundations gives you focused, professional support on what you’ve already named.
What's Included
- Our Board Health Check Lite
- One working session with your Executive or Governance Committee
- One facilitated working session with the full board
- Monthly advisory calls with the ED, chair, or both as the engagement requires
- Email response within 24 hours throughout the engagement
- A focused implementation plan covering the priority areas
Who Board Foundations Isn't For
- Boards that need a full development cycle. The Board Build™ is built for that.
- Boards looking to skip the diagnostic phase. The Board Health Check Lite isn’t optional, and skipping it leaves us guessing.
- Organizations where the executive director can’t or won’t be a partner in the engagement. The engagement is heavily structured around the chair/ED partnership.
- New Executive Directors. If you are in your first 6–18 months and trying to figure out the board you just walked into, you don't need a structural governance engagement yet. See The Inherited Board™.
Investment
Invoiced at booking; payable in full or in three monthly installments. Tiered by organizational budget.
- $500K – $1M: $1,500/month ($4,500 total)
- $1M – $2M: $1,750/month ($5,250 total)
- $2M – $3M: $2,000/month ($6,000 total)
- Over $3M: Let's talk (see FAQ)
questions?
Not sure if Board Foundations is right for you?
six months of sustained board development
The Board Build™
Some boards aren’t stuck in one or two areas. They need a full development cycle that addresses composition, culture, structure, and the routines that hold it all together. The Board Build is our six-month flagship governance consulting engagement designed for that.
We begin with our full Board Health Check, which gives us a clear read on the board across every governance domain. The composition work is anchored in our 3 Ws + ACE Qualities framework, which gives the board a shared language for what it has and what it needs.
Over the course of six months we work with your Executive or Governance Committee on the design and direction of the engagement, with the full board in facilitated working sessions, and with the board chair in dedicated coaching. The engagement leaves you with a 12-month implementation roadmap that keeps the changes moving after we step away.
Who The Board Build Is For
Boards ready for sustained governance work across multiple areas: composition, culture, structure, the board/ED relationship, and the routines that govern how the board operates. Often a board taking on a strategic plan, working through an executive transition, or recognizing the board needs new capacity to meet what’s ahead.
What's Included
- Our Board Health Check Full
- Two working sessions with your Executive or Governance Committee
- Two facilitated working sessions with the full board
- Dedicated coaching for the board chair throughout the engagement
- Monthly advisory calls with the ED, chair, or both as the engagement requires
- Email response within 24 hours throughout the engagement
- A 12-month implementation roadmap
Who The Board Build Isn't For
- Boards stuck on one or two specific issues. Board Foundations is the right size for that.
- Boards in active financial or organizational crisis. You’re better served by a consultant who specializes in turnaround work.
- Organizations not ready or able to commit to six months of sustained work. A Board Workshop or Annual Retreat may fit better.
Investment
Invoiced at booking; payable in full or in six monthly installments. Tiered by organizational budget.
- $500K – $1M: $1,500/month ($9,000 total)
- $1M – $2M: $2,000/month ($12,000 total)
- $2M – $3M: $2,500/month ($15,000 total)
- Over $3M: Let's talk (see FAQ)
what's next
What Comes After The Board Build
Boards return to us in different rhythms. Some discover that Foundations surfaced something bigger and step into The Board Build. Some come back once a year for an Annual Board Retreat to reflect on the year and plan ahead. And others move into our Annual Governance Retainer for ongoing month-to-month advisory board consulting.
Not sure which is right for you?
The Annual Governance Retainer
After Board Foundations or The Board Build, the Annual Governance Retainer continues as monthly governance advisory; for Inherited Board graduates, it continues as ED coaching.
The Governance Retainer covers monthly calls on board-level questions, review of board materials, advisory on dynamics and decisions as they come up, and an annual review of governance progress with the ED and board chair.
$750/month flat across all organization sizes. 12-month commitment, then month-to-month with 30 days notice.
The Retainer is available to graduates of Board Foundations, The Board Build, or The Inherited Board.