Board Development
“The opposite of poverty is not wealth. It’s justice.”
–Bryan Stevenson
Nonprofit Board Development and Governance Consulting
A diverse, skilled, and engaged board is a critical lever for nonprofit organizational effectiveness and mission impact. Strong governance requires more than a capable board; it requires clear roles, effective structures, thoughtful board composition and recruitment, productive relationships, and practices that enable boards and staff to work together well.
We partner with nonprofits, foundations, and government agencies to strengthen governance, support effective boards and governing bodies, and design governance structures that fit your unique needs and context. We help boards, trustees, and staff clarify roles and responsibilities, strengthen engagement, improve decision-making, and build the capacity needed for effective oversight and shared accountability.
Our board development and governance capacity-building services include training on nonprofit governance best practices and board member roles and responsibilities; facilitating board self-assessments; developing board composition, recruitment strategies, and processes; developing and updating board policies and manuals; creating board, officer, and committee member job descriptions; designing governance structures and committee charters; developing board engagement agreements; and providing governance coaching and consulting.
We help organizations create the clarity, roles, and practices needed for effective governance. This includes clarifying decision-making authority and accountability; strengthening board-staff partnership; and creating governance practices that support meaningful participation, effective oversight, and shared accountability.
Board Self-Assessment:
A strong board of directors is central to a healthy and well-functioning organization. But how do you assess the strength of your board and identify where there are opportunities to grow?
Our customized Board Self-Assessment helps your board reflect on what it is doing well, understand challenges that may be emerging, and identify opportunities for improvement in support of your organization’s mission.
Our comprehensive Board Self-Assessment tool uses an online survey to invite individual board members to assess board governance, partnership with the chief executive, strategy, roles and responsibilities, culture, recruitment and retention, communication, meetings, fund development, and diversity, equity, and inclusion. We synthesize the input and report key themes and findings to the board to spark reflection and discussion.
The assessment includes a facilitated board training and survey debrief. More than just a survey tool, our assessment is a collaborative process designed to support reflection, inform decision-making, and strengthen your board’s and organization’s capacity.
Download Our Board Self-Assessment Tool
Wherever your board is in its development, the Board Self-Assessment can help you gain insights and identify opportunities and priorities to achieve your shared goals.
Select Board Development Clients
Effective governance is both structural and relational. We help boards and staff develop a shared understanding of their respective roles, navigate the boundaries between governance and management, work through differences, and build the trust and communication needed for a strong partnership.
We recognize that boards evolve as organizations grow and their circumstances change. A governance structure that worked well at one stage may no longer serve the organization as its needs, size, leadership, or external environment evolve. We help you assess what is working, identify what needs to change, and design structures and practices that support your organization now and into the future.
Our goal is not simply to help you have a better-functioning board. We help you build the governance structures, relationships, and practices that enable your organization to make thoughtful decisions, use its resources effectively, navigate change, and advance its mission.
Our Approach to Governance and Board Development
When we’re done, you’ll have:
Clear roles, responsibilities, decision-making authority, and accountability for board members, staff, and leadership, including where governance ends and management begins
A board with the right mix of skills, perspectives, and experience to support your organization’s mission and evolving needs
Governance structures and committee roles designed to fit your organization, with clear purposes, responsibilities, and expectations
Board members who understand how they can contribute most effectively and are meaningfully engaged in the organization’s work
Stronger board-staff relationships grounded in trust, clear communication, and shared accountability
More effective board meetings and decision-making practices that make good use of everyone’s time and expertise
Effective governance tools, including policies, manuals, and job descriptions, that clarify expectations and support effective governance
Greater capacity to navigate differences, engage in productive dialogue, and make thoughtful decisions together
A stronger foundation for effective oversight, leadership, and mission impact
In Our Clients’ Words
Related Case Studies
Board Development FAQs
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Yes. Board retreats are some of our most common facilitation engagements. We design and facilitate them as standalone projects or as part of a larger board development engagement. See our facilitation page for more.
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It varies. A focused engagement, like a single board retreat or a recruitment-strategy project, may take a few weeks. Deeper governance capacity-building work usually takes three to six months.
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Board training is often a single workshop or course. Governance capacity building is ongoing development work that strengthens the board's ability to govern over time, including how it makes decisions, holds itself accountable, and works with the executive director and staff. We do both, but our most impactful work tends to be capacity building.
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Yes. We work with the boards of foundations and other funders on governance, composition, and strategic alignment.