Governance: Help Your Board Take the Helm
A board on cruise control is trouble in the making. Strong governance is the foundation every successful school and nonprofit stands on.
That means policies that keep pace with legal and cultural change. It means a board that owns a strategic plan and clear goals as the organization’s north star. And it means the structures that keep a board on course: an annual roadmap, effective committees, and a clear, transparent process for evaluating the Executive Director.
I have served on boards and partnered with them as an Executive Director for decades. I’ll give yours the tools and the confidence to take the helm.
Ways to work together
Free 30-minute discovery call about your governance challenges. Book a free call →
Board Check-Up, $300. A 90-minute review of your bylaws, board calendar, agendas and committee structure, followed by a one-page action plan. Book now →
New board member onboarding (virtual), $200 per member, with 10% off for three or more at once. Covers open meetings (Sunshine) laws, governance versus operations, speaking with one voice, why the ED evaluation matters, your organization’s mission and vision, and, for charter boards, where charter schools fit in public education. Buy now →
Board Chair Coaching (virtual), $1,800 for six months. Especially valuable for new chairs. Covers managing board members, staying compliant with Sunshine laws, partnering productively with your executive leader, building agendas that meet compliance needs and leave room for strategy discussions, and facilitating meetings. Includes a monthly session, agenda review before each board meeting, and email support in between. Book a free call →
Governance policy review and compliance update for your board handbook, $1,500. Book a free call →
Board retreat designed around your organization’s needs, $2,500 to $5,000. Pricing dependent on length of retreat (full or half day) and on number of participants. Book a free call →
Governance Partnership, from $2,000 a month. A six-month engagement to rebuild your board’s foundation: a board assessment, policy review and handbook update, an annual roadmap and committee structure, a clear Executive Director evaluation process, a nomination and selection process for Board members, onboarding for new members, monthly coaching for your chair, and a half-day retreat to bring it all together. $12,000 to $15,000 in total. Request a proposal →
Ongoing Board Partnership, from $750 a month. Stay on course after a major engagement. Essentials, $750 a month: a quarterly board check-in, a quarterly plan progress review, onboarding for new members, and email support. Plus, $1,500 a month: everything in Essentials, a monthly call with your board chair, and an annual board self-assessment and retreat plan. Request a proposal →
Tools you can download today
Board Health Check, free. Fifteen questions to see whether your board is on course.
Board Essentials Toolkit, $149. The onboarding template, the annual roadmap, and the Board Health Check scoring guide in one download. Buy now →
New Charter School Board Member Onboarding Template, $50 Buy now →
Colorado Charter School Board Annual Roadmap, with academic, finance and legal deadlines built in. DPS version, $50. CSI version, $50. Buy now →
Testimonial
Chris did a phenomenal job building the board of the school and engaging parents such that the entire school community feels a great sense of ownership over every aspect of the school’s operations and program. As such, it is abundantly clear that Chris enabled her school to become a walking embodiment of its name and mission, having become a true community school that many other charter schools and other public schools emulate.
— Jed Wallace, former President of the California Charter Schools Association and current leader of Charter Folk