 |
|
 |
|
|
|
BoardWalk Consulting is committed to sustainable excellence in the governance, leadership and management of nonprofits, foundations and similar tax-exempt organizations. We provide three principal consulting services: executive search, board enrichment (including board matching), and strategic planning. If you are a trustee, funder or operating executive interested in advancing excellence in your organization, please contact us for a confidential exploratory discussion.
Executive Search
We help our clients identify and attract the best possible candidates for leadership by combining:
- the business disciplines and research tools of traditional for-profit executive search
- the passion, tenacity and commitment to mission that is much more common to the nonprofit sector
- the creativity to frame our searches in new ways, never settling for the "obvious" alternatives
At BoardWalk, we limit our workload to just a few assignments at a time--in fact, a fraction of the number required of consultants in the huge global firms. By concentrating on a handful of committed clients, we offer unparalleled attention and responsiveness to every client's needs. To view our active engagements, please click here for a current roster.
Board Enrichment
Strong organizations deserve strong boards. BoardWalk's clients view their boards as strategic assets, not just administrative necessities. Our approach addresses the two key components of a board enrichment strategy: board recruitment and board development.
- Board recruitment helps ensure that nonprofits and foundations attract the very best trustees and directors consistent with the organization's aspirations.
- Board development helps ensure that these special assets are utilized in the best possible way.
- Board governance helps ensure that the operating practices of governing boards support the strategic mission, leverage the board's potential and conform with sound principles.
A board enrichment project requires three simple things: A champion, a starting point, and some action. The champion can be a board member or task force; the starting point can be nothing more than the decision to examine, improve or update the way a board functions; and the action is any concrete step taking to advance the enhancement agenda.
The first step in a board project is often a board survey. Unlike typical assessment tools, often poorly adapted from their compliance-minded counterparts in the corporate sector, our surveys are practical instruments designed to tap the collective wisdom of a nonprofit's current board members--What's working, What's not, How could the board make better use of members' time, Is the board addressing the right issues?
The survey is often followed by a customized board retreat designed to broaden the commitment to enhancement, establish priorities for attention, and assign specific accountability and timelines for implementation.
Throughout, our goal is to meet a board where it is today, help its members visualize the board they want and deserve to become, and then together map the board strategies, structures and resources needed to achieve their collective aspirations.
Board Matching
Board matching is the one aspect of our Board Enrichment services that is targeted to corporate clients. Historically, individual executives made individual decisions about which boards, if any, they wanted to join. Today, a company's philanthropic strategy is increasingly tied to its corporate strategy, and the commitment of executive time and corporate reputation is seen as a major decision worthy of deliberation and planning.
Leading companies have begun to take a holistic view of board participation even as the overall managerial time available for such activities has shrunk. By taking a more planned approach to community service, these pioneering companies have found they can promote individual initiative, advance corporate citizenship, and pursue competitive strategy all at the same time. All employees profit from the example being set in the executive suite, and connections between community and company are enhanced.
Strategic Planning
BoardWalk's approach to strategic planning is fundamentally practical. Working with the board and senior team (and, often, with external stakeholders), we invite the client to address several key questions, among them:
- What constitutes a successful future for the organization?
- Which benchmarks will mark meaningful progress towards that success?
- What resources will be required, and how should they be leveraged?
- What are the implications for today's organization?
- Who is responsible for what?
Our strategy projects result in concise action plans for the organization, not handsome documents for the archives.
|
|
|
| |
