High-functioning boards are essential to the success of an organization. Boards that provide effective governance—providing strategic direction, financial oversight, accountability to stakeholders, and risk oversight—can have a huge impact on the organization’s overall success and culture.

For boards wishing to improve their performance, a third-party governance assessment can provide a comprehensive overview of the challenges and opportunities within the governance environment.

You can gain insight into your board’s current state and develop an informed, forward-looking strategy to help the board—and ultimately the entire organization—achieve its mission.

Evaluate and Augment Board Practices for Long-Term Success

By collaborating with your leaders, our professionals can help your board assess its performance, benchmark its practices against industry standards, and identify practical solutions to enhance its performance.

A governance assessment can empower your strategic decision-makers with a complete understanding of challenges and opportunities—bringing everyone together to address roles and responsibilities, improve operational efficiency, and strengthen working relationships.

Assessments help your governance team:

• Understand what’s working well at the board level
• Identify where challenges exist with your board’s culture, processes, or systems
• Build stronger, clearer relationships by aligning your management team and board to make group decisions more effectively and efficiently
• Determine the effectiveness of board support structures and personnel

Signs a Governance Assessment Could Enhance Your Board’s Performance

Your board may benefit from a third-party governance assessment if:

• The board lacks an understanding of its role or how to function as an effective decision-making team
• The board and management team aren’t aligned on future goals—preventing completion of the strategic work or causing turnover at the management level
• The organization recently hired a new executive or new members recently joined the board
• A new strategic plan is underway, and your organization needs the board to be well positioned to support goals
• The organization is going through major growth or contraction
• Fundamental changes to the organization recently occurred and your board needs to be ready to support next critical steps

How the Process Works

Our professionals use a step-by-step and practical process to help identify your board’s needs.

• Project Initiation. Confirm expectations and review overall project scope, logistics, deliverables, timing, and progress reporting requirements.
• Fact-Finding. Obtain the most current information available—and insights from your organization and selected stakeholders—through fieldwork including documentation review, walk-throughs, observations, interviews, and surveys.
• Assessment. Compare current practices against industry standards to identify opportunities to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the governance environment.
• Reporting. Develop a detailed assessment including observations and recommendations. Review the draft- and final- reports with leadership and deliver any needed presentations.
• Support for Implementation. If desired, our team can also provide support for implementation of certain recommendations—including board training, policy development, process improvement, and more.

Expansive Board and Governance Experience

Deeply immersed in more than 30 industries, our professionals support boards and governing bodies in a range of sectors, including those at not-for-profit organizations; higher education institutions; and governmental entities at the federal, state, county, local, and Tribal level.

We help boards of all sizes and maturity levels—customizing solutions based on the unique needs of your organization, its life cycle, and the nuances of the industry in which you operate.

With a first-hand understanding of both management and board perspectives, we have deep experience navigating even in highly charged environments, situations of deep public scrutiny, or those requiring compliance with strict policies, restrictions, or legal requirements.

Additionally, our one-firm approach offers access to industry specialists, providing comprehensive support and insight in key areas impacting your industry that may bolster your organization and establish foundations for long-term success.