We Have Solutions for Your Governance Problems
WHAT KIND OF HELP DO YOU NEED?
YOU KNOW SOMETHING IN YOUR GOVERNANCE NEEDS ATTENTION—YOU JUST NEED A CLEARER PICTURE OF WHAT IS WORKING, WHAT ISN’T, AND WHY.
Governance Health Audit
Sometimes the governance problem is obvious. Sometimes you just know the same issues keep finding their way back.
Decisions take too long. Accountability is unclear. Board and executive roles blur. A problem gets addressed, only to resurface a few months later in a slightly different form.
That is often a sign that the issue is bigger than one policy, one person, or one difficult decision.
The Governance Health Audit helps your leadership team step back and see the governance system as a whole, so you can understand not only what is happening, but why it keeps happening.
Through questionnaires, leadership interviews, document review, and a written report, we take a comprehensive look at how your organization’s governance is functioning in practice.
You gain a clearer picture of how authority, accountability, decision-making, leadership practices, and governance systems are working together—and where they are not.
YOUR BYLAWS MAY NO LONGER REFLECT HOW YOUR ORGANIZATION ACTUALLY OPERATES.
Bylaws Alignment Review
Your bylaws may have been right for the organization you were several years ago. That does not necessarily mean they still reflect the organization you are leading today.
As organizations grow and leadership changes, gaps can develop between what the governing documents say, what board and executive leaders believe their roles are, and how decisions actually get made.
The Bylaws Alignment Review looks beyond the document itself to determine whether your governing documents, leadership expectations, and actual practices still work together.
We review your bylaws and relevant governance materials and conduct a Board & Executive Governance Assessment to compare:
what your governing documents require;
how board and executive leaders understand their roles;
how the organization actually operates; and
where written requirements and current practices no longer align.
You leave with a clearer understanding of what is working, where meaningful gaps exist, what needs attention, and what steps should come next.
YOU HAVE WORKPLACE ISSUES, BUT YOU ARE NOT CONFIDENT YOUR POLICIES AND PRACTICES ARE STRONG ENOUGH TO HANDLE THEM WELL.
Workplace Integrity Review
Workplace problems rarely begin with one dramatic failure.
More often, risk builds quietly.
A performance issue is handled differently from one employee to the next. A manager is unsure how to respond to an accommodation request. Expectations are inconsistent. A workplace concern gets addressed in the moment, but there is no clear process to guide what happens next.
Sometimes the organization has policies that are outdated, incomplete, or disconnected from practice. Sometimes important policies or processes do not exist at all.
The Workplace Integrity Review helps leadership step back and examine how the organization is governing its people, not just what policies are sitting in a handbook.
You leave with a clearer understanding of what needs attention, what should be strengthened, and what steps should come next.
The goal is to help your organization build a workplace system that supports sound judgment, treats people humanely, creates safer working conditions, and allows leaders to manage the organization’s human assets with greater consistency and integrity.
YOUR BOARD NEEDS TRAINING THAT PREPARES IT FOR THE RESPONSIBILITIES IT IS ACTUALLY EXPECTED TO CARRY.
Customized Board Training
Board members are entrusted with real authority and real responsibility. Yet many are expected to understand fiduciary duties, oversight, decision-making, board-executive roles, and organizational accountability without meaningful preparation for the work.
A generic “Board 101” presentation can explain the vocabulary. It may not help your directors understand how those responsibilities show up in the decisions, relationships, and governance challenges your organization is actually facing.
Customized Board Training is built around your board, your organization, and the responsibilities your directors need to carry out well.
Depending on your needs, training may help directors develop:
a stronger understanding of their governance responsibilities;
greater clarity about the roles of the board, officers, individual directors, and executive leadership;
better judgment when governance questions are not straightforward;
more disciplined approaches to oversight and decision-making; and
greater confidence in exercising their authority responsibly.
Customized does not mean complicated. It means your board spends its time learning what is most relevant to the responsibilities it actually carries.
A GOVERNANCE DISPUTE HAS BECOME DIFFICULT TO RESOLVE AND IS BEGINNING TO DISRUPT THE ORGANIZATION.
Governance Mediation
Some governance disputes are not simply interpersonal conflicts.
They may involve competing understandings of authority, leadership roles, board conduct, executive relationships, decision-making, accountability, or organizational direction. When those issues become entangled, ordinary conflict resolution may not be enough.
Governance Mediation provides a structured, neutral process designed specifically for governance disputes within nonprofit organizations.
Good Works Legal Solutions helps participants:
identify the governance issues driving the dispute;
clarify competing understandings of authority and responsibility;
understand one another’s perspectives;
distinguish areas of agreement from unresolved disagreement; and
determine whether a workable path forward can be reached.
The goal is to help leadership address the governance issues underneath the dispute, restore enough clarity and working alignment for the organization to function, and return attention to the mission.
YOU ARE FACING A GOVERNANCE DECISION AND WANT EXPERIENCED GUIDANCE BEFORE YOU MOVE FORWARD.
Governance Advisory Support
Sometimes you need a knowledgeable governance advisor to help you make sense of the situation, identify what matters most, and think carefully about the decision in front of you.
Governance Advisory Support provides focused, practical guidance for nonprofit leaders navigating questions involving authority, accountability, board and executive roles, decision-making, leadership relationships, and other governance concerns.
The goal is to help you understand the issue more clearly, consider the implications, and move forward with greater confidence and sounder judgment.
For board leaders who need more sustained support in their leadership role, Good Works also offers the Board Chair Leadership Accelerator and Governance Committee Leadership Accelerator, structured coaching programs designed to strengthen governance judgment, leadership practices, and the ability to navigate real governance situations over time.
YOU KNOW WHAT NEEDS TO CHANGE. NOW IT HAS TO BECOME PART OF HOW THE ORGANIZATION ACTUALLY WORKS.
Implementation Support
When appropriate, Good Works Legal Solutions provides Implementation Support to help organizations translate governance recommendations into practical systems, processes, and documents that can actually be used.
Implementation support may include defined work such as:
governance policies;
committee charters;
resolutions;
delegations of authority;
governance procedures; and
other organizational documents or systems needed to put recommendations into practice.
The goal is to help turn recommendations into governance infrastructure your organization can actually use.
More Ways We Can Help
We are building a growing collection of guided templates, practical toolkits, courses, and other self-directed resources designed to help nonprofit leaders understand governance responsibilities and put that understanding into practice.
Join the wait list to be among the first to know when Good Works Legal resources become available and when the store officially opens.
Start the Conversation
Tell us what your organization is experiencing, what you are trying to figure out, or what you would like to improve. We will review what you share and help you identify a reasonable next step.
