Services
Comprehensive Services for Nonprofits
Board Training & Development
Many people join nonprofit boards without any prior training or experience and can benefit from learning about nonprofit board roles and responsibilities as well as reflecting on how to establish a healthy board culture where people are focused on what matters, accountable, and able to enjoy their work together.
Laura provides board training tailored to your board’s current situation, your organization type and size, and your strategic goals. She will come to your board meetings or retreat, providing a group experience where all board members get the same information and have time to discuss and integrate new ideas and practices. In addition to general board training, Laura can create a focused agenda to help board members improve one aspect of their performance, such as creating a board recruitment strategy or planning for leadership transition.
Common reasons that nonprofits seek board development assistance:
- Poor board/staff relations
- Inactive or waning board
- Board that does not reflect the community served
- Committee structure that is not working
- A good board wants to be even better
Facilitation & Strategic Planning
Laura can help you plan and facilitate your next board and/or staff retreat, or work with you to develop your next strategic plan.
Laura’s approach to planning is customized the meet your organization’s needs, culture, and budget. She believes strongly in soliciting input and ideas from all of your constituents to inform your mission and goals. She supports creating a plan that can guide leadership but be flexible enough to be adjusted over time as conditions change.
Laura was the lead author of NAWA’s Strategic Planning in Nonprofits (SPiN) toolkit, and teaches strategy at University of Washington and Seattle University. She has adapted her approach to planning to respond to new challenges that nonprofits are facing, bringing in tools that help her clients deal with uncertainty, weave equity into all aspects of their work, and increase trust and relationships among staff and board members.
Laura has served as a facilitator guiding multiple organizations through the process of merging. She has also facilitated the work of coalitions and community change initiatives with numerous partners.
When to consider strategic planning:
- You’ve never done strategic planning, but your board is ready to commit time and energy to move to the “next level”
- There has been significant turnover at the board level since the last planning process
- Program planning is driven by proposal writing rather than a master plan
- Funders are demanding outcomes, and you have difficulty responding
- There are significant differences of opinion among board and staff about what direction the organization should take
- The board is disengaged and really doesn’t know what the staff is doing
Organization Assessment
Laura is also well-qualified to conduct a comprehensive organizational health assessment. A quality assessment can be a powerful tool to guide decision-making by board and staff. Laura’s assessments are customized but generally address programs, strategy, governance, staff management, financial health, policies, equity, and culture.
Reasons that nonprofits elect to complete an organizational assessment:
- Feeling stuck/Uncertainty about what the organization really needs to move forward
- Board lacks a clear picture of the organization’s operations, strengths and weaknesses
- Organization would like assistance in developing a capacity building plan
- There is disagreement about how to resolve a problem within the organization, and an outside perspective will help
- A first step utilizing outside technical assistance
Action Research
Laura enjoys research on nonprofit issues and has extensive experience with community listening and survey design and interpretation. For example, she designed and analyzed the survey that resulted in this NAWA report on nonprofits and government contracting. Laura particularly enjoys research that informs action such as gathering input from constituents in preparation for strategic planning and research that builds the case for policy change.
Leadership Transitions & Interim Management
Laura has served as an Interim Executive for fourteen organizations. She is known for her calm and steady style of leadership and can enter an organization and learn about the people and programs quickly. A typical interim director role lasts 6-9 months and includes day-to-day management of the organization as well as internal consulting such as a complete organizational assessment, making prioritized improvements, and improving board functioning. At this time, Laura is only considering part-time (20-25 hours per week) interim assignments.