A board that decides, and can prove it.
I have run a charity as chief executive and sat on boards in the UK and the United States, so I know what trustees are asked for: by the Charity Commission, by funders, and by their own staff. These are the things I am most often brought in to do.
Strategy that gets decided
When the strategy is a document but not a set of decisions, or the income plan and the strategy were written separately.
A desk review of your strategy, accounts and board papers. Time spent listening to your team before facilitating. A workshop that takes decisions in the room, followed by a written summary within about a week.
Goals become objectives with outcome KPIs, not activity counts. Every risk leaves the room with a named owner and a review date.
Governance that stands scrutiny
When a funder, auditor or the regulator is about to look closely, or the board isn't sure it would pass.
A review of board mix, structure, delegation and the line between board and management. A policy tracker, a board agenda and minuting that records decisions properly.
Regulators test evidence that policies are used: minuted sign-off, named owners, completed declarations. The work is built around producing that evidence.
A board with enough capacity
When three trustees are doing the work of eight, or the chair needs a successor.
A skills audit, a recruitment brief written for the board you need next, and introductions from a wide sector network. Induction for new trustees, and board sessions on current risks, including AI and data governance.
When something has gone wrong
A statutory inquiry, a serious incident, or allegations from a whistleblower.
A structured response: workstreams with named leads, a single master timeline, and a forensic look at partner due diligence. Where allegations need testing, an independent assurance review with clear terms of reference, so the board can close the matter with the regulator on evidence.
Ready for funders
When the ask is strong but the case behind it isn't, or a funder wants to see your numbers.
A sense-check of your income plan, your case for support and your pitch deck, read the way a grants committee will read them. KPIs aligned with what your funders measure, so one set of numbers serves both.
Setting up or restructuring
A new charity, a UK arm of an international one, or a structure that no longer fits.
The choice of legal form, the constitution, registration, and the staffing structure to deliver the strategy. I work alongside your solicitor and stay with you to the first board meeting.
Coaching the chief executive
When you are new in post, or the board expects a plan you haven't written yet.
One-to-one coaching from a Henley-certified coach who has been a charity chief executive. Sessions are booked in a block with dates fixed up front, and often follow a strategy engagement so the plan and the person develop together.
Conversation
Thirty minutes, no charge, to understand what you are deciding.
Diagnostic
I read what you have and write a short view of the situation.
Proposal
Scoped in days and priced up front, so you know the cost before work starts.
Then, if useful
Support with delivery, or coaching for the chief executive.
Muslim Youth Helpline: from a strategy weekend to a board that governs
Muslim Youth Helpline had a new chief executive, a three-person board, and a funder that needed the charity's goals for its own investment committee within six weeks. The income plan and the strategy had been written separately and did not connect.
Every participant had pre-reading. I spent the first day listening to the team and facilitated the second, which ended with goals voted on in the room. I then rewrote the KPIs as outcomes rather than activities and aligned them with the funder's own measures. The board signed off the goals and KPIs eleven days after the workshop, alongside the funder's proposal.
The work continued as coaching for the chief executive, a policy tracker and board agenda so that decisions were properly recorded, and the search for new trustees to strengthen the board.