Optimize your board's performance.
Governing boards are entrusted with the vitality and sustainability of their institutions or foundations. But they face escalating challenges in fulfilling their responsibilities as the complexity of governance accelerates. For boards to operate as efficiently as possible, new members must quickly get up to speed. Experienced members must keep expanding their skills and expertise. Effective boards know their roles, understand their duties, apply leading practices, and continuously develop their knowledge. Only boards that are proactively moving forward can get out in front of their challenges and transform them into opportunities.
Recommended resources.
Questions for boards.
Click below to reveal key questions for your board to consider.
Board Roles and Structure
- What roles and responsibilities must our board members fulfill?
- How do we determine if there are skills our board is missing? How do we fill any gaps?
- How should we structure our board? Is it sufficiently diverse?
- Are our committees as productive as they need to be?
- What are our non-negotiable fiduciary responsibilities?
- What is the board’s role in engaging internal stakeholders (particularly faculty) in shared governance?
Opportunities
- How do we facilitate open, candid collaboration, build trusted relationships, and maintain healthy board dynamics?
- How do we provide leadership for justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion?
- What risks and opportunities are we missing? How do we know what we don’t know?
- How can board assessment help us prepare for regional accreditation?
Institution-Specific Issues
- How do we determine if our business model is still viable?
- Should we pursue a merger, affiliation, or partnership in order to secure long-term growth?
- How do we work most effectively with our CEO, cabinet, and board professionals?
- Are we aligned with what our students now need? Can we provide that?
Foundation-Specific Issues
- Are we serving as an effective partner for our institution?
- How do we protect and grow our endowment through turbulent times?
- How do we develop a strategy for managing our real estate portfolio?
- How do we develop high-performing foundation board members?
AGB provides practical, real-world context and perspective.
Through our unique approach to facilitation and delivery of board workshops and retreats, our experts help strengthen boards with leading practices based on research and nearly 100 years of experience. Engagements can cover a variety of topics and are customized to your board or institution. Location and duration varies, but workshops are often held during a board meeting.
AGB board workshops and retreats can help your board:
Achieve a Higher Level of Performance
Promote a Culture of Continuous
Development
Reduce Exposure to Risk
Uncover New Solutions, Approaches, and Confidence
Align the Board and Cabinet
Build Team Cohesion
Workshop Topics for All Governing Boards
- Establishing an effective board structure
- Building a team with clearly defined board roles and responsibilities
- Optimizing board dynamics
- Working effectively with the president, cabinet, and board professional
- Identifying risks and reducing exposure
- Preparing for accreditation
- Maturing the shared governance model
- Planning for leadership transition
Additional Workshop Topics for Institutionally Related Foundations
- Endowment management
- Real estate development
- Institution-foundation alignment
- Advocacy
Meet the moment with long-term thinking
through Trending Topics Workshops.
Keeping trustees informed and engaged about current and emerging issues facing their campuses is vital to strategic leadership. That’s why AGB developed a new series of educational board workshops that are designed to be part of your board meeting, delivered virtually in an efficient 60-minute session. Each workshop provides practical, real-world context and perspective on select current issues—all through the lens of the board’s governance and strategic oversight responsibilities.
AGB topic experts carefully developed the workshops and structured them to engage boards in strategic long-term thinking as they address current issues impacting campuses across the United States.
Student Health and Mental Health
Through an examination of current trends and facilitated discussions, boards will explore best practices for supporting their institutional focus on well-being, including how to best prepare their institutions to support evolving student needs.
Governing Post Roe
Boards will focus on developing strategies and practices that can be applied rapidly to the new, potentially disruptive environment of the emerging future. This workshop enables boards to build upon strategic thinking and planning processes that may already have been implemented.
Civic Engagement and Democracy
This workshop is part one of a series on the top strategic issues facing institutions and university systems. Boards will engage in a facilitated conversation around the governance issues related to civic education and civic engagement, focusing on meeting the moment with long-term and mission-focused thinking.
Take a tangible step toward addressing your board's most pressing issues.
AGB helps institution and foundation boards improve their skills and knowledge in leadership and governance. Our experts will work with your board to establish common expectations around board roles and responsibilities, build cohesion, and enhance knowledge about how to navigate challenges and capitalize on opportunities.
Contact AGB.
To learn how AGB Consulting’s services can benefit your institution, please contact 202-776-0865 or consulting@AGB.org. Or use this contact form: