What We Learned in AGB Consulting in 2025

AGB members ask for expert consulting across all aspects of governing. While some questions are evergreen, each year our team sees shifts in the questions vexing boards. Here are seven of the changing themes we’ve heard from members seeking expert consulting support this year. If your board is also struggling with any of these questions, contact us at consulting@agb.org to explore how we can help.

What do I do, as a board member, to help my institution survive today while also planning for an increasingly volatile future?

Board members’ fiduciary duty requires them to keep one eye on now and the other eye on the future. The knowledge to do both successfully increased dramatically in the last year with changes in education policy, the legal landscape, artificial intelligence, athletics, and the demographic cliff. This year, AGB refocused many workshops and retreats to balance strengthening board members’ understanding of their roles and responsibilities with today’s financial health and tomorrow’s strategic and financial sustainability.

How can foundation and institution boards advance alignment now and for the future?

The need for more philanthropic support has increased the urgency for institutions and their foundations to align their strategies and activities. Recently, we’ve seen this trend extend to aligning message and mission among multiple foundations at large universities so they can present a unified message and reduce inter-foundation competition. Greater coordination may be able to enhance their collective impact for their university or system.

How do we find a leader to fit the strategy, instead of the other way around?

Boards traditionally seek to identify their next leader first, then they empower their new leader to develop a strategic plan. This year, we’ve spoken with several AGB members who are flipping the order: they’re determining their strategy, and then seeking the right leader to bring strategy to life. In an era of ever-shrinking presidential tenures, this approach elevates the strategy above any one person. The institutions can own the strategy, persisting beyond a single leader.

As a board chair, who can I turn to for advice?

An AGB Senior Consultant and former board chair noted that he has received more calls this year from board chairs simply asking for advice. That isn’t surprising. More decisions—and crises—are landing on the board chair’s agenda, and yet chairs have few obvious places to turn for reflection and input, unlike their chief executive counterparts. AGB has been able to serve as a point of connection through its advisory consulting services, the Foundation Leadership Forum, the National Conference on Trusteeship, and the AGB Institutes.

How do we define and align faculty governance responsibilities with board governance responsibilities in service of the mission amid external pressure?

In uncertain times, shared governance becomes either an anchor that slows an institution down or a force for positive change. Boards are recognizing the opportunity and asking for help building trust between them and faculty, defining shared governance roles amid pressure on institutional independence, empowering faculty as a force for innovative education, and managing student voices in shared governance decisions. AGB has recently published tools for engaging board members as strategic advocates, which includes sample messaging for boards looking to prove their value to these broader stakeholders.”

How do we consistently assess the performance of presidents across our multi-campus system?

Generally, boards should regularly assess their chief executive’s performance, with annual reviews and less frequent—but still regular—comprehensive evaluations. In reality, many systems and institutions don’t meet that expectation. Inconsistent comprehensive evaluations can feel punitive, sapping any strategic benefit.

With leaders increasingly in the hot seat, system boards need consistent criteria and language to understand which of their campus leaders are doing well and why. A regular review process with agreed metrics builds buy-in from chief executives across a system. System boards increasingly need the collaborative approach to reviewing chief executives that routine comprehensive evaluations enable.

How do we define our value proposition beyond students?

College and university senior leaders have a lot of experience explaining their value proposition to prospective and current students. However, institutions have many stakeholders beyond students, and often board members are best suited to serve as advocates to communities, business leaders, and politicians. The messages that work for students aren’t always compelling for these other stakeholders, so boards have been asking AGB for help understanding how their institution’s strategy benefits the broader public.

Given the changes we saw in 2025, we expect boards’ challenges to continue to evolve in 2026, calling for adaptability and strategic foresight. AGB Consulting will continue to bring actionable insights and innovative solutions to members who as they face immediate financial pressures, align foundation and institution strategies, support leadership, and strengthen shared governance.

Justin Kollinger serves as Associate Vice President, Governance Advisory Services at AGB. He leads consulting initiatives and sees the pressures facing AGB members. He and his team bring insights learned from consulting to the full membership through online resources, webinars, and event programming.