1. Building a Secure Foundation
In late 2002, Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin and Police Chief Richard Pennington endorsed the establishment the Atlanta Police Foundation to enlist broad-based business and community support for a safer Atlanta. BoardWalk Consulting led the subsequent initiative.

We drafted the start-up plan, recruited a team of core supporters, helped attract and solidify the initial funding, created the legal and operating framework for the foundation and recruited the initial 20+ member board of trustees as well as the executive director and, later, the COO.

As of late 2007, the foundation had attracted nearly $5 million in funding from corporate and foundation sources, with which (among other initiatives) it commissioned a strategic overhaul of the Atlanta Police Department, restored the Mounted Patrol unit, underwrote college tuition grants for scores of officers, facilitated a multi-state recruitment campaign and championed a new Atlanta Security Council comprising the chief security officers of the metro area's largest employers.

Today, all of the FBI's eight key crime indicators are the lowest they have been in 30-50 years (depending on the statistic), and the larger community has mobilized behind public safety in new and compelling ways.

2. Maturing Gracefully
A highly regarded educational institution was at a crossroads. Senior board members were concerned about loss of spirit, newer board members felt underappreciated, and the chairmanship had become intolerably time-consuming, even as the institution itself was prospering both academically and financially.

BoardWalk Consulting worked with a task force of current and former trustees to conduct a review of the board, which included a survey of best practices inside and outside the world of education, to devise a fresh approach to governance. The group recommended a major downsizing of the board, and a strategic realignment of responsibilities, and a revamp of committee assignments, all of which received unanimous endorsement from the full board. Implementation of that recommendation is proceeding smoothly.

3. Converting an Established Mission
The trend towards healthcare conversion foundations -- whereby the proceeds from the sale of a community hospital become the corpus of a new community-based charity -- has been especially strong in the Southeastern United States. In recent years, we have helped the founding boards of three such organizations acquire their first full-time executive directors.

In each case, we worked with search committees of dedicated citizens with little or no experience in grantmaking as they embraced the challenges inherent in establishing and governing their respective communities' largest charitable asset. After a national search, each client was able to attract a CEO of national standing to head its operation, thereby reinforcing for all constituents the magnitude of the opportunity at hand.

4. Repositioning for the Future
The CEO of a large, global nonprofit saw our piece on "Five Questions Every Board Should Ask" (available in the Articles section of our website) and invited us to address his board at its next regularly scheduled meeting.

At the end of our presentation, the nonprofit's COO asked us to lead a strategy planning session with the organization's top fifteen executives managers from around the world. After many emails, phone calls and five days of face-to-face meetings over several months a summary strategy was sent to the board for approval with the management team's message, "This is our recommendation."

Upon the board's adoption of the plan, BoardWalk was retained to conduct an executive search to fill a key gap in the CEO's team of direct reports.

In the space of less than a year, this major nonprofit tapped all three of BoardWalk's principal services: executive search, board governance and strategic facilitation.

Update, Jan 2008: Following our recruited executive's first month on the job, the board chair wrote, "You've done excellent work for [us]. And I have no doubt that there will be more opportunities for us to work together."