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Governance Support for
Non-Profit Sport Organizations
Ongoing, expert-led support to help your board move governance forward, whether you're working through a full list of priorities or strengthening one specific part of how you're governed.
WE'RE READY TO GET STARTED
Is this where your organization is at right now?
Your board knows it needs to shift - updating roles and responsibilities, moving from an operational board to one that governs strategically - but making that shift without a clear process feels like a bigger lift than anyone has capacity for.
Board meetings that run long without resolution, while the harder discussions your organization actually needs to have keep getting sidestepped because there are always other fires to put out.
Your volunteers are quietly researching policy templates and governance best practices in their spare time - energy that should be going toward the sport they showed up to serve.
You wantĀ the roadblocks standing between your board and its best work dismantled, so everything moves with more ease.
Imagine having an expert in your corner to make these changes happen.
With governance support in place, the task list you've been carrying around finally gets completed. Policies get drafted. Roles get clarified. The changes your board agreed were important stop sitting in the minutes and start showing up in how your organization operates.
Your board and staff begin working with more alignment and less friction. Priorities that have stalled start moving again, with a steady, knowledgeable partner helping carrying them across the finish line.
And underneath all of it is something quieter: relief. The kind that comes from knowing you're not carrying this alone. You have a partner who brings the skills and structure to move the work forward, without you having to run the project yourself, so your board and staff can put their energy back where it belongs - growing the sport your community depends on.
A flexible partnership that brings the skills and expertise your organization needs to strengthen its governance, and lays out the process so the work gets done without your board and staff and having to lead it.
I'm Lara, The Owner and Principal Consultant of Spark Solutions.
I help sport organizationsĀ move from knowing what needs to change to making it happen - embedding the governance policies, practices, and systems that let their leads do their best work, without burning out in the process.
Before consulting, I spent years inside of provincial sport organizations, navigating the exact tensions many boards and EDs face today: unclear roles, misaligned expectations, policies that haven't kept pace with the organization, and the quiet pressure of knowing too much depended on too few people. Having lived them, I completed a Master's degree to study them.
That experience showed me how badly sport organizations need governance support from people who actually understand their world, not advice borrowed from another sector. I built my consulting work around providing exactly that: it's grounded in more than fifteen years of hands-on experience across the Canadian sport system, and in formal research I chose to pursue into how good governance shapes capacity in organizations. The Governance Support Retainer gives me the chance to stay in it with you, past the recommendations and into the follow-through.
Governance Support for Non-Profit Sport Organizations
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A flexible, ongoing retainer that puts governance expertise on your team, month to month.
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By next quarter, youāll have:
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Real progress on the governance priorities that have been sitting on your list, with an expert working alongside you, not just telling you what to do.
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Clearer roles, stronger policies, and board practices that are being used, not just written down.
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A board and staff team that's more aligned, less reactive, and spending its energy on your sport, not on untangling governance alone.
The Governance Support Retainer
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We offer a monthly retainer, not a fixed-scope project, so it flexes to whatever your organization needs most month to month. Choose the tier that fits your capacity, and adjust as your needs change. You don't need to have completed a Governance Review to get started - some organizations already know exactly where they want to focus.
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Tier 1 - 8 hours/month (approx. 2 hours/week) - $1,400/month + GST
Tier 2 - 16 hours/month (approx. 4 hours/week) - $2,800/month + GST
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What we work on together depends on your priorities. Common examples include drafting or updating policies, clarifying roles and decision-making authority, facilitating difficult board conversations, coaching board or staff through a transition, building governance tools and templates, and being a sounding board when something unexpected comes up.
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The Fine Print:
- The Governance Support Retainer is billed monthly.
- A 30-day written notice is required to end the agreement. There's no minimum commitment period.
- Unused hours do not roll over to the following month.
- If we're approaching your monthly hour maximum, we flag it before any additional hours are used. Additional hours are billed at $150/hour + GST, in 15-min increments, only with your approval.
- In-person work is available, with a travel fee applied based on location.
āLara supported Hockey Manitoba through a comprehensive governance transition over 18 months. Through town halls and workshops, she helped simplify the process and create a betterĀ understandingĀ of the direction being taken. Lara provided guidance, communication support, and helped ensure the work remained accessible and well understood.Ā I would confidently recommend Lara to any organization undertaking governance change.ā
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ā Boyd Canart, President, Hockey Manitoba
āLara supported Hockey Manitoba through a comprehensive governance transition over 18 months. Through town halls and workshops, she helped simplify the process and create a betterĀ understandingĀ of the direction being taken. Lara provided guidance, communication support, and helped ensure the work remained accessible and well understood.Ā I would confidently recommend Lara to any organization undertaking governance change.ā
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ā Boyd Canart, President, Hockey Manitoba
WHO THIS IS FOR
- Your board or staff already have a list of governance changes you know need to happen, whether that came from a governance review, a strategic plan, or your own experience, but no one has the time or expertise to lead the work.
- You want flexible, ongoing support instead of a one-time project, so you can tackle priorities as your capacity allows.
- You're ready to have honest, sometimes difficult conversations, and want someone skilled to help facilitate them well.
- You want your volunteers focused on contributing their expertise, not researching governance solutions outside of it.
WHO THIS IS NOT FOR
- You're looking for someone to hand you a finished template and walk away. This is hands-on, collaborative support.
- Your board isn't ready to engage with change, or wants things to stay exactly as they are.
- You need dedicated legal or HR expertise. Governance Support isn't a substitute for either, though we'll flag where you need it.
- You're looking for a rigid, fixed-scope project rather than a flexible capacity you can direct where it's needed most.
Step 1 - Book a Spark Session
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Book a no-obligation call to see if a Governance Support Retainer is right for your organization. Share where things stand, ask questions, and hear more about how the retainer works.
Step 2 - Review Your Proposal
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You will receive a proposal outlining Spark Solutionsā process, costs, the tier that fits your needs, and everything else your board or leadership team needs to review and approve.
Step 3 - Begin Your Governance Support Retainer
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Once you're ready to move forward, you'll receive an agreement to sign, and we'll book a kickoff call so we can start turning your priorities into progress.
WHY SPARK SOLUTIONS WORKS
The right governance partner should make your board's job easier, not add one more thing to manage. Here's what that looks like with Spark Solutions.
We know your world.
Unlike generic nonprofit or management consultants, Spark Solutions understands the Canadian sport system: volunteer board dynamics, the ED/board relationship, funding pressures, and the governance expectations that come with operating in this sector. Raised and located in a small Western Canadian town, I also understand what governance looks like for small and rural organizations, not just what work in a boardroom in a major city. You won't spend hours bringing me up to speed. I already know your context.
We integrate with your team.
A Governance Support Retainer isn't a single project with a start and end date. I stay close to your organization month after month, so I understand the context behind every decision and can move quickly the moment priorities shift, not just when you reach out.
We turn recommendations into action.
It's one thing to know what needs to change. It's another to do it. The Governance Support Retainer closes that gap, so the changes your board agreed matter get built, embedded, and used.
The most asked questions about the Governance Support Retainer:
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Where do we start?
Book a Spark Session to talk about what your organization is facing. I won't pressure you to move forward if it's not the right fit or the right time. We'll talk through your priorities and which tier, if any, make sense.
Is there a minimum commitment?
No. The Governance Support Retainer is billed monthly, and either of us can end the agreement with 30 days' written notice. There's no minimum term.
Is this a fit if our sport organization is very small and informal?
Governance doesn't have to be elaborate to be effective, and support doesn't need to be either. The Governance Support Retainer flexes to fit organizations of any size, including small, volunteer-only boards. If this is a concern for you, book a no-obligation Spark Session and let's talk about what's actually useful for your context.
What makes your approach different from other sport consultants?
Lara brings something most consultants can't: governance expertise shaped by the realities of Canadian nonprofit sport, not adapted from a general nonprofit model or borrowed from the corporate sector. Her master's research focused specifically on good governance's impact on capacity in sport organizations, and her consulting experience spans more than 35 sports at every level of the system. She's also worked inside provincial and national sport organizations herself, so she understands the ED/board relationship, the volunteer board dynamic, and the pressures of this sector from lived experience, not just from the outside looking in. And because the Governance Support Retainer is ongoing, she gets to stay close to your organization long enough to see the changes through.
Our time is limited and we're already stretched. How demanding is the process for board or staff?
Although the Governance Support Retainer is meant to add capacity and expertise, the demand on board and staff is dependent on your organization's goals. While much of the work happens on our end, your board and staff will need to contribute to conversations and decisions that need their input. the Governance Support Retainer is flexibly designed so you can set the pace based on what your team can realistically take on each month.
Do we need to complete a Governance Review before starting the Governance Support Retainer?
No. A Governance Review is a great way to identify priorities if you're not sure where to start, but it isn't required. If your board already knows what needs attention, we can begin the Governance Support Retainer right away.
The ResultsĀ You Can Expect
Real, visible progress on the governance priorities your board has been meaning to tackle.
Policies, processes, and practices that are in use, not sitting in a drawer.
Clearer roles and smoother decision-making across your board and staff.
Difficult conversations handled well, with a skilled, neutral facilitator in the room.
More capacity returned to your volunteers and staff, and more energy directed toward your sport.
An organization thatās less dependent on any one person to hold it all together.
A TRUSTED GOVERNANCE PARTNER
For more than fifteen years, my work in nonprofit sport has been shaped by a simple belief: volunteer leaders shouldn't have to become governance experts just to lead well.
People give their time to sport boards because they care about the organization and the athletes it serves, not because they want to spend their evenings researching policy templates or facilitating conversations they've never been trained to lead. When the systems around them don't support that, good people and good intentions stop translating into action, and everyone feels it.
I've sat inside that frustration. I know what it's like to watch a good recommendation sit untouched, not because no one cared, but because no one had the capacity to carry it forward. The Governance Support Retainer exists because I believe organizations deserve more than a report and a handshake. They deserve a partner who stays close enough, and long enough, to help the change happen.
It would be an honour to work alongside your organization through the work, helping you build the systems your leaders can rely on so they can spend more of themselves on the sport, not the systems behind it.
I look forward to speaking with you.
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Book Your Spark Session
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Take the first step toward enhancing your governance.
More Frequently Asked Questions
What's the typical timeline?
The Governance Support Retainer doesn't run on a fixed timeline the way a single project does. It's designed as an ongoing monthly retainer, so the pace is set by your priorities and your capacity. Many organizations start with a specific list of priorities, often the recommendations from a governance review or strategic plan, and work through them for as long as it takes.
What happens if we go over our monthly hours?
We'll let you know before that happens. If your organization is consistently using more hours than your tier includes, we'll about whether it makes sense to move up a tier, or approve additional hours as needed, billed at $150/hour + GST in 15-min increments.
Can we pause the retainer during a particularly busy month?
Yes, that's possible. If a particularly busy month comes up with your board or staff, let's talk about it. We'll figure out what makes sense together, whether that's a lighter month or a pause, as the need arises.
Can we move between tiers during the retainer?
Yes. If your needs increase or ease up, we can move you up or down a tier. Just let us know and we'll adjust it for the following month.
When will I be invoiced?
You'll be invoiced at the beginning of every month, typically around the 10th.
Is there flexibility in payment methods?
Absolutely. You can choose the option that works best for your organization, whether that's electronic transfer, card payment, or traditional cheque.
