Workswell Design
Governance, Leadership
& Transition Support
& Transition Support
We help mission-driven organizations navigate what's next.
Workswell Design partners with nonprofits and social sector organizations at pivotal moments: when leadership changes, governance needs strengthening, or the path forward requires a clear-eyed outside perspective.
We help mission-driven organizations navigate what's next.
Workswell Design partners with nonprofits and social sector organizations at pivotal moments: when leadership changes, governance needs strengthening, or the path forward requires a clear-eyed outside perspective.
What We Do
Workswell brings senior-level consulting, facilitation, and interim leadership to organizations doing work that matters. We specialize in the moments that feel hardest to navigate — transitions, governance gaps, succession questions — and we bring both rigor and warmth to all of it.
Consulting & Strategy
We work alongside boards, Executive Directors, and leadership teams to clarify direction, strengthen structures, and solve the problems that keep coming back.
We work alongside boards, Executive Directors, and leadership teams to clarify direction, strengthen structures, and solve the problems that keep coming back.
Facilitation
Whether it's a strategic planning retreat, a governance workshop, or a high-stakes board conversation, we design and hold spaces where real work gets done.
Whether it's a strategic planning retreat, a governance workshop, or a high-stakes board conversation, we design and hold spaces where real work gets done.
Governance Support
Strong boards don't happen by accident. We work with boards and executive directors to build the structures, habits, and relationships that make governance actually work.
Strong boards don't happen by accident. We work with boards and executive directors to build the structures, habits, and relationships that make governance actually work.
Interim Leadership
When an organization needs steady, experienced hands in the ED or senior leadership seat, we step in — not just to keep the lights on, but to move things forward.
When an organization needs steady, experienced hands in the ED or senior leadership seat, we step in — not just to keep the lights on, but to move things forward.
Succession & Transition Planning
Leadership transitions are some of the most consequential moments in an organization's life. We help boards and outgoing leaders design them well — with intention, clarity, and care for what comes next.
Leadership transitions are some of the most consequential moments in an organization's life. We help boards and outgoing leaders design them well — with intention, clarity, and care for what comes next.
The Chair Project
A focused, structured engagement specifically designed to support board chairs — because the chair role is unlike any other, and most people arrive in it without a roadmap.
Learn more →
A focused, structured engagement specifically designed to support board chairs — because the chair role is unlike any other, and most people arrive in it without a roadmap.
Learn more →
A Different Kind of Partner
Workswell isn't a firm built on volume or replication. We take on a small number of engagements at a time so we can show up fully. Our principals — Jill Vialet and Elizabeth Cushing — bring decades of operating and governance experience in the social sector, which means we've sat in the seats our clients are sitting in. We know what it feels like to be the ED/CEO in a hard transition, or the board chair holding an organization through uncertainty.
We're not here to produce reports that gather dust. We're here to help you figure out what's actually happening, what needs to change, and how to get there.
