About us

Compass Partnership was established in 1982 to provide the highest quality management consultancy to charities and other civil society organisations.

We have a strong track record of bringing innovative developments in management and governance to the voluntary sector:

  • In the early 1980s we were amongst the first to tailor strategic planning methodologies to fit voluntary sector culture. We subsequently played a leading role in promoting strategic planning as a powerful management tool
  • In the early 1990s we pioneered the use of business process re-engineering in the sector to enable organisations to improve performance and reduce the costs of internal activities
  • In the 1990s we pioneered benchmarking as a tool to enable organisations to improve their performance by sharing performance information and understanding why performance differed across organisations
  • Early in 2000 we developed new approaches to board performance reviews including structured methods of giving and receiving feedback on individual board member performance
  • In 2012 we undertook ground-breaking research into the governance of the top 500 charities in the UK, identified the characteristics of effective governance and organised them into a coherent framework. This research also created a model the key drivers of effective governance that is now widely used. Click here to download.
  • In 2014 we undertook a similar study into the characteristics of effective Senior Leadership Teams. Click here to download.
  • In 2017 the fourth edition of Mike Hudson’s book Managing Without Profit was published
  • In 2019 we reviewed the experience of conducting 100 governance reviews and summarised the findings in Governance and Leadership magazine.

As well as keeping an eye on governance and management in the private and public sectors, we keep a watching brief on developments in America.