For Foundations · Funding partners
Request access to the funding brief.
This page details how The CIVIL Executive Series™ works for foundations and what investing in your grantees makes possible. Tell Civil who you are, and you’ll go straight through.
Most institutional strain has structural origins.
Nonprofits are operating in one of the most demanding environments in a generation. Public funding is less predictable, scrutiny has intensified, and demand keeps climbing.
Many nonprofits have strong programs and capable leaders, but when the internal architecture is strained, decisions stall, accountability blurs, and communications drift from operating reality. That gap is where investments quietly erode and organizations become fragile. The Series works on that architecture directly, using The CIVIL Framework™, the same methodology Civil applies in its consulting practice.
Five cohorts in 2027, five more in 2028.
Five cohorts run in 2027 and five more in 2028. Denver and Portland are confirmed for January 2027. The three that start in March are unnamed, and Civil sets those cities with the foundations that sponsor them. Cities are confirmed in December 2026.
A sponsoring foundation can place a cohort in a city where its grantees already work, including cities not on Civil’s list. Each cohort completes its three intensives in about 24 weeks, and the Series keeps opening cities through 2028.
Operating Foundation and Structure
- Maps internal structure and decision-making, including where informal systems create avoidable cost.
- Supports practical changes that improve consistency and execution.
Program Architecture and Resource Discipline
- Examines how programs are designed, sequenced, and resourced.
- Builds habits that keep program design and resource allocation in active alignment.
Relational Communications and Institutional Voice
- Examines communication across leadership, staff, and external relationships.
- Builds practices grounded in how the organization operates, distinct from message strategy.
Civil carries the load. Grantee leaders stay in the work.
Each 12-week intensive is organized in three modules. Civil carries the analytical and facilitation load, so grantee teams can stay focused on the decisions without heavy preparation. The work is built with each team, drawing on what they already know.
Weeks 1 to 4*
The CIVIL Dashboard™
- Administers The CIVIL Dashboard™ with each organization, a scoped pre-intensive diagnostic.
- Surfaces current-state conditions, decision-making patterns, how resources match the work, and priorities specific to the intensive’s function.
- One interview per leader, about 45 to 60 minutes.
- Reviews Dashboard findings before the in-person intensive, with nothing to prepare independently.
In Person
Executive Retreat
- Designs and facilitates a two-day working session for all four organizations at the midpoint.
- Guides teams through The CIVIL Framework™ disciplines toward a 90-day activation plan on the intensive’s theme.
- The grantee’s team attends the two-day working session.
- No prep beyond reviewing Dashboard findings, and teams leave with a completed activation plan.
Weeks 7 to 12*
Implementation Support
- Executive coaching and implementation guidance on the 90-day plan, plus a team activation session.
- Check-ins at the 60-day and 90-day marks complete the support arc.
- Leaders implement the first six weeks with Civil coaching.
- Every intensive includes a 60-day and 90-day check-in.
*Week ranges are approximate and adjust slightly by cohort and intensive.
An advisory engagement, not a grant.
This investment fits naturally within operational effectiveness or institutional development portfolios. A foundation can offer the Series to its grantees at any level of support, from a single intensive to the full series, with funding covering delivery in full: The CIVIL Dashboard™, facilitation, and implementation support. Civil coordinates enrollment directly with each nonprofit.
Each analysis is practitioner-led and specific to the organization, never templated or AI-generated. Where technology assists with information processing, the diagnostic judgment, facilitation, and recommendations remain the work of Civil practitioners.
Throughout the Series, Civil shares occasional cohort-level reflections with the foundation: the themes and shared conditions emerging across the group, offered as collective insight rather than assessment. What surfaces inside any single organization stays confidential to that organization and its team.
Single Intensive
One nonprofit through one 12-week intensive targeting a specific institutional function, with full 90-day activation support. For foundations strengthening a specific function across one or more grantees.
Full Series
One nonprofit through all three intensives across about 24 weeks. For foundations investing in complete cross-functional work across a grantee's operations, programs, and communications.
Ecosystem Cohort
Four ecosystem-aligned nonprofits in one shared cohort, building shared operational language and peer relationships across a foundation’s portfolio. For foundations working toward field-level coherence across a portfolio.
An investment in your grantees.
Investments are structured as advisory engagements and typically sit within a foundation’s organizational effectiveness or institutional development portfolio. Detailed investment levels, by scope and number of intensives, are shared in the full sponsorship brief.
Investment levels are in the full brief.
Request the funding brief for the full investment matrix by scope and intensive count. Civil reviews each request and sends the brief directly, or talk with Civil about the right fit for your portfolio.