The board deserves an office, not a volunteer with a spreadsheet.
An established nonprofit is an institution with a board, a record, filings, and funders who expect reports on time. Most run those obligations on the executive director's evenings. Meridian is the board office that runs them properly: governance operations, compliance coordination, funder reporting discipline, and planning, delivered by an attorney-led team on the Meridian Portal.
Five quiet problems
The Executive Director Is Also the Secretary
Dockets, minutes, and resolutions get done at midnight by the person who should be running programs. The record suffers, and so does the program.
Policies From Another Decade
The conflict-of-interest policy was adopted once and never revisited. Nobody has signed an attestation in years. The 990 asks about it every spring.
The Funder Report Nobody Calendared
A restricted grant came with reporting dates. They live in an email. The report is late, and the renewal conversation starts on the wrong foot.
The Filing Season Scramble
Form 990, CHAR500, state renewals: reconstructed from inboxes each year so the CPA can file.
A Strategic Plan That Does Not Fit the Budget
The plan was written at a retreat. The budget was written by the treasurer. They have never met.
A board office, without hiring one
Board cycles prepared and staffed: dockets five business days ahead, minutes and resolutions within five business days after, committee charters current, a conflict register that is actually kept.
A calendar for the 990 series and every state registration, kept all year and handed to your CPA assembled, not excavated. Meridian does not prepare returns or give tax advice.
Every award tracked in the portal with its restrictions and report due dates. Reports drafted from the record, submitted on time, and filed where the next application can find them.
Strategic planning and board retreats that end in a plan the budget can carry. Executive transition support when the moment comes.
Meridian does not provide legal, tax, or investment advice. Legal matters for nonprofits, from bylaws and contracts to employment, go to Clemenza Law Group, our affiliated law firm, and we say so plainly.
A sample quarter
Weeks 1–2
Docket and materials out.
Weeks 3–4
Meeting staffed, minutes filed, attestations collected if due.
Weeks 5–8
Funder reports due this quarter drafted and submitted, compliance calendar reviewed.
Weeks 9–12
Policy items on the calendar reviewed, next docket begins.
Begin with the Governance Review. Continue with the Board Office.
The Governance Review
$3,500
flat · two weeks
A fixed-scope review of how an established nonprofit actually governs itself: bylaws and policy currency, board cycle and minutes, conflict-of-interest practice, the 990-series and state-registration calendar, and funder reporting discipline.
Half the review fee credits against your first quarter of the Board Office retainer when it begins within 90 days.
Meridian Board Office
$1,950/month
+ $3,500 onboarding
For established nonprofits and public charities — the board office a well-run organization keeps: dockets, minutes, policy calendar, compliance calendar, and funder reporting, professionally kept.
- Month-to-month, with sixty days' notice — no lock-in
- Your records are always yours, exportable in full if you leave
- The Meridian Portal included: board room, document vault, funding tracker
Asked, Answered
Find out how your board actually runs today
The Governance Review delivers written findings in two weeks — fixed in scope, fixed in fee, and useful with or without Meridian.
Request the Governance Review