Gareth Gilson Non-Profit and Youth Sports Advisory
British Columbia ยท Non-profits and youth sports

Most volunteer organizations don’t fail for lack of people who care.

They fail because nobody ever built the systems those people needed — and the ones who tried are burnt out. I help boards fix that, one bounded piece at a time.

Start where it hurts

If one of these is true, we should talk.

Gareth Gilson in umpire uniform, number 31, standing between two coaches mid-conversation during a night game.
Defending an illegal pitch call. International softball tournament.
Why me

I have held every one of these jobs.

A CPA can assess your financial controls. They have never trained a fourteen-year-old umpire, or watched a parent scream at one until they quit.

A governance consultant can chair your AGM. They have never reconciled a concession float, or stood at a registration table on a wet Saturday in April.

I was nine years old the first time I umpired a baseball game, and I have not really stopped since. Not running things all that time — that came much later. First the umpiring, then training the umpires, then the treasurer’s job nobody else wanted, then a board seat, then the chair at an AGM.

That is the whole offer: one person who has sat in every chair you are currently trying to fill, and who started at the bottom of all of them.

  • Since age 9Umpiring Little League baseball and softball
  • 20+ yearsSupervising and managing sports officials
  • 10+ yearsTreasurer of sports organizations
  • CredentialCertified Professional Bookkeeper
  • AGMs runProvincial riding association, hospital auxiliary, BC Junior A Lacrosse League, BC JB T1 Lacrosse League
How engagements work

Fixed scope. Fixed fee. A written deliverable.

You know the price first

Every engagement is priced on this site before you contact me. Boards have to budget in advance, and a volunteer should not have to sit through a sales call to find out whether something is affordable.

It ends

No retainers, no open-ended hours, no becoming a permanent line item. Each engagement has a defined scope, a defined length, and a document at the end that is yours to keep and act on without me.

You get findings, not homework

Findings are ranked by severity and each one comes with the specific change to make. Not “strengthen oversight” — the actual fix, and who on your board should own it.

Writing

Recent

Not sure which one you need?

Start with the free financial controls self-assessment. It takes about fifteen minutes with your treasurer, and it will tell you more about where you stand than any conversation with me would.