GroundWork by CorpIQ
The invisible expert handling the groundwork.
Know where you stand. Build what’s missing.
Your invisible expert for building governance, corporate processes, and frameworks that just work.
Governance processes grounded in practical templates
Risk frameworks and tools that will actually be used
Change management that sticks
Leadership capability development tools and resources
Sound familiar
You already know what’s not working
“Our policies are a mess. There are too many and half are out of date.”
“I don’t know what needs to go to the Executive and what goes to the Board.”
“Our leaders don’t know the basics, so nobody’s ready to step up.”
Most small organisations aren’t short on capability. They’re short on the instruments that let capable people work properly, and short on anyone with the time to build them.
What you get
A kit, not a template
Free templates are everywhere. What they don’t tell you is which decisions to make, what to do with the document once it’s written, or how to get it past a board with fifteen minutes on the agenda. Every Groundwork kit contains five things.
01
The instrument
The policy, charter, framework, register, or form itself. Editable, in plain English, written for Australian not-for-profit and human services organisations.
02
The decision guide
The choices you actually have to make, and what each one commits you to. Not instructions for filling in blanks.
03
A worked example
The same instrument, completed in full for a small human services organisation, so you can see what finished looks like.
04
The implementation path
Who drafts it, who reviews it, who approves it, where it lives, and how often it gets revisited.
05
The endorsement pack
A one-page board or executive summary, ready to attach to a meeting paper.
The hardest part was never writing the policy. It was getting it endorsed, and then getting anyone to use it.
In the right order
Four stages, built on each other
Governance goes wrong when it’s built in the order things go wrong. Groundwork sequences it, so you fix foundations before you add anything on top.
STAGE 1
Foundations
Charters, delegations, decision rights, and a policy set you can trust.
STAGE 2
Operating rhythm
Risk registers, instrument registers, board reporting, and review cycles that actually run.
STAGE 3
Capability
Position descriptions, capability frameworks, and a clear standard at every level.
STAGE 4
Assurance
Compliance calendars, incident handling, and knowing you’d pass a look.
Who this is for
Built for the person doing it alone
- Small to medium not-for-profit and human services organisations
- Disability, health, education, childcare, community, and Aboriginal organisations
- The manager who inherited governance alongside their real job
- The sole HR, quality, or corporate services person with nobody to ask
- Boards that know something’s missing but can’t name it
What Groundwork isn’t
- Legal, financial, or professional advice
- A template library sold by the download
- A consulting engagement with a report at the end
- Written in language that needs a translator
Who builds these
Written by people who’ve had to implement them
Groundwork is produced by CorpIQ, a governance and risk practice. Every instrument is built by practitioners who have sat on both sides of the board table, in organisations the size of yours.
Two decades in the sector
Senior governance, risk, and people roles across health, government, education, and not-for-profit organisations in Australia and New Zealand.
Board experience, not just theory
Non-executive director and audit and risk committee experience, so the instruments are built to survive contact with a real board.
Plain English, always
No consultant jargon. If an instrument needs explaining before it can be used, it isn’t finished.
Start here
Find out where your governance actually stands
The Groundwork Check asks eleven straight questions and shows you where you sit across all four stages, plus the three things worth fixing first. No preparation, nothing to look up.
Take the Groundwork CheckFree. About three minutes. Your results are emailed to you.Groundwork by CorpIQ provides governance, risk, and people instruments and general guidance. It is not legal, financial, or professional advice, and it does not take account of your organisation’s particular circumstances. Obtain your own advice before acting.