Your Legal Department Without Building One
Fractional General Counsel for Nonprofits & Mission-Driven Organizations
Get ongoing access to experienced legal guidance for governance, contracts, employment matters, compliance, risk, and day-to-day decisions — without the cost of building an in-house legal department.
Designed for executive directors, founders, leadership teams, and boards that need legal guidance before problems become legal emergencies.
What It Is
What Is Fractional General Counsel?
Fractional general counsel gives an organization ongoing access to legal counsel on a recurring basis. Instead of hiring an attorney only when a problem occurs, leadership has someone who understands the organization — its operations, governance structure, contracts, employment practices, and strategic priorities.
For nonprofits and mission-driven organizations, this means legal questions get answered promptly, documents get reviewed before they create risk, and governance decisions benefit from counsel who already knows the organization. It is the closest thing to having an in-house legal department — without the full-time overhead.
It is distinctly different from hiring a full-time General Counsel, from hiring a different lawyer for every issue, or from reactive legal work. It is also not prepaid legal, unlimited legal advice, or a generic subscription — it is proactive, strategic legal counsel tied to your organization's actual needs.
Who It Is For
When Does a Nonprofit Need Ongoing Legal Counsel?
There is no single threshold, and not every organization needs fractional counsel. Organizations often benefit when they notice several of these signs:
- The organization is growing quickly and legal questions come up more often
- The board regularly has governance questions that need reliable answers
- Contracts are becoming more complex or more frequent
- Employees are being hired and HR policies need review
- Executive leadership is negotiating agreements and wants legal input first
- Regulatory or grant obligations are increasing
- The organization receives grants or government funding with compliance terms
- Partnerships or sponsorship agreements are increasing
- Risk decisions are being made without legal input
- The executive director is constantly searching for legal answers
- Outside attorneys are being hired repeatedly for disconnected matters
What's Included
Services Included in Ongoing Counsel
As fractional general counsel, we handle the recurring legal matters nonprofits actually face. The exact scope is defined in your engagement agreement.
Governance
- Board questions and authority
- Fiduciary duties guidance
- Bylaw interpretation
- Governance policies
- Board procedures and minutes
- Conflicts of interest
Contracts
- Vendor and service agreements
- Partnership agreements
- Sponsorship agreements
- Independent contractor agreements
- Grant and funding agreements
- Commercial agreements
Employment & HR
- Employee handbooks and policies
- Employment agreements
- Worker classification
- Discipline and termination guidance
- Workplace compliance
- Leadership transition support
Compliance
- Nonprofit governance compliance
- Corporate compliance
- Policy maintenance
- Legal risk review
- Regulatory considerations
- Annual filing awareness
Leadership Support
- Executive director questions
- Strategic transactions
- Organizational changes
- Risk analysis on decisions
- Board advisory conversations
- Legal decision support
Preventative Legal Review
- Identifying risks before agreements are signed
- Reviewing decisions before implementation
- Periodic legal health checks
- Policy updates over time
- Proactive check-ins
How It Compares
Fractional General Counsel vs. Other Options
Fractional counsel is not always cheaper than the alternatives — it is a different operating model. The right choice depends on the volume of legal work, the need for organizational familiarity, and whether your budget favors predictability or flexibility.
In short: fractional counsel gives you recurring access and organizational familiarity at predictable cost; full-time in-house offers the most embedded support but requires a full salary; traditional outside counsel is best for one-off projects.
The Mission Impact Approach
Legal Guidance Before the Problem
Most legal expenses become expensive because counsel is brought in after the decision has already been made. The contract is signed, the employee is hired, the partnership is announced — and only then does someone ask whether it created risk.
Fractional counsel lets your organization ask a different question: "What should we consider before we do this?" instead of "How do we fix this now?"
That shift — from reactive to preventative — is the core of how Mission Impact works. It is why we help organizations put governance and risk structures in place early, and review contracts before they become obligations.
Where It Fits
Fractional Counsel & the Mission Impact Lifecycle
Mission Impact follows a clear legal lifecycle: Start → Assess → Strengthen → Protect → Ongoing. Fractional General Counsel is the Ongoing stage — but organizations can enter the relationship at any point.
You can begin with nonprofit formation or a legal health check and move into ongoing counsel as your needs grow.
Counsel + Tools
Legal Counsel + Governance Tools
Mission Impact's free Board Governance Center helps leadership teams and boards assess where they stand — a board governance dashboard, self-assessments, fiduciary duties guides, and governance templates. Ongoing counsel turns those insights into action: when a tool surfaces a gap, your attorney already understands the organization and can help close it.
How It's Priced
How Fractional General Counsel Pricing Works
Ongoing counsel is structured around a predictable monthly arrangement that reflects your anticipated scope of work — so nonprofit boards and finance committees can plan, and so organizations seek guidance early when it is most useful and least expensive.
Pricing depends on factors like organization size, expected legal workload, number of employees, governance complexity, contract volume, and how frequently counsel is needed. We publish tiered monthly plans on our fee schedule so you can see the range before reaching out.
Foundation
$1,750/mo
Up to 5 hours/month
Growth
$4,000/mo
Up to 12 hours/month — most popular
Strategic
$6,000/mo
Up to 25 hours/month
Final fit, hours, and response targets are confirmed after a conflict check and a written engagement. For full plan details and a Partner-level custom option, see our fee schedule.
How It Works
How an Engagement Works
Get Clarity
We start by understanding your organization's current legal needs, challenges, and goals — and whether ongoing counsel is the right fit.
Assess
We identify recurring legal needs, risk areas, governance issues, and the systems you already have in place.
Establish Priorities
Together we determine which issues need immediate attention and which can be addressed over time as the organization grows.
Build Institutional Knowledge
Mission Impact develops familiarity with your operations, leadership, contracts, policies, and governance — so guidance is grounded in your real situation.
Provide Ongoing Counsel
Leadership gains an established legal resource for recurring questions and decisions, with proactive check-ins rather than cold starts.
Your Counsel
The Attorney Behind Your Ongoing Counsel
Thania Diaz Clevenger, Esq.
Founder and Managing Attorney
Ongoing counsel at Mission Impact is led by Thania Diaz Clevenger, admitted to The Florida Bar. Her practice focuses on nonprofit formation, governance, compliance, employment law, contracts, and fractional general counsel for mission-driven organizations. She brings hands-on nonprofit executive leadership experience, so her guidance reflects the operational realities organizations face — not just the legal theory.
Meet ThaniaCommon Questions
Fractional General Counsel FAQ
Related Services
Stop Making Legal Decisions in Isolation
Your leadership team shouldn't have to search for an attorney every time a legal question appears. Build an ongoing relationship with counsel who understands your mission, your organization, and how you operate.
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