The expectations arrived before the playbook did. Investors want a position they can measure. Regulators want disclosure they can verify. Employees want to know where you stand.
Most leaders we meet are not short on conviction. They are short on a strategy that holds up in the room where it gets questioned.
What we do
For boards, executive teams, corporate community-investment arms, foundations, and mission-driven nonprofits.
Board & governance advisory
How the board oversees social impact and sustainability: committee structure, director education, and governance built to withstand scrutiny — from someone who has chaired one.
Social impact & sustainability strategy
A strategy tied to the business, not bolted on: what is material, where you will act, and how you will answer for it to investors and stakeholders.
Partnerships & philanthropy
Private-public partnerships, foundation strategy, and community investment designed to produce results you can report, not press releases.
Who you'll work with
Patrick Gaston
Patrick has spent more than twenty-five years leading community investment and social impact work at scale. Until 2020 he chaired the board of Bed Bath & Beyond, a $12 billion public company, where he led a transformation of board governance and the appointment of ten new independent directors. Before that he was President of the Verizon Foundation, President of the Western Union Foundation, and Senior Advisor to the Clinton-Bush Haiti Fund.
He is the author of Why Not Black Men?, on the structural and cultural forces that decide who advances in corporate America — and on the sponsorship and relationships that move a career in practice.
Cristin Tarr
A social entrepreneur in mission-driven brand management, Cristin has led social impact training, multi-stakeholder programs, and community projects across the globe — from indigenous integration projects to youth programs in Brazil and livelihood work in Mozambique.
She founded BSC Group in 2010 and leads it today — a fractional-CMO consortium working in brand management, customer experience, and social impact for financial, education, construction, health care, hospitality, and nonprofit organizations. She also teaches marketing at the University of Denver’s Daniels College of Business, where she is section lead for marketing in the MBA@Denver program.
Nearly thirty years ago she co-founded the Denver chapter of CISV International and has stayed with it since, growing it from a three-person steering committee and a $500 annual budget into an organization that has reached thousands of young people around the world.
Executive MBA, Daniels College of Business, University of Denver · Executive Certificate in Global Corporate Social Responsibility, Thunderbird School of Global Management
U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation · NAACP Foundation · The Conference Board · National Governors Association · Clinton Bush Haiti Fund · Western Union Foundation · Verizon Foundation · National PTA · Executive Leadership Council · World Institute on Disability · KidSpirit · Eden Reforestation Projects · America's Charities · National Latino Children's Institute · Posner Center for International Development
Tell us where you are.
A few lines is enough. We read every inquiry and reply personally, usually within two business days.
Thank you — we have your note.
Patrick reads every inquiry himself. Expect a personal reply within two business days.