Questions & answers
Questions & answers.
The questions leaders and funders ask most, in one place. If yours isn't here, it's reason enough to begin a conversation.
Getting started.
What does Apipunsit do?
Apipunsit is a consulting practice for nonprofit and foundation leaders, led by Genesa M. Greening, CFRE. It works alongside CEOs, board chairs, and funders through the hard seasons — strategy, leadership transitions, governance, evaluation, combination, and change. Based in Vancouver, working with organizations across Canada.
Who is it for?
Foundations and nonprofits, and the leaders who hold them — CEOs and executive directors, board chairs and directors, and funders. The practice is for organizations ready to have the brave conversations a hard season asks for, whatever their size.
How do I know which season I'm in?
You don't have to know before reaching out. Most leaders are too buried to name it alone — naming the season honestly is the first step, and often the first thing a conversation does together.
How do we start?
Begin a conversation: a few lines about where things are. Genesa reads it herself and replies to set up a call. The first conversation is to understand the season, not to sell you an engagement.
How the work works.
How does an engagement work?
It starts with a conversation, then the work is scoped to the season — a focused engagement with a clear end where the work allows, or a steady rhythm alongside you where the season calls for it. Never open-ended.
How do fees work?
Fees are scoped to the specific season and set out plainly before anything begins — a fixed-scope engagement where the work has a clear end, or a steady retainer where it calls for one. Never open-ended, and never a surprise. The first conversation is to understand the work, not to sell you one.
Do I work with Genesa directly, or a team?
Directly. Genesa leads every engagement as senior partner — you get her, not a junior team. She brings in the collective's trusted specialists only when a season calls for them.
Do you run executive searches?
Genesa doesn't conduct the search herself — her work is helping a board get clear on what it actually needs and standing with it through the decision. When a search is called for, the collective includes search practices that can be brought in to support it.
Where do you work?
Based in Vancouver, on the territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations, and working with organizations across Canada.
The collective.
What is the collective?
Apipunsit is a collective by design. You work directly with Genesa as senior partner on every engagement; when a season genuinely calls for a specialist, she brings in someone she knows, trusts, and would stand behind. The principle is restraint — the right people, at the right time, and only then. More about the collective.
Why a collective, not a firm?
A firm sells you its capacity, so the more of it you use, the better for the firm. A collective is the opposite: it brings exactly what the season needs and nothing it doesn't. That keeps the work close to Genesa, the cost honest, and the practice true to its name — contribution over overhead.
How do you decide when to bring someone in?
Only when the work genuinely needs a specialist's hands — structural governance work, the finance side of a combination, the human side of a restructuring. When it doesn't, Genesa does the work herself. The collective expands and contracts with the season; you never pay for a standing team.
Which disciplines are in the collective?
Finance, HR and people, legal, government relations, marketing and communications, and executive search — trusted specialists Genesa has worked with and vouches for, brought in only when a season calls. (Governance she leads herself, through Governance & Board.) See the disciplines.
Confidentiality.
Is everything confidential?
Yes. The work happens in the hardest, most private seasons of an organization's life, so discretion is the foundation — not a policy bolted on. It's the thing the whole practice rests on.
How is confidentiality held in practice?
Each engagement is covered by its own agreement — scope, confidentiality, and how information is handled — set out plainly before anything begins. There's no boilerplate, and you'll always know what's covered, what stays private, and what happens to anything you share. How confidentiality is held.
What happens to what I share through the form or email?
It comes straight to Genesa, is held in confidence, and is never sold, shared, or used to market to you. It's kept only as long as needed to respond and, if we work together, for the life of that engagement — and you can ask to see, correct, or delete it at any time.
Why are there no client names or case studies on the site?
Because the leaders and organizations who trusted the practice in a hard season did so privately, and that trust outlasts any marketing value their name could add. The absence of showcased work is not a gap — it is the proof of how the work is held.
Didn't find your question? That's reason enough to begin a conversation.
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