Elizabeth Wilson Clark · Wilson Clark Associates · Charlottesville, Virginia
The culmination of everything you have been working toward.
A class that meets target. An annual fund rising year over year. A company worth what you built it to be worth. An admission letter that makes four years of work worthwhile. Thirty years getting people to those moments — for 400+ institutions at Royall & Company, for foundations, founders and families. Find your situation below.
400+
Institutions served, including MIT, Chicago and Georgia
5 of 5
Patent applications — named co-inventor
94%
Client retention at recapitalization
17 yrs
Consecutive years of 20%+ growth
Heads of school · Presidents · Enrollment & advancement
A class that meets target — and an annual fund that rises with it.
It happens when admissions, advancement and communications finally say one thing to one family, measured against one number.
- Two weeks of pre-work, audited against your number
- One day. All three offices. No delegates
- Message architecture in ten business days
One Table — $18,000
Fixed price. No discovery phase. A small number each year.
If a day wouldn’t move your number, I’ll tell you on the call.
Executive directors · Boards · Foundations
Annual giving up 25% — and a board that keeps the ship on course.
Your board is not short on commitment. It is short a method, and a map of the people it already knows. More than $2.6M raised since 2023 for the organizations I advise.
- Network mapping that turns a board into askers
- Appeals and case statements actually written
- Interim development leadership when the seat is empty
$1,000–2,500 / month
Typically $2,500–3,000 to build the system, then monthly retainer. Scope sets the number.
First call is free, and I’ll say if you need a template instead of me.
Founders · CEOs · Owner-operators
The time to sell is coming. Be on course to maximize what you get for it.
Value sits in what runs without you: IP someone else can sell, pricing built on worth, systems that hold when you step out.
- Durable IP built from work you’ve already done
- Pricing rebuilt around value, not hours
- Systems that run without you in every room
On retainer, embedded
The playbook I ran as Chief Strategy Officer at Royall, applied to your business.
Bring one number: what the business paid you last year.
Families with a junior or senior at home
The admission decision that makes four years of work worthwhile.
I helped build the systems colleges use to recruit, read and rank. Your child gets that knowledge on their side of it.
- A tiered list built around your child, not a template
- I don’t write essays — I build the guide and read every draft
- Merit and aid targeted where your profile attracts money
$4,500 – $14,000 for the year
Three flat-fee engagements. Nothing hourly, nothing metered. One family guided free for every family I take on.
I don’t counsel families applying to institutions I advise; if that happens, the family is told first.
Why me
I did not learn this from a deck. I built it from the inside.
I joined Royall & Company as an Associate Creative Director when it had four employees and left as Chief Strategy Officer and principal partner to its founder, with more than four hundred. I co-led development of the firm’s behavioral data warehouse — predictive scoring before the technology could do it alone. I speak at NACAC and the College Board Forum. Since 2010 I have run Wilson Clark Associates: interim C-suite roles, strategic counsel, and communications that placed in Le Monde, The Wall Street Journal, Vogue Japan, CBS Mornings and CBS Sunday Morning.
Tell me what you are working toward.
One paragraph is enough — the target, the year, and what is standing between you and it. I answer these myself, usually the same day.
elizabeth@wilsonclark.net · Charlottesville, Virginia