Current Portfolio
Willow Park’s current portfolio is concentrated, intentional, and interconnected. Each company occupies a distinct and defensible position within the association services ecosystem. Together, they represent our thesis: that the association sector rewards expertise-led, long-horizon investment across the full value chain.
Strategic Association Solutions (SAS)
Association Back-Office & Operational Services
Strategic Association Solutions is a comprehensive back-office solutions provider for membership-based associations and nonprofits. SAS delivers accounting and financial management, association strategy, technology assessment and implementation, payroll and HR support, and design services — bundled into customized solutions that free association staff to focus on member value and mission delivery rather than operational overhead.
SAS currently serves a portfolio of more than 60 membership-based associations, applying decades of accumulated expertise in nonprofit accounting, association technology, and organizational design. The company operates from a fundamental insight: that associations of every size deserve access to back-office capabilities at a standard they could never afford to build alone.
NorthStar Association Services
Outsourced Program Services
NorthStar is a boutique full-service association solutions company providing senior-level expertise to small and mid-sized trade associations and professional societies. The firm offers full-service marketing, event, membership and education services for associations that need consistent, high-quality day-to-day execution, and fractional leadership and targeted project support for organizations of any size navigating change, capacity gaps, or strategic moments that demand experienced guidance.
NorthStar’s defining promise — boutique service, big-picture thinking — captures what makes the firm distinct: clients receive the depth of best practices found in large firm environments while experiencing the personal attention and tight alignment of a smaller, dedicated team.
CharterOak
Association Strategic Advisory
Premier advisory practice
The premier strategic advisory firm serving the $10M – $100M+ association sector. CharterOak works with association boards, CEOs, and executive leadership teams on the highest-stakes decisions they face — strategic planning and repositioning, governance modernization, leadership transition planning, merger and acquisition advisory, and the organizational assessments that inform long-term direction.
CharterOak occupies the most senior and relationship-intensive layer of the association services ecosystem. Its work is built on decades of institutional credibility and the kind of frank, expert counsel that only comes from advisors who have seen the full arc of the association sector.
Portfolio Approach
We do not manage our portfolio companies from a distance. Willow Park brings active, engaged partnership to every company we own — contributing sector relationships, strategic guidance, and operational knowledge available only through 60 years of exclusive focus.
Our Current Portfolio
Our current portfolio spans three distinct and complementary layers of the association services ecosystem. Strategic Association Solutions (SAS) handles the back-office infrastructure that keeps associations running — accounting, technology, payroll, HR, and design. NorthStar provides full-service association management and outsourced services and staff augmentation for trade associations and professional societies that need expert, high-level support. Charter Oak delivers the high-stakes strategy advisory that association boards and executives rely on when the decisions are consequential.
Each company is exceptional independently. Together, they cover the operational, management, and strategic dimensions of every association’s needs.
Our portfolio companies benefit from shared knowledge across the ecosystem, introductions to association leaders and sector stakeholders, and access to a network of advisors and operators that is unique to Willow Park. When a back-office challenge at one company connects to a management question at another or a strategic decision at a third, our integrated perspective creates value that no single-company investor can offer.
Prior Transactions
Willow Park has completed more than two dozen transactions over its 60-year history. While we do not publicize a comprehensive deal history, prospective partners and co-investors are welcome to speak directly with our team about our track record and investment approach.