Meet Judy Freiwirth, Psy.D., principal

For more than 30 years Judy Freiwirth, Psy.D., principal of Nonprofit Solutions Associates, has been helping organizations become more effective and increase influential in their community impact.

“In working with Judy, I feel like we are getting much more than a consultant. Judy has her fingers on the pulse of national trends, is a published author, a sought-after speaker, and has a varied nonprofit consulting practice that always makes it feel like her work is fresh and relevant! I would wholeheartedly recommend Judy for any organization that is serious about board development and strategic planning.”

- Leah Camhi, Executive Director, The Possible Project

Dr. Freiwirth has consulted with and trained for international, regional and community-based organizations dedicated to advocacy, community and economic development, social change and economic justice, health and human services, education, the arts, the environment, policy, movement-building, and philanthropy. She also has extensive experience with coalitions and networks.

A former nonprofit executive director, Dr. Freiwirth brings both a real-world and scholarly perspective to her work. She is a nationally recognized expert on governance and has deep experience with the following:

• Strategic planning
• Organizational transitions, strategic alliances, mergers
• Executive transition
• Organizational assessment
• Collective impact initiatives
• Community-wide assessment and planning
• Program evaluation/outcome measurement
• Diversity/inclusion initiatives
• Human resource capacity-building and executive coaching
• Constituent leadership development and engagement
• Team development and leadership
• Retreat and meeting facilitation
• Community organizing
• Coalition-building
• Conflict resolution/mediation

As the Founder and Chair of the Community- Engagement Governance™ Project, Dr. Freiwirth is the lead designer of The Community-Engagement Governance™ framework. This internationally-recognized framework is a system-wide approach in which governance responsibility is shared across an organization or network, and among the key stakeholders; that is, constituents and community, staff and board.

Dr. Freiwirth has been the keynote speaker at numerous international, national, and regional nonprofit conferences, Her work is frequently published in The Nonprofit Quarterly. She has also published in several journals, including Nonprofit Boards and Governance Review and Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly. She is a contributing author in two recently published books, Nonprofit Governance: Innovative Perspectives and Approaches, published by Routledge Press and You and Your Board: Advice and Practical Tips from the Sector’s Leading Practioners, and Provocateurs, published by Charity Channel Press. Her work is referenced in three nonprofit books, including: The Networked Nonprofit, Nonprofit Consulting Essentials, and a new textbook, Managing Nonprofit Organizations.

Some highlights of her consulting include her leading role in numerous cutting-edge, capacity-building initiatives, including The Hyams Foundation’s Immigrant Leadership Initiative, whose goal was to build constituent leadership and enhance community power among immigrant groups. She also served consultant of the CommonGround Project, a three-year organizational change initiative designed to strengthen and build capacity for 17 community-based organizations. She also served as the Lead Consultant and Advisor to the United Way of Massachusetts Bay’s Outcome Measurement Program and helped develop their training model.

Additionally, Dr. Freiwirth has an organizing background that includes experience in building local, national, and international grassroots-based, social change coalitions.

Dr. Freiwirth holds a Doctorate in Psychology, with a specialty in Organizational Development. She serves as a Board Member of the national Alliance for Nonprofit Management, the premier national organization of nonprofit capacity-builders and serves on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Nonprofit Management.