Freedman Consulting is a consulting firm for left-of-center philanthropies, public interest organizations, and policymakers that provides strategic planning, coalition management, and policy development consulting. ¹

Freedman Consulting’s clients include Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Democracy Fund, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation. ²

Background

Freedman Consulting is a consulting firm for philanthropies, public interest organizations, and policymakers that provides strategic planning, coalition management, and policy development consulting. Largely political in nature, the firm bills itself as working toward “the greater social good” and driving “positive social change.” It is based in Washington, D.C. and is registered as a limited liability company (LLC). ^{3 1}

Activities

Freedom Consulting specializes in strategic planning and field surveying or “landscaping” on behalf of major foundations, advising on advocacy campaigns, helping start political coalitions, and developing public-private partnerships. It considers itself to have expertise in the areas of “criminal justice reform,” “cross-sectoral partnerships,” “democracy,” “economic mobility,” “municipal innovation,” and “technology policy.” ¹

The company releases analyses of topics such as philanthropies, artificial intelligence (AI), equity, DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion), and spyware on its website. ⁴

Freedman Consulting clients have included the Alliance to End Hunger, Arnold Ventures, Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Broad Institute, Clasp, the Democracy Fund, the Doris Duke Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Heising-Simons Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the James Irvine Foundation, the Joyce Foundation, the JPMorgan Chase Foundation, the JPB Foundation, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights (LCCHR), the Media Democracy Fund, the Native American Journalists Association (now known as the Indigenous Journalists Association), the Barack Obama campaign, the Open Society Foundations, Next Century Cities, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, Partnership for Public Service, the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC), the Pull Up Fund, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, Share Our Strength, Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity, the STEMM Opportunity Alliance, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Vera Institute of Justice, and the What Works Plus Collaborative. ²

In 2017, Freedman Consulting worked with a group of foundations focused on left-of-center criminal justice policy to build the Criminal Justice Funders Forum. ⁵ These initial foundations included the Ford Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and George Soros’s Open Society Foundations. ⁶ Firm president Kyra Jennings was instrumental in the launch of the Forum. ³ As of 2024, the Forum was comprised of nearly 30 funders who were collectively investing over $500 million in related efforts supported by the Forum. ⁷

Freedman Consulting also helped create a “landscaping” initiative on behalf of three foundations to track how well their investments in social efforts were doing, created a strategic plan for a public-private partnership, and helped launch the STEMM Opportunity Alliance for the Biden administration. ^{7 8}

Leadership

The president of Freedman Consulting is Kyra Jennings, a political consultant and campaign operative known for working with left-of-center candidates. Jennings became president of the firm in October 2024. She oversees the company’s operations, projects, and personnel, and also advises the firm’s client teams. She also oversees the planning and growth strategies of the firm. ³

While serving as vice president of Freedman Consulting, Jennings also launched the Democracy Funders Collaborative, Next Century Cities, the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health, and Skills for America’s Future. She was responsible for developing strategic plans for the Ford Foundation, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights (LCCHR), and Obama for America 2012. ^{9 3}

1. “About Us.” Freedman Consulting. Accessed November 30, 2024. https://tfreedmanconsulting.com/about-us/.
2. “Our Work.” Freedman Consulting, LLC. Accessed November 30, 2024. https://tfreedmanconsulting.com/our-work/.
3. “Our Team.” Freedman Consulting. Accessed November 30, 2024. https://tfreedmanconsulting.com/our-team/.
4. “Resources.” Freedman Consulting. Accessed November 30, 2024. https://tfreedmanconsulting.com/resources/.
5. “Building a Funders Forum for Criminal Justice Reform.” Freedman Consulting, LLC – Our Work. Accessed November 6, 2024. https://tfreedmanconsulting.com/our-work/
6. “Milestones.” Art For Justice Fund. Accessed November 6, 2024. https://artforjusticefund.org/milestones/
7.  “Our Work.” Freedman Consulting. Accessed November 30, 2024. https://tfreedmanconsulting.com/our-work/.
8. “About Us.” STEMM Opportunity Alliance. Accessed November 30, 2024. https://stemmopportunity.org/about-us.
9. “Kyra Jennings.” LinkedIn. Accessed November 30, 2024. https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyra-jennings-8abb9027/.