Team

We build teams around our client's needs and our expertise. We have access to a team of independent advisors and designers.

Melissa Radin Goldstone

Founder and Principal

Melissa is a twenty-five-year+ veteran of the cause branding field with a broad agency background in consumer marketing communications. With public relations as her launchpad, she was an early player in the cause space in the early 90s as one of the first members in Boston-based Cone Communications’ Cause group. Melissa then served as Principal at PowerPact, a consumer promotion agency, where she spent 10 years as the senior strategist growing and leading its cause practice.

Melissa has provided general and cause marketing, positioning, branding, sales promotions, public/private partnerships, fundraising, and public relations counsel to a wide range of consumer brands and leading nonprofit organizations. She has worked with CNN, Home Depot, Land O’Lakes, Mattel, Motts, NBC, P&G, Timberland, sanofi-aventis, and Yoplait, among others. On the nonprofit side she has also worked with American Diabetes Association, America on the Move, 4-H, Epilepsy Foundation, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, March of Dimes, Moffitt Cancer Center, Susan G. Komen, Safe Kids Worldwide, STOMP Out Bullying and Vital Voices.

Melissa is always learning and asking great questions. She earned her MBA at Babson College and every day feeds her voracious appetite for consumer, cause, and pop culture information. However, the true secret to her success and drive is the inspiration that comes from raising her family of three girls, two dogs, and two cats.

David Giagrando

Senior Strategist, Creative Ideator and Fundraiser

David is an innovative development professional and marketing strategist whose mantra is “How can we make this happen?" With 30-years of non-profit experience in the health, cultural, academic and human services verticals, David is a creative and strategic business planner, brand ambassador and cause-marketer.

David is a master at fundraising for nonprofits. He has raised nearly $200 million for the Jimmy Fund through consumer retail promotions and B2B partnerships, direct giving, digital campaigns, employee engagement and workplace giving, merchandising programs, and special events.

David is a trusted advisor and collaborator in helping nonprofits find their voices and assets so that they can rise to the next level of branding and fundraising.

David has developed the following Signature Programs:

36-hour WEEI/NESN RadioTelethon, generating more than $4 million annually through sustainer giving, direct response, corporate matches, leadership giving, and on-air fundraising.
Cow Parade Boston, a city-wide, summer-long special event with 120 pieces of public art, promoted through multiple media platforms, culminating in $1 million fundraising auction
Hyundai Hope on Wheels national cause marketing program
Chairmen ON the Boards

While at the Jimmy Fund, David partnered with corporations from a variety of industries, retail, hospitality, automotive, and entertainment. Brands include Arbella, Armani, AT&T, Bayer, Biogen, Bank of America, BJ’s, Blockbuster, Boston Red Sox, Burger King, D’Angelo, Dunkin’, Herb Chambers Companies, HomeGoods, Honey Dew, Hyundai, Jiffy Lube, John Hancock, Jordan’s Furniture, Macy’s, Modell’s, KFC, Marshall’s, Needham Bank, NESN, Olympia Sports, OOFOS Footwear, Papa Gino’s, Rockport, Reebok, Showcase Cinemas, Stonyfield Farms, Stop & Shop Supermarket Co., T-Mobile, 99 Restaurant & Pub, Taco Bell, TJ Maxx, and WEEI.

Additionally, David has raised funds and developed sustainable revenue-driving programs at Bentley College, the Huntington Theater Company and the United Way.

Nanette Fridman

Senior Advisor and Nonprofit Board Sage

Nanette Fridman is a strategist and coach for values-driven organizations and leaders. Her work focuses on governance, fundraising, strategic planning, and leadership and team development. Nanette has a can-do, effervescent spirit that is put to good use, helping nonprofits of all shapes and sizes from small start-ups to large international organizations.

Known for her good humor and high energy, Nanette speaks across North America about collaboration, governance, philanthropy, and leadership. She is the author of On Board: What Every Board Member Must Know About Nonprofits & Board Service and Holding the Gavel: What Nonprofit Board Leaders Need to Know.

Before becoming a nonprofit Board guru, Nanette worked as a corporate attorney, and as a national field director for an advocacy organization in Washington D.C. Nanette has folded the best-of these experiences: critical thinking skills, a healthy appetite for collaboration, and grassroots know-how into how she advises her clients.

Originally from Rhode Island, Nanette earned her Juris Doctorate, cum laude, and Masters in Public Policy from Georgetown University. She received her BA, summa cum laude, in political science from Tufts University. Nanette also studied at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Nanette is honored to be a Harry S. Truman Scholar.

When Nanette is not co-collaborating with Freestyle Strategy, she's at the helm of her consulting shop Fridman Strategies. Nanette is active in civic and political life in Newton, Massachusetts, where she lives with her husband and two children.

Risa Sherman

Senior Advisor and Creative Muse

For nearly three decades, Risa Sherman has helped companies, brands and nonprofits advance their missions, drive social impact and differentiate themselves through breakthrough campaigns and partnerships. Her areas of expertise include the social impact program development, scaling solutions to critical global issues, cross-sector partnerships, stakeholder engagement, and corporate social responsibility.

Risa currently serves as the Director of Babson's Youth Impact Lab at the Lewis Institute for Social Innovation where she leads programs that engage youth worldwide as innovative changemakers and problem solvers through entrepreneurial leadership education. Previously, she was the Social Impact Lead at The Boston Beer Company, where she developed and oversaw brand-driven social impact programs including the company's award-winning initiative, Samuel Adams Brewing the American Dream, a program she helped create in 2007 as a consultant to the brand.

Prior to joining Boston Beer, Risa was a Senior Consultant at Cause Consulting where she worked social responsibility strategies for clients such as ARAMARK, New Balance and Keurig. Earlier in her career, Risa was a principal and strategist at PowerPact and a member of the Cause Branding practice at Cone Communications.

Risa is a graduate of Boston University's College of Communications and holds a master's degree from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. Risa is a founding board member of the national nonprofit A Kids' Brain Tumor Cure Foundation and is an advisor to numerous nonprofits including American Dream U, Accion, CommonWealth Kitchen, Baby Basics, and Media Girls. She is also a member of the Executive Advisory Committee of WBUR, Boston's public radio station. Risa is trained in cultural proficiency and is a founder of the Needham Diversity Summit.