Claire Guthrie Gastañaga
Non-Profit Governance Consultant
& Independent Advocate
Blog Posts
Non-Profit Governance Consultant
& Independent Advocate
Claire is interested in working on non-profit governance issues with advocacy organizations, associations, federated organizations, small-budget organizations, and non-profit start-ups.
She can help these non-profit organizations assess, build, and implement effective governance structures for each stage of their life cycle, build strategic boards, understand how to engage in effective advocacy, develop effective board orientation and ongoing education programs, and create systems for assessing and overseeing their organization's executive.
Claire's significant experience managing non-profits and serving on their boards has well-prepared her to coach board chairs and non-profit CEOs on their respective roles and responsibilities and assist in the development of an effective partnership.
Claire is a highly regarded speaker who can engage board members in learning about their roles and responsibilities in orientation or ongoing education retreats, seminars, or webinars, and teach board members and organizational members and supporters how to be effective advocates for their organization and its mission through large group training or conference sessions.
Claire is particularly interested in working as an advocate for social justice organizations working to protect voting or civil rights or reform our criminal legal system. She can help develop advocacy strategies, draft legislation, teach individuals about effective advocacy, and serve as a lobbyist when needed.
An award-winning nonprofit leader, lawyer and advocate, Claire Gastañaga is ChangeServant. Claire brings five decades of experience and wisdom to her work at ChangeServant advising nonprofit organizations on effective governance and advocating for social justice. Claire has managed nonprofits and government agencies through good times and budget crises. She is a respected public policy advocate on issues as diverse as criminal legal reform, policing, supplier diversity, and immigration policy. Her skill in bringing diverse people together to address issues of common concern was highlighted in "The Facilitator," a cover story about Claire in the Metro Business magazine of the Richmond Times Dispatch.
Claire has been a key player in Virginia state government, serving as Chief of Staff and Special Counsel to the Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates and as the first woman Chief Deputy Attorney General of Virginia. While in the Virginia Attorney General's office, Claire argued cases in the Supreme Court of the United States and in the Supreme Court of Virginia.
Claire’s management experience includes nine years as the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia where she managed a growing staff and budget, eight years as a Deputy Attorney General and hiring “partner” in the Virginia AG’s office, and a year as the interim president of a women’s college facing a budget and enrollment crisis.
Claire’s nonprofit board experience includes service in the boards of local, state, and national organizations. Claire was a trustee of Chatham College (now Chatham University) from 1981-87. She is a former member of the national board of directors of the National Association of College and University Attorneys (NACUA) and was honored as one of the first two "Fellows" of the Association in recognition of her contributions to higher education law. In 2002, the Governor of Virginia appointed Claire to a four-year term as one of Virginia's Commissioners on the Education Commission of the States. She also served on the national Board of Directors of the National Association of Women Business Owners and as a member of Virginia’s Small Business Advisory Board.
Claire now serves on the Boards of Directors of the Metropolitan Business League and Leadership Metro Richmond. (She is a member of the LMR class of 1996.) Previously she has served on the Boards of the Diversity Conference of the Virginia State Bar, the Metropolitan Richmond Women's Bar Association, the Girl Scouts of the Commonwealth Council, the Richmond Gay Community Foundation (now Diversity Richmond), the Richmond Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Virginia Foundation for Women, and the Poe Museum. She also served on the Virginia State Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights from 2015-2019.
Both the Small Business Administration and NAWBO have recognized Claire for her advocacy on behalf of women owned businesses. She has been honored twice for her advocacy on behalf of the LGBTQ community, once in 2013 by the Serpentine Society at the University of Virginia which honored her with the Bernard D. Mayes award and a second time in 2015 when Equality Virginia named her as one of its OUTstanding Virginians in recognition of her decades of advocacy work including serving as EV's interim director and campaign manager for The Commonwealth Coalition 2006 campaign against Virginia's anti-marriage equality amendment.
In 2010, the Virginia Lawyer's Weekly named Claire as one of the 50 Women of Influence in Virginia, in 2019 it named her as the Leader in the Law for that year, and in 2024 it inducted her into the Lawyer’s Weekly Hall of Fame. Claire is a 2015 fellow of the Virginia Law Foundation and was the Richmond YWCA's Outstanding Woman in Law in 1994.
Claire is continuing to practice law as a partner in the woman-owned law firm Dunlap Law, PLC.
Archived Publications & Resources (1981-2010)
Education/Not-for-Profit | Public Advocacy | Business"The force of waves is in their perseverance."
"Give us the ballot, and we will transform the salient misdeeds of bloodthirsty mobs into the calculated good deeds of orderly citizens."
"Well-behaved women rarely make history."
"...real history is actions compounded invisibly with refusals to act."
"Safe is risky."
