Griet

Griet Dehandschutter

Former Executive Director (2019-2022)

Griet Dehandschutter brings to ABUW over 20 years of management, strategic fundraising and communication experience, working locally and internationally. Griet is founder of Dehandschutter & Associates, a strategic fundraising consultancy, based in Acton.

Throughout her professional and personal life, Griet has loved to build community. She has been eager to bring people together across cultures and borders in meaningful and creative ways. As co-founder and Managing Director of the European-American Business Council, communications consultant for Burson-Marsteller, representative of the Belgian government to attract American companies to locate in Belgium, and for the past 14 years as a strategic fundraising consultant to large and small nonprofits around the world, she has always emphasized impact and innovation.

Griet has been an active volunteer in her faith community, sports and local schools. As Co-chair, she planned and rallied people in support of the ambitious $1.8 million “Open Doors” Capital Campaign of the United Church of Christ in Boxborough to restore the historic meeting house and the Community Center, creating affordable gathering space and fostering community connections.

An Acton resident since 2002, Griet grew up in Antwerp, Belgium, where she studied law. She later married Art Boyd after meeting at the Johns Hopkins University in Bologna, Italy while studying for their Master’s degrees in International Relations. Aside from English, Griet speaks (Flemish) Dutch, French and German. She is the proud mom of three young adults, Alexander, Romie and Nicholas Boyd. Griet loves traveling, playing tennis, reading, painting, storytelling and walking with their dog Champ.