[2][3][4] She was regional director for Latin America at the Heinrich Böll Foundation, the think tank of the German Green Party.

[14] Her last book[15] where she defines patterns of commoning following the work of Christopher Alexander,[16] was translated to German,[17] Spanish,[18] French,[19] and Greek.

[20] Her books have received ample praise,[21] e.g. "thinking the better world of tomorrow",[22] "a new paradigm for the organization of public and private life".

[35][36] Later she would relate her "commoning" with the "buen vivir" concept (originally sumak kawsay) from modern Latin American socialism,[37] the Venezuelan co-operative Cecosesola,[38][39] or the Transition Towns movement[40] She co-founded the Commons Strategies Group along with David Bollier and Michel Bauwens,[4] although the latter left it in 2018.

[47] From 2008 to 2013, Helfrich co-organized an interdisciplinary political salon called “Time for the Commons” at the Heinrich Böll Foundation.

[55][5] A long list of institutions[56] published obituaries then, including e.g. Dutch Casco Art Institute,[57] the Heinrich Böll Foundation,[5] and its South African branch,[2] the Commons Network,[3] the Argentinian Fundación Vía Libre[54] or the German newspaper Die Tageszeitung.