A minimalist logo featuring an abstract orange figure with a blue head, arms uplifted, positioned to the left of the words "GIVING STRONG" in elegant, gray uppercase letters. The background is white.

Who We Are

A smiling person with curly hair and glasses holds a box of food items. In the background, other individuals in green shirts are also participating. To the right, another image shows hands forming a heart shape around a small red heart in natural light.
A smiling young person holds a red sign with yellow and black text reading "Our Future Your Hands." They are outside, with a blurred background of trees and others holding signs, captured within an orange-bordered circular frame with curved orange lines extending from it.

Giving Strong Values:

People first. Listen closely. Give voice. No boundaries.
Giving Strong assembles a custom team for each client engagement, bringing experienced and talented expertise that’s right for the assignment.

Giving Strong assembles a custom team for each client engagement, bringing experienced and talented expertise that’s right for the assignment.
ABOUT

Christen Graham

Giving Strong founder Christen Graham is a serial social entrepreneur who founded Giving Strong to spark change. Her early career as a journalist taught her to listen, to lift up community voices and the connective value of storytelling. As a communications executive she worked with corporate first-movers to share their wide ranging impacts in some of the field’s earliest CSR reports, while at the same time building the discipline required for investor relations. She built community giving programs and introduced new models of philanthropy. These experiences led Christen to launch Giving Strong to surface multifaceted capabilities in people and the organizations they represent, to develop narratives and programs that influence change through philanthropy, investing, and responsive business practices.

Christen Graham, Founder, inside a blue circular frame. The background is blue with white lines curving outward from the circle.
Toni Johnson, Affiliated Consultant. The background shows greenery. The image is circular with blue lines extending outward on a white background.
affiliated CONSULTANT

Toni Johnson

Toni Johnson is CEO and founder of Mission OutLoud, which uses creative communications strategy and content to unleash clients’ voices and cut through the noise. She is on the finance committee for the Christopher Reynolds Foundation and was recently communications director for The Schmidt Family Foundation. In 2020, she edited the “Impact Investing Handbook” for Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors. And previously in her role as head of knowledge and influence for the Heron Foundation, Toni designed and implemented the foundation’s long-term public influence and engagement strategy. She is a former deputy editor and staff writer for the Emmy-winning website of the Council on Foreign Relations. She spent nearly six years focusing on energy, the environment, religion, and global health.
AFFILIATED CONSULTANT

Andrea LePain

An award winning journalist turned media relations executive, Andrea helps devise compelling stories for broadcast, print and online media. She founded eMedia Junction in 2016. Andrea specializes in translating complex topics into engaging and relevant storylines and has developed a wide range of contacts across national and regional media ranging from the New York Times, Forbes, and Fortune, to diverse broadcast outlets from network television to local talk radio.
Andrea LePain, Affiliated Consultant, framed by an orange circle. The background is orange with intersecting white lines forming a geometric pattern.
Suzanne Salerno, Chartered Advisor, Philanthropy. The photo is encircled by an orange border with lines extending outward, set against a white background.
CHARTERED ADVISOR PHILANTHROPY

Susanne Salerno

Susanne Salerno is a community investment leader and the founder of Salerno Consulting LLC.  She advises companies on their corporate social responsibility and foundations on impactful grantmaking and trust-based philanthropy. Previously Susanne spent over ten years at ‘GBH, managing the Board and executives on philanthropic strategy and governance.  She was also Head of Foundation and Philanthropic Services at wealth management firm Silver Bridge, where she guided family clients with $500M+ in assets; and Director of Relationship Management of the nation’s largest independent public charity, Fidelity Charitable.  Susanne is a strategic advisor to Common Impact, marketing committee chair for Welcome Home Newton, and volunteers with PAL and the PR Club of New England. 

We are active in the community! Our memberships include: Engage for Good, Mission Investors Exchange, Invest for Better, and Boston Social Impact Advisors.