Keri Santos

Keri joined Citizens in May of 2016.  She is a member of the Corporate Affairs leadership team which sets the strategic direction for Citizens’ Community efforts.  Keri develops and oversees the corporate giving process for the company and serves as trustee and principal manager of two Citizens Foundations (the Citizens Charitable Foundation and the Citizens Philanthropic Foundation) and oversees the Community Giving Committee.  In her role she prepares content for Board and committee meetings and leads discussions on contribution, grant and sponsorship giving recommendations.  She also provides commentary and analysis on issues and collaborates with Corporate Affairs team members to ensure that contribution and sponsorship requests align with community strategy.   

Additionally, Keri has led various strategy projects and established several of the bank’s national and strategic partnerships.  She also manages the strategy of several company-wide initiatives including Colleague Payroll Giving and Matching Gifts program, and the implementation of major changes in our grants management platform.  She oversaw the transition of the Roma Bank Community Foundation from Investors Bank to Citizens during Citizens acquisition of Investors Bank including the execution of many related complex governance matters and its conversion to the Citizens Philanthropic Foundation.  She collaborates frequently with the Legal department around Foundation matters and with the Risk and Compliance functions around corporate giving control testing, vendor relationships, risk assessments, reporting and ethics.  She also drafts and disseminates Standard Operating Procedures related to corporate giving.   

Prior to joining Citizens, Keri served as Assistant Director in the Social Enterprise Initiative at Harvard Business School (HBS).  At HBS, Keri managed a portfolio of Social Enterprise Executive Education strategy programs designed to enhance the management, governance and entrepreneurial capabilities of social enterprise and corporate social responsibility practitioners to help them achieve high performance in their organizations.  She also developed and implemented the distribution strategy for social enterprise scholarship funding to nonprofit organizations. 

Previously, Keri developed and managed a portfolio of educational internship and fellowship programs for the Environmental Careers Organization, a Boston-based nonprofit where through grant submissions and program development opportunities she was able to build a funding pipeline of several million dollars for the organization.  Additionally, she worked in Georgetown University Law Center’s Criminal Justice Clinic where she managed an investigative program that benefited indigent defendants in the juvenile and criminal justice systems.   

Keri received a BA in Sociology from Cornell University and an ALM in Management from the Harvard University Extension School.  She currently serves on the Board of the Westwood Community Chest.  Previously she served on the Board of the Foundation for Westwood Education and was also a member of the P&G Gillette Grant Review Committee.