Kristen Grimm, Founder Board Members Kristen Grimm, FounderKristen Grimm has extensive experience conceiving, implementing and managing strategic communications campaigns. She is the president of Spitfire Strategies, which provides communications solutions to support positive social change.
Prior to founding the Communications Leadership Institute and Spitfire Strategies, she was a fellow at the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation (VVAF), where she worked on issues including banning landmines, reforming the death penalty and criminal justice systems, and reducing the threat of nuclear war.
Before her fellowship, Grimm was the president and chief operating officer of Fenton Communications, where she oversaw a professional staff of 65, as well as managed client accounts including The Justice Project, Align Technology, World Wildlife Fund, the Aspen Institute, NRDC, and Youth Service America. While at Fenton, she wrote “NOW HEAR THIS: The Nine Laws of Successful Advocacy Communications” (with generous support from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation). More than 10,000 copies of the booklet were distributed in the nonprofit and foundation sectors.
She has conducted many capacity building communications trainings for nonprofits, foundations and corporations including the Open Society Institute, Pew Charitable Trusts, the Arsalyn Foundation, World Wildlife Fund, and the National Association of Children’s Hospitals. Grimm is a frequent speaker on communications and successful advocacy strategies, and has recently addressed annual conferences for the Independent Sector, Environmental Grantmakers Association, the Council on Foundations, the Communications Network, and the National Association of Children’s Hospitals.
In 1999, she won the Silver Anvil for her work on SeaWeb’s ‘Give Swordfish a Break’ campaign, which successfully mobilized hundreds of chefs across the country to stop serving swordfish until the U.S. government adopted a sustainable fisheries management plan. Prior to Fenton, Grimm was a senior account executive with Millennium Communications Group where her clients included: The Benton Foundation, the California Nurses Association, Public Allies, and Rock the Vote.
Board Members Troy Petenbrink
President, Board of Directors
Principal, Caduceus Marketing
Washington, DC
Ludovic Blain III
Secretary, Board of Directors
Chairperson, SPIN Task Force
Independent Advocacy and Communications Consultant
Oakland, CA
Akilah Monifa
Treasurer, Board of Directors
Director of Communications,
CBS 5/The CW 44 Cable 12 (KPIX/KBCW Televisions)
San Francisco, CA
Piper Kerman
Chairperson, Strategic Planning Committee, Board of Directors
Vice President, Spitfire Strategies
New York, NY
David Brotherton
Chairperson, Personnel Committee, Board of Directors
President and Founder, Brotherton Strategies
Seattle, WA
