From 2007 to 2015 Cynthia Strauss has been the Director of Research of Fidelity Charitable, an independent public charity that sponsors the largest donor advised fund program in the U.S., whose donors recommended $2.6B in grants to 92,000 charities in 2014. She has been a member of the Fidelity Charitables Senior Management Team, focusing on trends in the broader philanthropic sector and grant making practice.  She lead the grant making for the Trustees' Philanthropy Fund, Fidelity Charitable general fund, working directly with the independent trustees of Fidelity Charitable.

Previously, Cynthia had a long career managing high performing teams at Fidelity Management and Research Company where she served in numerous capacities leveraging her research, analysis and strategic planning skills.  She worked as Director of Research for part of the Fidelitys actively managed US equity funds, Director of Research for all of Fidelity's investment grade bond funds, Director of Research for Fidelity's domestic and Canadian dollar money market funds, and senior fixed income analyst. In each of these capacities she managed some of the largest buy-side research teams supporting asset classes and sectors which outperformed their relevant peers and benchmarks. Prior to Fidelity she was a founding Managing Director of a French-owned merchant bank in New York and held a leadership position in leveraged finance at Citibank, with expertise in global banking and workouts.

Cynthia has held volunteer and board positions with charitable organizations engaged in the arts, education, volunteerism and women's issues. She is currently on the board of the YMCA of Greater Boston, WGBH's Board of Overseers and Ralph Lowell Society in Boston. She has served on a number of advisory committees for national organizations in the philanthropic sector including Charity Navigator, Guidestar, and Association of Small Foundations. She holds a B.A. degree Cum Laude with departmental honors in Art History from Wesleyan University.