Sarah Burch has over a decade of experience in financing and scaling emerging market startups. She is a former managing director at Rippleworks, a foundation that helps social enterprises scale by offering access to operating expertise and capital. As part of the executive team, Burch led operations for Rippleworks.
Burch joined Rippleworks in 2015 as a founding team member, holding multiple roles through which she helped scale the organization to a team of more than 60 people that has helped over 400 social enterprises worldwide, deployed over US$280 million in funding and developed more than 1,600 leaders.
Burch began her career at USAID, initially as special assistant to the agency’s first chief innovation officer and later as a portfolio manager and investment officer in Development Innovation Ventures (DIV), which she helped launch in 2010. The first of its kind, DIV is an early-stage innovation fund that has invested over $200 million across nearly 200 grants in over 50 countries and inspired the creation of similar funds, including the Global Innovation Fund.
Burch holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Notre Dame. She is a Kauffman Fellow (Class 25), the largest network of venture capitalists and innovation leaders in the world.
Burch joined the FHI 360 board of directors in January 2024.