GreenLight Fund Announces Kansas City Leadership

The national venture philanthropy organization, GreenLight Fund, has named Sarah Haberberger as the founding executive director for its seventh expansion site, GreenLight Kansas City. Haberberger will partner with community, industry, entrepreneurial and philanthropic leaders to bring proven solutions into Kansas City that improve opportunities and outcomes for low-income children and families.

Haberberger comes to GreenLight Fund with 15 years of nonprofit leadership experience in Missouri and the Kansas City community. Most recently, she served as the SVP of Performance and Innovation at the United Way of Greater Kansas City where she led strategic planning and execution efforts. Her broad experience over the last 10+ years at United Way spanned internal and external engagement, major gifts, organizational development, and human resources. Throughout her career, she helped to design and launch several new initiatives and programs designed to promote philanthropy and community engagement in Kansas City, including the Women’s Leadership Council (now Women United), Leadership Next, and the United Way Governance Academy. Sarah is a lifelong resident of the greater Kansas City area and received her undergraduate degree and a Master’s in Public Administration from University of Missouri-Columbia.

“Joining the GreenLight Fund team is a dream opportunity…this city has been so good to me and I’m humbled to give back to Kansas City by leading GreenLight’s efforts here,” said Haberberger. “GreenLight effectively identifies urgent areas of community needs and then deploys the best social innovations to address those needs. I am excited to partner with our community to select the first GreenLight Kansas City investment and work closely with the selected organization to ensure their successful local launch and integration in the community.”

GreenLight Kansas City is currently kicking off the first selection cycle, with a focus on the needs of low- income communities in our city. GreenLight Kansas City will run an annual process in collaboration with a local Selection Advisory Council made up of community leaders in order to identify critical needs of low-income residents and gaps in services to meet them; bring in innovative social impact programs that have significant, evidence-based outcomes; and galvanize local and national support to achieve sustainability and scale in the greater Kansas City area.

In her new role, Haberberger will build strategic local partnerships, develop accountable measurement systems, and recruit local board and staff leadership. More than 45 individuals, companies and foundations have contributed $4.4M to support the launch and work of GreenLight Kansas City over its first five years in the city. The investors include Burns & McDonnell, DST Systems, Inc., George K. Baum Family Foundation, Jack F. and Glenna Y. Wylie Charitable Foundation/Midwest Trust/Thomas A. McDonnell, John and Sue Simon, Millie and Mike Brown, Sherman Family Foundation, The DeBruce Foundation, The McDonnell Foundation, Inc, VantEdge – Paul Edgerley & Terry Matlack, Dave and Dee Dillon, Kemper Foundations, Mariner Holdings, Mollie Hale Carter/Sunflower Bank, Robert S. Kaplan, The Sosland Foundation, Tortoise Investments, Tracy and David Lockton, AdPredictive, Brad and Elizabeth Bergman, Darcy Howe and John Black, Fred and Lucy Coulson, Gautreaux Family Fund, Global Orphan Project Founders Circle, Global Prairie Foundation, Jean and Don Wagner, Kansas City Southern, Kansas Health Foundation, KPMG LLP, Leigh and Tyler Nottberg Family Foundation, Neal and Angela Sharma, Polsinelli, Raymond Kowalik, Regnier Family Foundations, Russ and Debbie Welsh, Sandra Price, The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection, Ottensmeyer-Porter Charitable Fund, Ron and Cassie LeMay, The United Way of Greater Kansas City, Abby Sosland and Mark Goodman, Thad and Susan Langford, Bank of America, Scott and Tammy Ford, and an anonymous donor.

GreenLight Fund’s CEO and Co-Founder, Margaret Hall remarked, “We’re excited to have Sarah on board. She will create a strong, vibrant GreenLight Kansas City to bring innovative, measurable approaches to address critical social issues.” John Simon, GreenLight Fund’s Co-Founder and Board Chair echoed Margaret’s enthusiasm: “I’m excited to have Sarah at the helm in Kansas City and supporting innovations that improve outcomes for low-income residents in KC.”