Founder, Ascend Advisory LLC

Sara Boyd is the founder of Ascend Advisory, an Omaha-based advisory firm working with nonprofit boards, executive leaders, and philanthropic organizations to strengthen long-term organizational sustainability. Drawing on more than 25 years of executive experience, she helps organizations sharpen strategy, strengthen financial resilience, align leadership and governance, and build the organizational capacity required for impact to endure.

Before founding Ascend Advisory, Sara served as CEO of VidaNyx, now Guardify, where she built and led the start-up team and scaled secure technology supporting protection, justice, and healing for hundreds of thousands of children nationwide.

Sara previously served as President and CEO of the Omaha Community Foundation. During her tenure, the foundation grew to more than 1,800 accounts and $1.2 billion in assets, supporting hundreds of millions of dollars in philanthropic investment annually. Sara and her leadership team created OMAHA GIVES!, which generated more than $50 million for local nonprofits from tens of thousands of donors, and LandscapeOmaha, a community-needs initiative grounded in 38 social-impact indicators. She also led the launch of an impact-investing program supporting local businesses and expanded initiatives serving more than 1,200 nonprofits and 100 Chartered Advisors in Philanthropy.

Sara has served on more than 15 nonprofit, philanthropic, and social-enterprise boards. She is a Chartered Advisor in Philanthropy and holds a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and Statistics from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Chicago. Her continuing education includes executive programs at Harvard University, Stanford University, and the Council on Foundations.

Sara and her husband, Matt, are the proud parents of three adult and nearly-adult children—who are, by most accounts, more mature than either parent.