Effective March 2, 2026, Sara Razavi serves as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for both Working Solutions CDFI and Main Street Launch. Rohan Kalbag, who has served as CEO of Main Street Launch since July 2024, transitions to the role of Special Advisor. Other executives will assume cross-organizational roles in the coming months. By aligning executive leadership, both CDFIs aim to deepen their strategic partnership, enhance operational capacity, extend their collective reach in California, and offer a model for amplified impact in the CDFI industry. Read more about this shared executive leadership agreement.
Sara has been CEO of Working Solutions since 2017, when she succeeded the organization’s founder. Sara joined Working Solutions in 2013 and served as COO prior to becoming CEO. She brings over 20 years of experience in the social sector to the role, with expertise in strategy, finance, and partnership management. Most recently, under Sara’s leadership, Working Solutions developed an ambitious five-year strategic plan to double all-time deployment to reach $100 million in small-dollar financing for businesses throughout California by FYE29.
Sara has led the CDFI industry in considering consolidation as a growth strategy. During her tenure, Working Solutions has experienced significant growth in capital deployment, asset size, and impact, more than doubling its all-time deployment while maintaining a focus on small-dollar loans and grants, with 99% of capital deployed to low-income and other historically marginalized entrepreneurs. In an effort to future-proof the organization Sara has spent the past five years outlining Working Solutions' goals for growth through consolidation. Sara has spoken on many panels on the subject, and has recently co-authored the working paper, “The Future of Consolidation in the CDFI Sector: A Proactive Strategy for Scale and Impact.”
Prior to joining Working Solutions, Sara was Executive Director of Honoring Emancipated Youth, a subsidiary of United Way of the Bay Area focused on advocacy for former foster youth. Over the years, Sara has worked at multiple social sector entities specifically focused on under-resourced communities, including immigrant and low-income children, youth, and families.
Sara serves on the Board of Directors of Scale Link, a financial intermediary for CDFI microlenders; the Board of Community Reinvestment Fund, USA (CRF); and the Advisory Board of the Center for Impact Finance (CIF) at the UNH Carsey School of Public Policy. Previously she was a founding Executive Committee member of the California Coalition for Community Investment (CalCCI), a statewide coalition of CDFIs, and a board member of Opportunity Finance Network (OFN).
Sara has a BA in Sociology and Theatre from UC Davis and an MBA from the University of San Francisco, where she focused on the intersection of social impact and finance. She is also active in her other passion, the arts, through the San Francisco Bay Area theatre community, primarily as a past board member and current advisor to Golden Thread Productions. Sara lives in Oakland with her wife and two young children.