Sara Jones

Sara led our organisational transformation and innovation agenda, championing approaches that centre community voices and challenge traditional power dynamics. Sara led our work on early inclusion and has pioneered new evidence-based approaches for children who are currently invisible in services.

Sara joined Social Finance in 2018 with 15 years of experience in systems change, strategic commissioning and partnership development across public, philanthropic and third sectors. She has consistently catalysed significant investments into sustainable funding models, transforming initial investments into multi-million pound programmes across social change initiatives spanning domestic abuse, refugees, digital harms, school exclusions, and young carers.

She built a groundbreaking partnership that spans organisations across philanthropy, VCSE, academic and statutory sectors, to identify children and young people who are invisible to the system as early as possible. 

Her work exposing gender bias in school exclusions, covered by The Guardian and BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour, demonstrated her ability to translate complex evidence into compelling public narratives that drive policy change. Her research into Covid-19’s impact in secondary schools, It’s Time to ACT, was cited in the House of Commons and covered by Sky News. She was Guardian Public Servant of the Year finalist (2017) and Acumen Fellow (2022).

Sara left Social Finance in 2025 to set up SJ Collectives.