Sarah R. Kelley is the Principal of Common Threads Consulting, working with philanthropic funders and impact investors to provide cross-sector strategy development, research, and facilitation. She specializes in mobilizing integrated grants and impact investments to combat extractive industries and create more just, equitable, and sustainable alternatives. With 20 years of experience working with foundations, impact investors, and alternative financing vehicles, she brings expertise in building collaborative partnerships and particular sector knowledge at the intersection of agriculture, petrochemicals, textiles, and toxics.

Sarah currently serves as Managing Director of the Integrated Capital Fibers Fund and Deputy Director of Forsythia Foundation. At the Fibers Fund, she manages all elements of a catalytic fund designed to facilitate the investment of financial capital into a regenerative U.S. natural fiber and textile industry, with a specific focus on economic justice. With its values-based governance structure and focus on underserved entrepreneurs, the Fibers Fund was named to the Transformative 25, a list of funds “transforming finance for people and planet.” At Forsythia, a foundation focused on reducing harmful chemicals and supporting the development of safer alternatives, she leads efforts to mobilize financial and legal strategies to accelerate the scaling of safer chemistries and materials.

Sarah is a frequent speaker, author, and collaborator in national efforts to advance regenerative finance. She was the lead researcher and author of the 2022 Textile Exchange Regenerative Agriculture Landscape Analysis and related Outcome Framework, a landmark framework for the textile and apparel industry to understand and invest in regenerative agriculture, as well as lead author of The Fibers Roadmap, published by Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems Funders. Sarah has spoken at a range of climate, agriculture, textile industry, and investing conferences, and she serves on the Board of a new philanthropic intermediary advancing systems change in pesticide reform. Sarah was selected as a 2018-19 Just Economy Institute Fellow and recently named to Impact Finance Center's 2025 Who's Who in Impact Investing.

Previously, Sarah spent 10 years as Senior Program Officer at Island Foundation, where she directed the Environment portfolio and developed and implemented a program on equity, inclusion, and environmental justice, including an innovative cohort-based model for grantee equity training. Before joining the Island Foundation, Sarah was the Executive Director of Southeastern Massachusetts Agricultural Partnership, a nonprofit focused on supporting local food and agriculture. Sarah holds an M.S. in Plant and Soil Science from UMass Amherst and a B.A. in History from Yale.