Savanna Ferguson is the executive director of Climate Breakthrough, a global philanthropy that supports leaders around the world to pursue ambitious and transformative endeavors in climate action. In this capacity, which she has served since 2017, she oversees the organization’s multi-million-dollar, worldwide grantmaking operations and expansion. As executive director, she spearheads partnerships and contributes to the discourse within climate philanthropy to help move the field forward.
Savanna’s background in climate strategy and years assessing talent prepared her uniquely for this work, initially supporting the creation of, and then leading Climate Breakthrough. Prior to Climate Breakthrough, she spent nearly a decade building her expertise by working with major nonprofit and foundation clients at CEA Consulting, a leading environmental consultancy. In CEA’s philanthropic services practice, she led strategic planning efforts related to climate, transportation, wildlife conservation, and renewable energy. As a search lead in CEA’s recruiting practice, she attracted the best talent in the environmental field to dozens of positions in a wide array of issue areas including climate change, sustainable agriculture, and land and wildlife conservation.
Prior to CEA, Savanna served as an assistant editor at Island Press, a nonprofit organization that is the nation’s leading publisher of books on environmental issues.
Savanna holds a bachelor’s degree in environmental studies and writing (Phi Beta Kappa, summa cum laude) and minors in geology and biology from Whitman College, and a Master of Fine Arts in writing from the University of San Francisco. She is a two-time recipient of the Morris K. Udall Scholarship. She is also a writer and a volunteer docent at the San Francisco Botanical Garden. You can read more about her writing at savannaferguson.com