Aspiring Philanthropreneur with a Mission to Disrupt

True to the saying, “If you don’t ask, the answer is always no,” Sana Khan, BComm’14, sought out opportunities instead of waiting for them to come to her. During her final year at the Haskayne School of Business, she became interested in solving social problems through crowdfunding. After hours of searching online for ventures she could become involved with, Sana came across LaunchGood, a global crowdfunding startup that empowers social entrepreneurs from Muslim communities. Excited to help while the platform was still in its early stage, she made a cold call to one of the co-founders and landed a role as a project manager. To date, LaunchGood has been used in 62 different countries to raise over $11 million for 1,062 projects that support Muslim initiatives globally.

Sana firmly believes that creating economic growth can aid social justice because it perpetually works to solve the larger issues marginal groups face. “Why just solve one problem?” she says, “If you can help someone achieve a source of sustainable income then that’s going to improve every single aspect of their life.” Her passion stems from personal, educational and professional experience — having seen first-hand the positive impact social justice work is capable of producing.

After graduating from Haskayne in 2014, and still working with LaunchGood, Sana moved to New York to intern at the United Nations Office of the Under-Secretary- General for Management. There, she took on an administrative role and helped to analyze internal statistics, monitor agency performance and prepare reports for member states’ project budget allocations.

Following her internship, Sana travelled with Global Vision, in partnership with Canadian Consulates in China, to Chongqing, Guangzhou, and Chengdu, China, to promote Canada-China relations and bilateral trade. She represented two sectors while abroad: market research and academic institutions. This gave her an opportunity to promote the evening and daytime MBA programs at her alma mater.

Currently, Sana is working at Fluor as a contracts specialist, and this hasn’t slowed her mission to make a difference. Reuniting with her passion for disruptive business models, she is a social impact investor through EthisCrowd, and supports them with investor outreach and market research. Most recently, Sana also joined Global Shapers Community — an initiative of the World Economic Forum. Her commitment to social change has not gone unnoticed; Sana recently received a Top 30 Under 30 award from the Alberta Council for Global Cooperation.

A genuine leader of today and tomorrow, Sana believes in the value of using social entrepreneurship to disrupt policy and impact global social change. This philosophy not only reflects the sum of her experiences, but also represents the exciting future she’s sure to be a part of.