Catherine Burnett, MBA

Catherine Burnett is the Chief Impact Officer of Phillips Foundation, a private family foundation and catalytic capital platform. In her role, Catherine oversees impact strategy development and execution to drive positive social, environmental and financial returns primarily through impact investments, collective impact partnerships, and grants. She leads implementation of Phillips Foundation’s transition to 100% impact and co-launched with other national philanthropic organizations the Community Investment Guarantee Pool, the first U.S.-based, multi-investor guarantee facility targeting racially equitable community development. Catherine is a national speaker on the topics of impact investing and philanthropy grounded in experience in the U.S. and East Africa.

Catherine has served as the Chair of Development Committee on the Community Investment Guarantee Pool since 2019.  The Community Investment Guarantee Pool (CIGP) is the largest philanthropic impact investing collaborative in the U.S. and the first multi-investor guarantee pool in this country to unlock racially equitable financing for affordable housing, small businesses, and climate solutions. Since 2020, Catherine has served on the Executive Committee of the Tipping Point Fund, a donor collaborative aimed at supporting the growth of the impact investing field through strategic grantmaking. She also serves as an advisory board member of the Heart & Vascular Center at Cone Health.

Catherine received an MBA at UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School in Sustainable Enterprise Strategy and General Management.  She is a graduate of Princeton University where she received a bachelor’s degree in English and American Studies.