Sara Abbasi is a philanthropist with a focus on enabling access to education.

As a member of various boards, Ms. Abbasi is dedicated to facilitating cross-cultural understanding. Ms. Abbasi is Founding Board member of Developments in Literacy (DIL), an international nonprofit organization with a charter to advance literacy in the remote areas of Pakistan. Since 1997, DIL has built 200 schools in Pakistan. In 2001, Ms. Abbasi established DIL’s San Francisco chapter.

Additionally, Ms. Abbasi serves on the board of The World Affairs Council of Northern California; The Institute for Social Policy and Understanding; Menlo School, an independent, accredited and coeducational college preparatory day school for students in grades 6–12; and on the Board of Advisors of the Truman National Security Project.

In 2003, Ms. Abbasi and her husband, Sohaib Abbasi, endowed the Sohaib and Sara Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies at Stanford University, a key forum for interdisciplinary research and teaching in Islamic Studies on the west coast.