Sara Gifford | Source | Co-Founder at ActiVote

Sara Gifford is co-founder and COO of ActiVote, a nonpartisan app that empowers citizens to vote and strengthens democracy. Having worked in the tech industry for twenty years, she is an expert in software development and management.

Gifford started off as a Software Developer for HPTi, a Technology Consulting company. In 2006, she joined Quintiq, a supply-chain software-development company, as Business Consultant and was promoted to General Manager of North America. In that role, she expanded the company’s North American operations team, increased sales, brought in top talent, and trained emerging leaders in the company. She became a board member and then Chief Solutions Officer.

After Quintiq was sold in 2017, Gifford and her fellow co-founders turned to using their tech talents for social good. That’s how ActiVote was born.

Gifford holds a BS in computer engineering from Bucknell University and an MS in software engineering from American University.

ActiVote is a first-of-its kind nonpartisan app that empowers U.S. citizens to vote. Users can access information about local, statewide, and national elections, candidates, public policy, and legislation all in one place. ActiVote also enables users to compare their beliefs to political candidates’ stances by answering daily questions on major political issues.

ActiVote was founded in 2019 by Victor Allis, Sara Gifford, and Paul-Erik Rauè. This team of entrepreneurs met at Quintiq, a supply-chain software-development company, more than 10 years ago. Upon selling that company, they turned their attention to serving the social good.

After conducting research, they discovered many Americans don’t vote because they don’t know how to navigate our current elections system or find reliable information about candidates. So Allis, Gifford, and Rauè set out to put every election in the palm of people’s hands. Using their tech talents, they developed ActiVote – an app that provides factual, unbiased information to make voting more accessible and build a strong democracy.