About Us
Our core values define our overall strategy, grantmaking, and the way we work with grantee partners and funders.
COMMITTED TO ACCESS
We center people historically locked out of opportunity. We value and celebrate differences.
We ensure flexibility and adaptability while working toward ambitious goals. We act quickly to leverage unique resources to fuel progress.
We nurture compassion, trust, and mutual respect. We seek out and provide data and evidence to ensure work is informed by best practices.
CHAMPIONING COLLABORATION AND DIVERSITY
We take a big-tent approach, and that means believing every stakeholder – whether funder, grantee or partner – brings something unique to the table. It is going to take all of us working together to win.
Essential Leaders Council
We collaborate with those at the forefront of recovery
When it comes to challenges, the true experts are people who lead through them every day. For our work to be effective, it must be grounded in the realities that diverse groups of workers and families experience daily. Too often, many workers and families face difficulties with workplace indignities, insufficient social safety net benefits, lack of family sustaining pay, and other economic hardships.
Our Essential Leaders Council (ELC) is a group of workers and leaders who are committed to sharing the distinctive vision and expertise of frontline workers and their families to achieve more dignified conditions in the workplace and social safety net. Within Families and Workers Fund, Essential Leaders Council members provide strategic guidance on priorities and weigh in on grant prospects.
We also uplift Essential Leaders Council members’ voices through communications and events to amplify their important perspective and impact externally. To date, their guidance has influenced millions of dollars in our grantmaking and key strategy decisions. The Essential Leaders Council is stewarded by Tyonka Perkins Rimawi, Program Director at the Families and Workers Fund.
Our Co-Chair, Staff, and Executive Committee have unparalleled experience in building large-scale collaborations to create more opportunity for all.
Rachel Korberg
Executive Director and
Co-Founder
Rachel Korberg is the Executive Director and co-founder of the Families and Workers Fund, a coalition of more than 25 diverse philanthropies working together to build an economy that uplifts everyone. The $125+ million pooled fund makes grants and builds strategic partnerships to advance good jobs, scale inclusive workforce development, and help deliver poverty-reducing public benefits. It has a special focus on climate jobs and public sector-philanthropy partnerships.
Tyonka Perkins Rimawi
PROGRAM DIRECTOR
Tyonka Perkins Rimawi is a Program Director with the Families and Workers Fund, a coalition of more than 25 diverse philanthropies working together to build an economy that uplifts everyone. Tyonka leads the Fund’s 21st Century Benefits impact area, collaborating with leaders across the public and private sectors to strengthen delivery of key services, such as public benefits, that effectively reduce poverty and propel economic opportunity when they are shaped to guarantee a base of economic security for all people. She also collaborates with the Fund’s Essential Leaders Council of diverse frontline workers and leaders who provide guidance on the Fund’s priorities and weigh in on grant prospects.
Jenny Weissbourd
PROGRAM DIRECTOR
Jenny Weissbourd is a Program Director with the Families and Workers Fund, where she leads grantmaking and partnerships to advance good jobs and workforce pathways. Jenny collaborates with governments, nonprofits, and employers at the federal, state, and local levels to support them in delivering jobs that sustain and uplift workers and their families.
Sarah Mostafa
PROGRAM DIRECTOR
Sarah is a Program Director at the Families and Workers Fund, where she leads grantmaking and partnerships to advance good jobs and workforce development, with a focus on climate and infrastructure careers and small and medium-sized businesses.
Christian Carter
PROGRAM ASSOCIATE
Christian Carter is the Program Associate at the Families and Workers Fund, where she manages stakeholder relationships to support FWF’s mission and the work of our grantees.
Lee Domeika
Program Fellow
Lee Domeika is the Program Fellow for the Powering Climate and Infrastructure Careers Initiative (PCIC) at the Families and Workers Fund. In this role, she leads technical assistance design and supports grantmaking to advance quality jobs and wraparound support for workers in the growing climate workforce.
Joshua Rivera
Program Fellow
Joshua Rivera is the Benefits Access for Everyone Initiative Program Fellow for the Families and Workers Fund (FWF). He supports FWF’s efforts to increase family economic security through the modernization of government safety net programs.
Samiya Sayed
Program Manager
Samiya Sayed is a Program Manager at the Families and Workers Fund. She manages the Fund’s monitoring, evaluation, and learning, coordinating closely with grantees and strategic partners to cultivate a learning community, deliver on our shared strategic goals, and evaluate outcomes.
JAE GHO
OPERATIONS ASSOCIATE
Jae is the Operations Associate at the Families and Workers Fund, working closely with the Director of Philanthropy and Operations and across the organization to support grant administration, finance, and events.
Courtney Lindemann
EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT
Courtney is an Executive Assistant at the Families and Workers Fund, working closely with the Executive Director and the Operations Team to support the organization’s mission. Courtney is deeply committed to driving positive change within underserved and underinvested populations and communities
Jaidah Murray
ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT
As part of the Operations Team at Families and Workers Fund, Jaidah brings a wealth of experience in administrative excellence and a deep understanding of government relations. She has a passion for facilitating and supporting initiatives that empower communities and support economic mobility.
YK Vandekamp
Director, Philanthropy & Operations
YK Vandekamp is the Director of Philanthropy & Operations at the Families and Workers Fund. As the head of operations, they oversee development and fundraising, financial management, events, and grant making administration to ensure efficient operations. They also partner with the Executive Director on organizational strategy, talent development, and stewardship of the Funder Advisory Board.
ERIC BRAVERMAN
Co-Chair Emeritus, The Families and Workers Fund
Eric Braverman is a CEO, founder, and teacher.
Currently, he is leading the creation of a new philanthropic project to be unveiled later this year.
For the past half-decade, he served as the founding CEO of Schmidt Futures, a philanthropic initiative that bets early on exceptional people solving hard problems in science and society. Prior to creating Schmidt Futures, Eric oversaw all philanthropic and non-investment efforts and directed the family office.
Read more...
Named by Fortune magazine in 2010 as one of the “40 Most Influential Leaders in Business” worldwide under 40 years old, Eric previously served as CEO of Rex Group, CEO of the Clinton Foundation, and a partner and co-founder of McKinsey & Company’s government practice – as part of a career at the firm from 1997 to 2013.
At the Clinton Foundation, Eric led an effort to secure an endowment, develop infrastructure to support best-in-class operating practices, improve strategic planning and financial management, strengthen Board governance and internal controls, and use data effectively. During his tenure from 2013 to 2015, Charity Navigator awarded the Foundation a perfect score for transparency and accountability.
At McKinsey, Eric was the global leader of McKinsey’s work on government innovation and an expert on the transformation of complex institutions. He counseled heads of state and former presidents, cabinet secretaries, civil service officials, and business leaders in media, entertainment, and technology. Eric also served as an advisor on performance management for President Obama’s transition team in 2008.
At Yale, he was a Senior Fellow for more than a decade and continues to teach on public leadership matters including ethics, innovation, and global competitiveness. Eric is a member of YPO and the New York State Bar, and in addition to his work with the Families and Workers Fund also served on the boards of America’s Frontier Fund, Ready, Arena Stage, and other organizations.
Darren Walker
President, The Ford Foundation
Under his leadership, the Ford Foundation became the first non-profit in US history to issue a $1 billion designated social bond in US capital markets for proceeds to strengthen and stabilize non-profit organizations in the wake of COVID-19.
Read more...
Before joining Ford, Darren was vice president at Rockefeller Foundation, overseeing global and domestic programs. In the 1990s, he was COO of the Abyssinian Development Corporation, Harlem’s largest community development organization.
Darren co-chairs New York City’s Mayoral Advisory Commission on City Art, Monuments, and Markers, and has served on the Independent Commission on New York City Criminal Justice and Incarceration Reform and the UN International Labour Organization Global Commission on the Future of Work. He co-founded both the US Impact Investing Alliance and the Presidents’ Council on Disability Inclusion in Philanthropy and is a founding member of the Board Diversity Action Alliance. He serves on many boards, including Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the National Gallery of Art, Carnegie Hall, the High Line, the Committee to Protect Journalists, and the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture. In the summer of 2020, he was appointed to the boards of Square and Ralph Lauren. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society and is the recipient of 16 honorary degrees and university awards, including Harvard University’s W.E.B. Du Bois Medal.
Educated exclusively in public schools, Darren was a member of the first Head Start class in 1965 and received BA, BS, and JD degrees from the University of Texas at Austin. He has been included on numerous leadership lists: Time’s annual 100 Most Influential People, Rolling Stone’s 25 People Shaping the Future, Fast Company’s Most Creative People in Business, Ebony’s Power 100, and Out magazine’s Power 50. Most recently, Darren was named Wall Street Journal’s 2020 Philanthropy Innovator.
Sarita Gupta
Co-Founder, The Families and Workers Fund
VICE PRESIDENT, U.S. Programs, The Ford Foundation
Anna Fink
Co-Founder, the Families and Workers Fund
Executive Director, Amalgamated Foundation & SVP at Amalgamated Bank
Danielle Goonan
Managing Director, Economic Policy Investments and Grantmaking, Equity & Economic Opportunity, The Rockefeller Foundation
Charles Fields
Executive Vice President of Programs, The James Irvine Foundation
Ryan Rippel
Director,
Economic Mobility and Opportunity
Korey Klein
Director, Technology & Data