Tyonka Perkins Rimawi Joins the Families and Workers Fund as Senior Program Manager

September 24, 2021 – Announcement

The Families and Workers Fund is excited to announce that Tyonka Perkins Rimawi has joined us as a Senior Program Manager. In this role, Tyonka will manage the Families and Workers Fund’s grants program, including sourcing, evaluating, and managing grants, and supporting grantee partners to achieve their greatest possible impacts and influence. She will also manage community engagement.

“The pandemic revealed the struggles too many families and workers have faced for far too long. We must center their voices and leadership and refuse a return to the pre-pandemic status quo,” said Tyonka. “We can leverage this once-in-a-generation opportunity for change into tangible, coordinated, and strategic action focused on equity and dignity. I am honored to serve as the Family and Workers Fund Senior Program Manager, and I look forward to partnering with all stakeholders committed to creating a more just and equitable economy for all—particularly those who have been most left out.”

Launched in April 2020, the Families and Workers Fund was the first national, multi-donor pooled fund dedicated to addressing the economic hardship caused by COVID-19. In 2020, we supported grassroots organizations and networks that, collectively, got emergency cash to over 215,000 struggling families and improved on-the-job safety for thousands of workers. Today, we are a coalition of twenty diverse philanthropies working to help repair and reimagine the systems that fuel economic security, opportunity and mobility. Specifically, through deploying funding and building partnerships, we seek to advance jobs that sustain and uplift people and also invest in the development of a more inclusive, effective public benefits system, with a focus on unemployment insurance.

“We are thrilled that Tyonka Perkins Rimawi has joined us as Senior Program Manager,” said Families and Workers Fund Executive Director Rachel Korberg. “Tyonka brings a unique blend of optimistic pragmatism, creativity, and an unrelenting focus on equity. I know she will be a fantastic partner to grantee organizations.”

Tyonka has a track record leading innovative philanthropic initiatives focused on economic security, including a public-private partnership that launched the first fully funded Mayors for a Guaranteed Income pilot in the nation and an emergency cash assistance fund that supported over 2,600 families at the onset of the pandemic. She also led economic opportunity initiatives at Goodwill Industries International, including a program to increase the accessibility of market-valued credentials for youth and adults and a sector-based initiative to advance qualified yet often overlooked frontline employees into leadership positions. Earlier, she served in communications, research, and programmatic roles at the Center of Excellence in Leadership of Learning, ultimately leading a statewide initiative that reduced the time and cost of postsecondary education for high school students, particularly those who too often were left behind.

Tyonka is currently Grants Committee Chair of SisterFund and a member of the Guaranteed Income Community of Practice. She previously served on the Richmond Resilience Initiative Economic Security Task Force and regularly speaks and writes about issues of economic security, including with Nonprofit Quarterly and Virginia Public Media, among other outlets. As Senior Program Manager, Tyonka will work closely with Rachel Korberg, the Families and Workers Fund’s founding Executive Director; Nefeli Mourti, the Families and Workers Fund’s first staffer and current Director of Operations; its advisory board; and its program committees.

Learn more about the Families and Workers Fund, and sign up for updates.