Tyonka Perkins Rimawi is the Senior Program Manager of Grantmaking and Community Engagement with the Families and Workers Fund. In her role as the primary grantmaker, Tyonka sources, assesses, and manages grants and works closely with grantee partners to help them leverage their impacts through funding and relationship building. She also works closely with a council of essential workers to uplift and center their expertise and ground the Fund’s efforts in real, lived experience.

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 previously 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. Prior to that, 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 who too often were left behind.

Tyonka serves on the Grants Committee of SisterFund and is 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. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from Butler University and an M.B.A. in Supply Chain Management from the University of Indianapolis.