FELLOW
TONYA ALLEN
DIRECTORY | FELLOW PROFILE
TONYA ALLEN
TITLE
President
ORGANIZATION
McKnight Foundation
BIOGRAPHY
Tonya Allen is a leader and a change agent with a passion for co-creating an equitable, sustainable world. In 2021, she became president of the McKnight Foundation, a Minnesota-based family foundation that advances a more just, creative, and abundant future where people and planet thrive. Tonya heads a majority women, majority people-of-color senior leadership team and a diverse team of about 60. The Foundation grants approximately $120 million annually in support of equitable communities, a clean energy economy, global food systems, artists and culture bearers, and innovative neuroscience research. Since her arrival at McKnight, Tonya championed using the Foundation’s investments to advance net zero goals and manager diversity, leadership to rebuild Twin Cities neighborhoods and small businesses impacted by Covid-19 and the 2020 civil unrest, and spearheaded the Ground Break Coalition, a group of 40+ financial, government and philanthropic institutions and leaders working to grow black wealth, homeownership, and businesses.