Tonya Allen

Tonya Allen, president of Minnesota’s McKnight Foundation, has emerged as one of the most vocal defenders of both the philanthropic sector and the communities it serves. Last year, in response to the federal threats to investigate foundations and nonprofits, Allen—along with MacArthur Foundation’s John Palfrey and Freedom Together's Deepak Bhargava—led a solidarity campaign defending the right to give freely. More than 700 organizations have since signed the statement of support. 

More recently, following the immigration enforcement surge in Minnesota and the killings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti, McKnight deployed $5 million in emergency response funding, with another $13 million in the pipeline. The money is going toward small businesses, constitutional observers, mutual aid groups, and supporting people who say they are afraid to go to work due to the presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and are thus at risk of losing their housing. “Our community was under siege,” Allen says. “We had the capability and the resources to both listen to them and to quickly get resources to them.” 
At the time, Allen wrote in an op-ed for the Chronicle of Philanthropy that foundations must step up when the federal government “has clearly crossed a red line.” Expanding on that in an interview with TIME, she explains that philanthropy doesn’t have the luxury of neutrality. “This is a time for us to get out of our comfort zone and spend more resources and then make sure those resources are hitting the communities that need those dollars the most,” she says.