Seven Questions for Tonia Wellons, President and CEO of Greater Washington Community Foundation

Tonia Wellons is the president and CEO of the Greater Washington Community Foundation (GWCF), the largest public foundation in the greater Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. The foundation has $335 million in assets under management and disburses $60 million in grants annually. Wellons joined the foundation in 2016 and began serving as the interim CEO in October 2019. She officially took the helm of the foundation on March 31, 2020. Over the next three months, the GWCF raised $7.5 million for COVID-19 relief from over 700 donors, foundations and companies like PepsiCo, Amazon and Melinda Gates’ Pivotal Ventures. The foundation went on to raise $11.5 million for its pooled response fund and over $30 million in parallel response funds established by businesses, government partnerships, and jurisdictionally focused efforts.

Previously, Wellons served as a political appointee for the Obama administration as head of global partnerships at the Peace Corps and as fund manager of an initiative focused on financial access and inclusion at the World Bank Group. We recently spoke with Wellons about her formative life experiences, the advice she’d give her younger self, and why she’s optimistic about the future of philanthropy.

Source: Inside Philanthropy

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