Laura Tomasko

Laura Tomasko is a senior policy program manager in the Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy at the Urban Institute. Her work focuses on charitable giving, the philanthropic sector, and impact investing. She draws on more than 15 years of experience in the nonprofit, philanthropic, and public sectors to ensure research initiatives inform policy and practice.

Before joining Urban, Tomasko was an associate program officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where she managed a portfolio of grants focused on building policy and data capacity for the philanthropic sector. During the Obama administration, she was a senior policy adviser for social innovation in the White House Domestic Policy Council and deputy associate director for public engagement at the Council on Environmental Quality. Tomasko previously held positions at the national philanthropy associations Council on Foundations and Grantmakers for Effective Organizations, as well as the community-based organizations the Central New York Community Foundation and the Children’s Aid Society.

Tomasko holds a BA in history from Occidental College, graduating with honors and Phi Beta Kappa, and an MPA from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University, where she served as the Vernon Snow Fellow in Nonprofit Management.