Alena Klimas

Alena Klimas is a Senior Philanthropic Strategist at Tides Foundation, where she helps foundations and donors design and carry out grantmaking strategies that meet their goals. She specializes in environment, policy, and community development grantmaking, and is passionate about trust-based, community-centric philanthropy that funds social justice and advocacy work across the U.S., especially in rural and historically excluded communities.

Alena serves as an advisor to the Washington State Recreation and Conservation Office’s Recreational Trails Program. She previously worked in grantmaking, policy advocacy, and philanthropic engagement with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the Appalachia Funders Network, and nonprofits in Appalachia. A Returned Peace Corps Volunteer, she served in Morocco’s High Atlas Mountains. Alena holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Ohio University and a master’s degree in community development policy from the University of New Hampshire.