Laura McKnight

Laura McKnight is president and CEO of the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation. The Greater Kansas City Community Foundation connects donors to community needs they care about and increases charitable giving throughout the region. With more than 2,000 individual funds under its umbrella—ranging in size from a few thousand dollars to tens of millions of dollars—the Foundation and its donors are a driving force to improve the quality of life in Kansas City through charitable investments that achieve results.

The Greater Kansas City Community Foundation ranks in the top ten among the more than 650 community foundations in the country, a position it has held since 1999. In 2007 alone, the Foundation’s donors granted nearly $200 million to charitable causes that mean the most to them, bringing the Foundation’s total lifetime grant making to over $1.2 billion—an amount equal to the Foundation’s current asset base.

Laura is a lifelong resident of the Kansas City region but for her time spent earning a degree in philosophy from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, where she graduated a member of Phi Beta Kappa. Laura earned her law degree with honors from the University of Kansas, following in the footsteps of a long line of family Jayhawks.

In 2001, after spending more than six years as a tax attorney at a Kansas City law firm, Laura joined the staff of the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation, where as a child she had secretly hoped she would end up. Laura served in a variety of roles, including senior vice president of development and executive director of the Community Foundation of Johnson County, one of the Foundation’s regional affiliates, before assuming the role of president and CEO in 2006.

Laura enjoys investing time to improve the Kansas City community beyond her role at the Foundation. Some of her favorite volunteer activities include serving on the board of the Heartland Chapter of the National Association of Corporate Directors, the United Way of Greater Kansas City board of directors, and especially the advisory board of the Ronald McDonald house because children’s health issues are of personal importance to Laura and her family. Laura is grateful to have been the recipient of several local honors, including the Kansas City Tomorrow Distinguished Alumni Award.

Laura and her husband support their favorite charitable causes through the “modest but mighty” Laura McKnight and Clay Barker Fund at the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation. Most of all, Laura enjoys every minute of the glorious mundane at home with Clay and their five daughters, who range in age from toddler to college. It is never dull!