Vice President, Programs

The Opportunity

The Barr Foundation is one of the largest private foundations in New England and invests in human, natural, and creative potential, serving as a thoughtful steward, catalyst, and partner to nonprofits, foundations, the public sector, and civic and business leaders.

The Vice President, Programs ("Vice President") will serve as a key member of the executive leadership team and a strategic partner to the President, responsible for guiding the foundation’s programmatic vision and ensuring strong execution across all grantmaking portfolios.

As it enters its fourth decade, the Barr Foundation is poised and ready to define and implement a set of ambitions that drive the innovation needed in the philanthropic sector during this time of immense challenges.

With deep and unflinching resolve, Barr intends to grow its voice and impact as the Foundation looks boldly towards its next chapter, while standing behind those who will be the vanguards of progress for Massachusetts, New England, and beyond.

Barr has a profound legacy of philanthropy, having contributed, since its founding in 1997, more than $1.5 billion in grantmaking, including $130 million in grants in 2025.

In deep partnership with Ali Noorani, the new President, and passionate colleagues and trustees, the Vice President will play a critical role in writing Barr’s next chapter as the organization goes through a period of meaningful evolution.

As a senior integrative leader, the Vice President builds on Barr’s strength, momentum, resolve and record of success to ensure alignment, coherence, and effectiveness across the organization’s programmatic work.

Holding an organization-wide perspective on strategy, learning, and philanthropic practice, the Vice President, as a member of the executive leadership team, translates foundation-wide priorities into clear programmatic implications, surfaces tradeoffs, and strengthens coordinated decision-making.

The Vice President leads, mentors, manages and inspires the program and learning and evaluation teams, modeling and promoting an inclusive, accountable culture.

Across its core areas of impact – Arts & Creativity, Climate, Education, Racial Wealth Equity, and Sector Effectiveness – Barr’s team embraces a common set of approaches including flexibility and nimbleness, using a broad range of tools and assets, knowledge and learning, openness and transparency, and active collaboration.

Crucially, Barr is committed to centering racial equity in all that it does. This is both an important commitment today and one the trustees aspire to build upon in the years ahead.

The Vice President role is an outstanding opportunity to shape Barr’s future impact. The ideal candidate brings deep experience of strategic philanthropy, with a track record of developing, implementing, and refreshing innovative and aligned program strategies.

With an organization-wide strategic lens, they will lead and support colleagues through change, both as the philanthropic space reinvents itself and as Barr continues its evolution from a family foundation to a legacy foundation.

With exceptional communication, collaboration, entrepreneurial and team leadership skills, they are committed to engaging authentically within Barr, and with our community and partners.

• Partner with the President, executive leadership team, and program leaders to shape and evolve Barr’s programs to meet this intense moment by translating an ambitious vision into a clear, overarching strategic framework complete with cohesive goals and detailed program delivery implications.
• With an organization-wide view of program strategies, identify shared priorities, interdependencies, risks and opportunities – for collaboration, alignment and adaptation – across portfolios and initiatives.
• Ensure coherence across Barr’s programs; drive clarity, address barriers, and support the sequencing of priorities and intentional management of strategic tradeoffs.

• Lead, mentor, and manage six direct reports who lead Barr’s work in Arts & Creativity, Climate,…