THE BARR FOUNDATION has named Ali Noorani, a longtime nonprofit and philanthropic leader, as its new president. Noorani, who currently serves as program director of the US Democracy Program at the California-based William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, will succeed Jim Canales, the foundation’s longtime president who announced in January that he planned to step down after 11 years in the role.
Noorani, 52, who lives in Oakland with his wife and daughter, will take the reins on December 1.
The Barr Foundation was founded in 1997 by Amos and Barbara Hostetter, using proceeds from the sale of Continental Cablevision, which Amos Hostetter co-founded in 1963 and which was sold in 1996. It’s now one of the largest foundations in New England, with more than $2.8 billion in assets.
Noorani’s “life’s work has been defined by service, and his values are deeply aligned with the values Amos and I hope will always define Barr – including humility, curiosity, and the long-term view that investing in potential and empowering people in communities always requires,” Barbara Hostetter, chair of the foundation’s board of trustees and of the search committee for a new president, said in a statement.
“I am deeply humbled and grateful for the opportunity to lead the Barr Foundation at this moment and to build on its exceptional reputation,” Noorani said in a statement.
It will mark a return to Massachusetts for Noorani, who served from 2003 to 2008 as executive director of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition.
After leaving Massachusetts, Noorani served as president and CEO of the National Immigration Forum in Washington, DC, where he tripled its staff while leading a national effort to engage moderate and conservative voices in conversation on immigration issues.
“We’ve always thought about this as an issue that’s all about politics or is all about policy,” Noorani said on a 2017 episode of The Codcast. “What I have learned about the immigration debate is that I think the majority of Americans see this as a question about culture and about values.”
Noorani said it’s possible to find common ground on immigration issues when they’re discussed on those terms. Conversations he had around that time with religious figures, law enforcement officials, and business leaders led to the formation of an alliance dubbed Bibles, Badges, and Business for Immigration Reform. “If you hold a Bible, you wear a badge, or you run a business, you want a common sense solution to the immigration system,” Noorani said on the 2017 podcast.
He authored a 2017 book about his search for common ground on the issue, There Goes The Neighborhood: How Communities Overcome Prejudice and Meet the Immigration Challenge. He published a second book on the topic in 2022, Crossing Borders: The Reconciliation of a Nation of Immigrants.
In the 2017 podcast interview – during the first year of Donald Trump’s first term – Noorani said that he’s an eternal optimist, but that Trump’s election clearly made the path to immigration reform tougher. That seems like a dramatic understatement today.
Barr’s grantmaking is principally focused on three areas – arts, climate, and education. Barbara Hostetter said in a statement that Noorani’s “enthusiasm for Barr’s core issues of arts, climate, and education was palpable, as was his readiness to propel Barr into its next chapter.”
(MassINC, the nonprofit that publishes CommonWealth Beacon, is currently the recipient of Barr Foundation grants supporting general operating costs as well as its policy work on Gateway Cities.)
“I am personally thrilled to return once again to Boston, a community I came to know and love early in my career,” Noorani said. “My wife, Toya, and I are excited to raise our young daughter as a Celtics fan.”