Philanthropic Advisor and Impact Leader
Noorain Khan is a bold and innovative leader who has spent nearly two decades driving groundbreaking programs and organizations that directly impact individuals and communities.
Noorain spent nearly a decade at the Ford Foundation, where she built and led the first-ever discretionary program team under visionary President Darren Walker. During her tenure, she oversaw Ford’s largest program area, with $500 million in grantmaking. She shaped the foundation’s most ambitious and flexible funding efforts, which included launching Ford’s work in disability rights and growing it into the largest private funder of disability rights in the world. Noorain co-founded and incubated pioneering sector-wide efforts such as the Disability & Philanthropy Forum, the first US philanthropy-serving organization focused on disability rights, and the Disability Inclusion Fund at Borealis Philanthropy, which has moved over $14 million to 72 disabled-led organizations through participatory governance, centering disability leaders as decision makers.
During this time, she also led groundbreaking efforts in culture and narrative change—including the Blueprint for Muslim Inclusion and the acquisition of Amy Sherald’s historic portrait of Breonna Taylor jointly by the Speed Museum and the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. She helped spearhead Ford’s historic $1 billion social bond offering during COVID-19, an unprecedented move in philanthropy that exemplified outside-the-box thinking in a moment of crisis. She is the subject of a Harvard Law School case study on public sector leadership.
Noorain credits the Girl Scouts with sparking her interest in social impact during her experience as a troop member in her native Michigan. After being active in the organization for over three decades, she was elected the National President of Girl Scouts of the USA, presiding over 1.8 million members and chairing its National Board of Directors.
She earned a JD from Yale Law School, where she was a PD Soros Fellow, an MPhil in Migration Studies from Oxford, where she was a Rhodes Scholar, and a BA from Rice University. Noorain began her career as an attorney at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, the country’s top law firm.
Noorain was previously a Senior Policy Advisor on the National Economic Council at the White House and a Term Member on the Council on Foreign Relations. She has served on the boards of Vote.org, the Association of American Rhodes Scholars, Pillars Fund, and the Brooklyn Children’s Museum. She is the recipient of the George Parkin Service Award for outstanding contributions to the Rhodes Trust and was named to Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list.
In addition to her role leading the Girls Scouts of the USA, Noorain is the founder of NFK Philanthropic Strategy, where she guides private clients, and a Senior Advisor at the investment firm XN. Her monthly newsletter about purpose-led careers, Mission Critical, reaches over 20,000 people. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband Sabeel Rahman and their two children, and co-leads Daisy Troop 2314.
Photo: Girl Scouts of the USA
“Noorain is a rare person with a unique mix of EQ + IQ, maturity, humility and ambition, impact orientation, conceptual thinking and an ability to execute and deliver extraordinary results.”
Darren Walker, President, Ford Foundation