Biography
Loren Harris recently joined Ballmer Group as its first executive director of national impact. In this role, Loren will lead Ballmer Group’s national grantmaking strategy in support of its mission, expanding and integrating key impact areas, such as early childhood, housing, workforce, and education.
Loren’s passion for increasing economic and educational opportunities is showcased throughout his work over the last two decades with leading philanthropic organizations. Loren has also demonstrated a deep commitment to strengthening community, both through his career in philanthropy and through his leadership in building more cohesive and inclusive organizational cultures.
Most recently, Loren served as the chief program and strategy officer at the Kenneth Rainin Foundation, where he served on the executive leadership team and helped to guide the foundation into its second decade. Loren was a leading voice working to improve the foundation’s grantmaking and operations; to define and strengthen organizational culture; to cultivate spaces for new leadership opportunities at all levels; and to advance the foundation’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. He also supported grantmaking portfolios across issues areas, while prioritizing collaboration, evaluation, learning, and impact.
Prior to joining the Rainin Foundation, Loren was vice president of programs for the Nathan Cummings Foundation, where he led the development of integrated program strategies, oversaw racial and economic justice grantmaking, and managed program staff to advance efforts to address inequality and climate change. He directed a robust grant portfolio at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to advance the economic security of low-income children and families across the country by increasing employment, earnings, savings, and asset ownership.
Before that, he served as the program officer for the Ford Foundation’s Asset Building and Community Development Program, and associate program officer for the C.S. Mott Foundation’s Pathways Out of Poverty Program. Loren began his career at the STRIVE program at the Stanley Isaacs Neighborhood Center in East Harlem where he saw how lack of opportunity significantly impacts individuals, households, and entire communities.
Loren earned an MPA in Nonprofit and Organizational Management from Fairleigh Dickinson University and a BA in American History from the City University of New York, Queens College. Loren serves on the Board of Visitors of Indiana University’s Lilly School of Philanthropy, which provides a bridge between philanthropic scholarship and practice. He was selected as a 2019-2020 Change Leaders in Philanthropy fellow by Grantmakers for Effective Organizations to further develop his skills to lead transformational change.