Barry Gaberman has served on the boards of the Council on Foundations, the Independent Sector, the European Foundation Centre, the International Fellowships Fund, Hispanics in Philanthropy, the Trust for Civil Society in Central and Eastern Europe, and the Center for Global Partnership of the Japan Foundation. He is also the past chair of the Foundation Center and the chair emeritus of the Coordinating Committee of WINGS (Worldwide Initiatives for Grantmaker Support).
Since retiring from the Ford Foundation in 2006 (where he had been Senior Vice-President since 1996), Barry has been a part-time senior advisor to the Foundation Center. He spent a semester as a Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Gerhart Center on Philanthropy and Civic Engagement at American University in Cairo, teaching a course he helped design on the role of philanthropy in society. He was also the co-chair of the Council on Foundations Annual Conference in May 2008 in the Greater Washington, DC area. He continues to serve on the boards of the Independent Sector, the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, the Scholar Rescue Fund of the Institute of International Education, Oxfam USA, and the Cooperative Assistance Fund. He is the chair of BoardSource and the chair of the Global Fund for Community Foundations.