In January 2011, it was announced that Macdonald was to succeed the late Lord Bingham of Cornhill as the chair of Reprieve, the leading international anti-death penalty and prisoners' rights organisation. In April 2011, he joined the Council of the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London. In November 2011, he was elected an honorary fellow of St Edmund Hall, Oxford and in September 2012, he became Warden of Wadham College, Oxford. In 2015, he became Chair of The Orwell Foundation which awards the Orwell Prize for journalism and political writing. Macdonald publicly criticised the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015 in February 2016, saying it was a threat to freedom of academic expression and research. In 2020, he became President of the Howard League for Penal Reform.