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The Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation promotes a sustainable and just social and natural system by supporting grassroots organizations and movements committed to this goal.

 

Our funding priorities are shaped by a view of the Earth as one community, an interconnected web of life in which human society is an integral part:

Protect the Health and Environment of Communities Threatened by Toxics
Advance Environmental Justice
Promote a Sustainable Agricultural and Food System
Ensure Quality Reproductive Health Care as a Human Right
Foster an Environmentally Sustainable New York City

Through out grantmaking activities and internal policies and practices, we embrace diversity and challenge institutional and cultural discrimination, including, but not limited to, discrimination based on ethnicity, race, religion, age, sexual orientation, economic status, physical ability, gender, immigration and immigration status.

In our view, social change movements require that all people have the opportunities and resources to actively participate in civic life. Therefore, we actively seek out organizations led by people of color and/or working in low income communities that foster such activism. We define people of color organizations as those where people of color are the primary decision-makers and constituents and whose mission and work are based on a race/ethnic consciousness.

We also seek to move away from a single issue approach to social change and encourage requests that address multiple priorities, as well as those that bring together organizations and activists from diverse movements. And we consider requests that address issues in rural and urban communities.

 

Noyes Foundation in 2010

The worldwide economic crisis has hit the Noyes Foundation too. Over the past year, our assets dropped from $60 to $44 million. Nevertheless, the Foundation remains committed to continuing its grantmaking into the future, supporting social change movements around toxics and environmental justice, reproductive rights, a sustainable agricultural and food system, and an environmentally sound New York City.

The decision to sustain our work required making difficult choices. For 2010 the grants budget was reduced by 18% or $500,000, from $2.7 to $2.2 million. As a result, we are not replacing ten grantees that cycled off Noyes support in 2009.

For 2010, the Foundation will not consider new requests. Grants will be made to organizations that are already Noyes grantees. This policy only affects the 2010 grantmaking cycle. A decision about the 2011 grants budget will be made in mid-2010.

Even with these reductions, the Noyes Foundation will fund 75 organizations working to restore an ecological balance on our planet, and to protect the rights of women, low-income communities and people of color. By making necessary adjustments now, we hope to reach our goal of providing grants for years to come.

We know finding new funding is difficult. Here is the link to the Foundation Center, which has a database of information on foundations and grantmaking – www.foundationcenter.org.

 

WHAT'S NEW:

Summary of the evaluation of the Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation

Annie Leonard presents The Story of Cap and Trade

Noyes News, October, 2009

Grants Paid in 2009


Diversity Matters:

2009 Noyes Foundation Board and Staff Profile

2009 Noyes Foundation Grants by Race and Ethnicity of Organization

Noyes Foundation in the Council on Foundation's Diversity Video and The California Endowment's Foundation Diversity Policies & Practices Toolkit

Ann Wiener, Noyes Board Member and granddaughter of Charles F. Noyes, discusses diversity issues at Council on Foundation Summit Plenary (Wednesday, May 7 Breakfast)

 

Also:

Leslie Lowe, former Noyes Board Chair and Director of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibilty's Energy & Environment Program, speaks on the risks of investing in new coal plants

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Noyes Foundation Grantee Perception Report

 

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