Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation

The foundation was founded in the 1940s by Charles F. Noyes, a New York real-estate investor, in memory of his deceased wife. The foundation prioritizes funding to organizations that are “led by queer, trans, Black, Indigenous, people of color.” Organizations funded by the foundation include Action Lab, the Movement for Black Lives, and the New Economy Coalition. ^{1 2}

Background

The Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation was established in 1947 by Charles F. Noyes as a memorial to his late second wife, Jessie Smith Noyes, who died in 1936. Charles Noyes was a well-known New York City real estate investor whose company managed many skyscrapers in New York, including the Empire State Building. His sale of the Empire State Building in 1951 was the largest transaction in real estate history at the time and his investments allowed him to build a substantial fortune. Charles Noyes died in 1969 at age 91. Jessie Noyes was described as active in civil causes and a supporter of racial equality and desegregation. ^{3 2}  

Charles Noyes’ 1969 obituary described the foundation as his main interest outside his company, and in the first 18 years of the foundation’s existence, it made grants in excess of $1.5 million to educational initiatives with funds equally proportioned between predominately white and predominately African American schools. ³

In the 1980s the foundation expanded beyond educational grants to also fund environmentalist organizations. In the 1990s and 200s, the foundation has stated, “Determined to create a just, equitable society, supporting social-justice movements became core to our mission as did investing our endowment in ways that strengthen and support those movements.” ²

Activity

The Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation holds $69 million in total assets according to its 2021 tax return. The foundation has stated that it has “an intersectional approach” to its grantmaking and asset investment strategies. The foundation adopted a strategic plan between 2011 and 2017 that emphasized four funding priority areas of “environmental justice, sustainable agriculture and food systems, reproductive rights, and an environmentally sustainable New York City, with an emphasis on making grants to organizations led by people of color.” ²

Organizations Funded

The Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation provides grants to many left-of-center and far-left advocacy organizations including Action Lab, Activists with a Purpose Plus, the Advocacy Institute, Amplify Fund, American Indian Law Alliance, Black LGBTQIA+ Migrant Project, Black Farmer Fund, BYP 100 Education Fund, Campaign for Southern Equality, Citizen Action, Clean Air Coalition of Western New York, Defending the Dream Fund, Housing Justice for All, the New York Immigration Coalition, and the Worker Justice Center of New York. ¹

People

The Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation’s board includes members of the Noyes family and a variety of individuals associated with left-of-center organizations. The board includes Rebecca Dixon, executive director of National Employment Law Project (NELP); Terrelene Massey, executive director of the Southwest Women’s Law Center and the former executive director of the Navajo Division of Social Services; Marc Diaz, who previously worked for the Nature Conservancy and founded its NatureVest investing division; Chad Raphael, a professor of communication at Santa Clara University where he co-founded the Environmental Justice and the Common Good Initiatives; and Elizabeth Bedell Flower of the Climate Safe Lending Network. ⁴