It’s with determination and hope that we shepherd in a new year and new leadership for the Noyes Foundation. As the newly appointed President and Board Chair, we are honored to step into these entrusted roles to steward the foundation’s work.
A leadership transition on multiple levels in the foundation requires time to ground and orient as individuals and as a group, while the external environment in our country demands clarity and agility. The foundation’s mission serves as an orienting compass for us as we chart a course for the new year, and we are grateful to be held by a supportive welcome from our Board colleagues, staff, and peer funders who have shown community, solidarity, and care already in our tenure.
As Amy spends time this year building direct relationships with our grantee community and shares learnings from those engagements with the Board in the months ahead, we will live out the foundation’s trust-based philanthropy values, bringing curiosity to conversations, asking questions to learn, and sharing openly about our limitations. Stepping into new leadership in the foundation will require time to build trust; we commit to moving intentionally, and we invite your grace as we embark on this work together.
New leadership at Noyes this year extends beyond the two of us. We have the pleasure to welcome our newest Board members: Angela Matheny, Mel Willie, Nia Holton-Raphael, Lenora Suki, Theo Flower, and Tiffany Jiron. These new Board members include both next-generation family members and non-family members, continuing a long-standing governance formation whereby non-family members hold the majority of seats on our family foundation Board.
We look forward to working with new Board members to leverage their deep knowledge in socially responsible investments and Indigenous- and community-led initiatives to advance our shared work to support grassroots organizations and movements advancing the environmental, social, economic, and political conditions to bring about a more just, equitable, and sustainable world.
With care,
Amy T. Morris, President, and Rebecca V. Dixon, Board Chair
