Declinations and Withdrawals
May 1 - September 30, 2015
Note: The date listed below for each declination indicates when the Foundation received the request.
Millie:
BlueGreen Alliance Foundation 3/24/2015
1300 Godward St NE, Suite 2625
Minneapolis, MN 55413
General support to unite labor and environmental groups to find solutions to the connected problems of environmental destruction and income inequality, with a focus on influencing state plans for the EPA’s Clean Power Plan to ensure strong job creation.
Comment: This coalition includes five large mainstream environmental groups and a number of labor unions. There is no representation of environmental justice groups. The letter of inquiry expresses a desire to “include low-income communities of color,” but neither the coalition groups nor its stated strategies reflect a movement in that direction or inclusion of those communities in planning. Not a fit (MB).
Population served:
Don’t know
Environmental Integrity Project 1/15/2015
919 Eighteenth Street, N.W.
Suite 975
Washington, DC 20006
Program support for the Baltimore Environmental Justice Campaign to provide Baltimore communities and environmental organizations with pro bono legal and technical help; localized air quality monitoring; and community outreach and coalition-building assistance.
Comment: This is a DC-based legal and technical assistance provider. It does not fit our focus on leadership development and community organizing in impacted communities (MB).
Population served:
Don’t know
FANG: Fighting Against Natural Gas 1/9/2015
6 Dwight St Unit 3
Providence, RI 02906
To fund the role of Frontline and Community Resource Coordinator who will identify the true social costs of the natural gas industry on communities in the Northeast and build campaigns to hold extractive companies accountable for these impacts.
Comment: There is a lot of activity and there have been some successes around fracking in the Northeast, including some connected with existing organizations. This is an effort to build a new networking organization, started by a collection of individuals with varied activist backgrounds. They express their intent to network with communities and organizations already in the field, but there is no indication in their letter or on their website of a call from unrepresented communities, or from groups already on the ground. That, along with the fact that fracking in the Northeast is getting significant resources from foundations focused on that region, puts this group too far down the priority list to successfully compete for our funds (MB).
Population served:
Don’t know
Idaho Organization of Resource Councils 3/27/2015
910 W. Main St. Suite 244
Boise, ID 83702
Program support to organize community members to fight oil and gas development in rural Idaho.
Comment: This is one of a cluster of Western Organizational Resource Council group in the northwest. We have funded several of the WORC groups in the past, and they have an interesting model of bringing together farmers and ranchers who may cringe at calling themselves environmentalists to address resource issues directly affecting them. This is a project specifically to organize in areas of Idaho what are now facing gas and oil development. If funds were unlimited, we might take a closer look at this, but there are others on the waiting list with broader focus and more connections with the growing climate justice movements (MB).
Population served:
European American/Caucasian
Don’t know
Louisiana Environmental Action Network 4/30/2015
P.O. Box 66323
Baton Rouge, LA 70896-6323
To empower environmental justice communities across Louisiana with the tools to effectively address their own local environmental concerns.
Comment: We provided general support funding to LEAN for a number of years to work on environmental issues in Louisiana, as well as special assistance after Katrina. They regularly reapply to us; however, we do not have the resources to bring them back in at this point (MB).
Population served:
Various racial/ethnic groups
McKinley Community PLACE MATTERS 4/7/2015
PO Box 2931
Gallup, NM 87305
General support for community education on health impacts from the uranium legacy in McKinley County’s Red Pond Community, surrounded by three superfund sites, and to address housing relocation during the clean-up process and advance a reuse conceptual plan.
Comment: This is specific to addressing health impacts of uranium on the Red Pond community, one community in New Mexico’s uranium belt. We fund a coalition of groups from communities, including Red Pond, which is also broader in scope from the standpoint of issue focus. This is a little too local and specific for our movement lens (MB).
Population served:
Other ethnic group or groups
Shale Justice: A Coalition of Organizations United for the Environment 3/6/2015
P.O.Box 1
Lewisburg, PA 17837
General support for a global coalition of member organizations working to end extreme forms of industrialized fossil fuel extraction through passage of a Community Rights Ordinance.
Comment: This is an important issue, and we have been funding community-based groups working on oil and gas for a number of years, including some who were working on other energy issues and added fracking when it came to their communities. In recent years, this industry has become a huge issue in the NE, attracting the attention of more NE based environmental funders who had not earlier addressed extraction issues. After investigation, I believe our funding is needed more in other places, particularly by less-connected community-based groups (MB).
Population served:
Various racial/ethnic groups
Student Environmental Action Coalition 5/17/2015
638 Ballard St
Lexington, KY 40508
General support for young Kentuckians to build a sustainable, just transition to protect the environment, their communities and future. This a student and youth run and led national network of progressive grassroots organizations and individuals whose aim is to uproot environmental injustices through action and education that challenges the power structure threatening the environment.
Comment: We funded the national SEAC organization for a few years in the past. Its focus is to work on campuses to engage young people in environmental work, and this branch in particular has the potential to feed young people into grassroots organizations and environmental work. It does not, however, quite fit our current focus on groups led by those in impacted communities (MB).
Population served:
Don’t know
The Sierra Fund 6/3/2015
432 Broad Street
Nevada City, CA 95959
Program support for environmental injustice work associated with the presence of mercury-contaminated fish in mining impacted Sierra Nevada water bodies to be addressed by engaging diverse and underrepresented populations to systemically improve health outcomes in the region.
Comment: The Sierra Fund is a community foundation that also runs program to advance its mission of protecting the resources of the Sierra Nevada. This project proposes to involve community residents in alerting people to mercury contamination in fish in the region, but it is not led by those impacted, and proposes to work with agencies to alert people not to eat the fish - not to push for corrections to the problem. Not a fit (MB).
Population served:
Don’t know
Vic:
Hester Street Collaborative 8/27/2015
113 Hester Street
New York, NY 10002
Hester Street Collaborative’s mission is to provide the tools, information and inspiration underserved residents most need to meaningfully participate in the shape of their built environment. It provides participatory planning, design, and development technical assistance to communities throughout New York City. Specifically it is seeking funding for post-Sandy storm recovery and re-building of a stronger, healthier, equitable and sustainable Rockaways.
Comment: This is a technical assistance and planning organization that works with organizations in NYC. This is not a community-based group doing direct organizing on issues and therefore does not meet our funding guidelines. Additionally, another New York Noyes grantee, ALIGN, is doing post Sandy work with residents that has a stronger emphasis on community empowerment and equitable policy changes (VD).
Population served:
Don’t know
New Economy Coalition 9/4/2015
89 South St
Boston, MA 02111
General operating funds to convene and support its network of organizations imagining and building a future where people, communities, and ecosystems thrive
Comment: We already fund a few grassroots, organizations members of the New Economy Coalition. This funding is important because it permits our grantees a seat at the table. Noyes does not have the financial resources to support these groups and the national coalition too (VD).
Population served:
Don’t know
Public Health Institute 8/26/2014
555 12th Street, 10th Floor
Oakland, CA 94607-4046
The California Food and Justice Coalition is committed to social change and policy reform in California and across the country that addresses inequities and supports all aspects of a food system that values feeding people over corporate profits. CFJC is seeking Noyes funding to share stories of Californians affected by poverty and hunger to leverage against the growing corporate “feel good” approach as a means to advocate for and influence public policy that increases access to healthy food and focuses on eliminating hunger and poverty.
Comment: Noyes has a long history of funding community food security work and national coalition building. CFJC works in California and seeks to fill the space left void by the closing of the National Food Security Coalition. Noyes funding now is directed to state and tribal based organizations that are working on a variety of food security issues. We do not have the resources to begin a new funding commitment for work in California or to support a national network of food security activists (VD).
Population served:
Various racial/ethnic groups
Wilma:
Community Votes 4/9/2015
c/o Community Resource Exchange
42 Broadway, 20th Floor
New York, NY 10004
New York, NY 10004
General support to train direct-service nonprofit organizations that serve lower income, younger, and immigrant populations and communities of color to have nonpartisan conversations about elections that encourage their clients, participants, volunteers, and staff to vote.
Comment: This is a request for voter engagement activities not directly tied to issue based work, which does not meet the priorities of the Foundation (WM).
Population served:
Don’t know
Ipas 4/7/2015
PO Box 9990
Chapel Hill, NC 27515
Project support to strengthen strategic partnerships with advocates, educate policymakers, and share information with targeted audiences to build support for the reform of U.S. abortion funding policy, particularly the repeal of the Helms and Hyde Amendments.
Comment: Ipas is an important reproductive health and rights organization that works internationally and has a $65M budget. It does not meet Noyes Foundation guidelines (WM).
Population served:
Don’t know
Neighbors Allied for Good Growth 5/20/15
110 Kent Ave., 2nd Floor
Brooklyn, NY 11249
Program support. NAG was awarded a $50K Technical Assistance Grant from NYDEC to increase public understanding of remedial activities at the NuHart Superfund site in Greenpoint. Greenpoint and Williamsburg are the two neighborhoods involved in this initiative.
Comment: No contact person was named on this Letter of Intent and no mention of who its constituency is either. Greenpoint and Williamsburg are two communities heavily impacted by gentrification. This organization is too vague to determine if it fits Noyes or not (WM).
SPARK Reproductive Justice NOW 6/10/2015
250 Georgia Avenue
Suite 207C
Atlanta, GA 30312
General support for efforts that will focus on advocating for just policies to protect and expand access to reproductive healthcare, and sexual health education amongst women of color and LGBTQQ youth of color.
Comment: Over the past 6 years, SPARK demonstrated limited ability to effectively organize statewide around its priority reproductive justice issues. After what appeared to be a positive leadership change in 2013, the SPARK Board of Directors fired the executive director one year later without due cause, resulting in the loss of nearly $400K in new grants. In 2014, Noyes graduated the organization after 20 years of funding (WM).
Population served:
African American
61