The Sy Syms Foundation was established in 1985 by retail entrepreneur and humanitarian Sy Syms whose mission was to support education.
A founding trustee, Marcy Syms, has served as President of the Sy Syms Foundation since 1995. Marcy has been instrumental in developing many of the grant relationships made possible by her late father’s generosity.
As President, Marcy Syms has made fulfilling and furthering the Foundation’s mission to support education, science and the arts a focus of her career as a social entrepreneur and has awarded more than $30,000,000 to worthy organizations that work towards making a better life for all of us.
The Foundation has affected the continued growth of many institutions of higher learning including the Sy Syms School of Business at Yeshiva University.
Over 3 decades, the Foundation has been hugely supportive of Public Television and Radio, PBS and NPR and has been part of origination of programs like Frontline, Washington Week and Reel 13.
The Foundation has also been highly supportive of medical research including entities in medicine and science which bring about improvement in health and living with and managing diseases.
In 2013, the Foundation gave it’s first ever Humanitarian Award to Mortimer Zuckerman, co-founder and Executive Chairman of Boston Properties and Publisher of the New York Daily News and U.S. News and World Report in recognition of his humanitarian efforts and ethical business practices throughout many years in philanthropy and business. Marcy Syms presented the award to Mr. Zuckerman who in turn gave the grant money to the Sy Syms School of Business at Yeshiva University.
