The 81st Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner benefiting women and children in need will take place on October 15, 2026, at the Waldorf Astoria New York. The event, hosted for the first time by Archbishop Ronald A. Hicks of New York, will feature a keynote address by Archbishop Emeritus of New York Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan. Commissioner of the New York City Police Department, Jessica S. Tisch, will receive the 2026 Happy Warrior Award.

The Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner, held annually on the third Thursday of October at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, is hosted by the Archbishop of New York and raises funds for charities supporting vulnerable women and children in the Archdiocese of New York. The dinner has been a fixture of New York’s social and political calendar for decades, traditionally bringing together presidential candidates in election years for a non-partisan evening of humor and charity.

The 2025 Al Smith Dinner raised $7.4 million, breaking the record for donations through the dinner in a non-presidential year. In the past twenty years, the Foundation has increased its annual grant allocation from $1 million to over $5 million.

Previous Smith Dinner speakers include Winston Churchill, General Dwight Eisenhower, Bob Hope, Henry Kissenger, Stephen Colbert, Michael Bloomberg, Condoleezza Rice, Peggy Noonan, and former Secretaries of State Antony Blinken and Michael Pompeo. In 2024, President Donald Trump addressed the dinner and former Vice President Kamala Harris provided a video message.

Jessica Tisch, recipient of the Happy Warrior Award, is the 48th Commissioner of the New York City Police Department. Prior to becoming the NYPD Commissioner, she served as the commissioner of the New York City Department of Sanitation. Previous Happy Warrior recipients include Ken Langone, Peter Grauer, Rob Speyer, and Robert Kraft.