The 81st Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner benefiting women and children in need will take place on Thursday, Oct. 15, 2026, at the Waldorf Astoria New York in Manhattan.

Hosted for the first time by Archbishop of New York Ronald Hicks, the evening will feature His Eminence, Cardinal Timothy Michael Dolan, Archbishop Emeritus of New York, as the keynote speaker, and honor New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch as this year’s Happy Warrior Award recipient.

The livestream of the dinner will begin at 7 p.m. EDT. To watch the dinner, visit the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation‘s dedicated webpage, and click the “Watch the Livestream” button. The livestream will begin automatically when coverage starts. 

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. In 2025, the event broke its own records, raising more than $7.4 million for charity.

The Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation was founded in 1946 by Cardinal Francis Spellman to honor the legacy of Alfred Emanuel Smith, New York’s most renowned Catholic governor and the first Roman Catholic to run for President of the United States on a major party ticket.

Today, the Foundation continues the good work of Alfred E. Smith by providing financial support to organizations that serve New York’s most vulnerable communities throughout the Archdiocese of New York, with a focus on women and children.