A group of Boston businessmen and civic leaders established Sailors’ Snug Harbor of Boston in 1852 to offer aged seamen a comfortable “asylum, a Snug Harbor, secure from storms or shipwrecks.”  The organization managed this retirement home until 1970, when the trustees decided to sell the property and use the proceeds to create a grantmaking foundation that would support the charitable work of other nonprofit organizations.

Please note that the trustees voted in June 2016 to consolidate the foundation’s grantmaking initiatives serving elders and fishing communities into one new grantmaking program:

Sailors’ Snug Harbor of Boston supports nonprofit 501(c)(3) organizations working to address the social service needs of fishermen, their families, and low-income older people living in coastal communities of Massachusetts, with a particular focus on Gloucester, New Bedford, and Cape Cod. 

Proposals from organizations serving low-income older people in the city of Boston will be accepted by invitation only.

Please see Guidelines for information regarding the foundation’s current interests.