NEWS & UPDATES

Winter 2007

Hearth Presents Distinguished Service Award to SSH Trustees
 At its annual meeting on November 7, 2007, Hearth (formerly the Committee to End Elder Homelessness), presented its annual Distinguished Service Award to Sailors' Snug Harbor of Boston. It was a lovely event that included heartrending stories of homeless elders and ambitious plans to end elder homelessness in Boston through expansion of Hearth’s successful supportive housing programs.

Hearth’s president and CEO, Mark Hinderlie, offered sincere thanks to the Sailors' Snug Harbor trustees for their steadfast support of the city’s neediest elders and also praised the foundation’s role in encouraging inter-agency collaboration through annual grantee lunches. SSH President Robert Loring accepted the award with gracious modesty, deflecting attention from Sailors’ Snug Harbor to the important work being done by Hearth itself.

The plaque presented that evening reads:

The BOARD of DIRECTORS and STAFF of HEARTH
Hereby express their deep appreciation to SAILORS’ SNUG HARBOR OF BOSTON
For their years of generous support and compassionate concern
on behalf of Boston’s homeless elders
November 7, 2007

Fall 2006

A Personal Note to SSH Applicants
 As a board member of a small nonprofit organization, I’ve been doing some volunteer proposal writing lately, and I’m just amazed at how time-consuming it is!  Despite AGM’s helpful Common Proposal Format, it seems we funders all want something slightly different in the proposals we review – some of us have our own cover sheets, others ask about EEO statements, some require online submissions, some limit narratives to 3 pages, while others ask that multiple questions be answered by number!

When applying for SSH funding, please keep it simple.  If you already have a written proposal describing your request, send that to us.  If you need to write something new, keep it short.  Please spend as little time as possible on the mechanics of getting your request to SSH, so you can spend more time implementing programs, researching additional funding sources, or even spending time with your families!  If I need additional information, I promise I’ll call or email to ask for it!  -- Gracelaw


Summer 2005

Emergency Grant for Red Tide Relief
Early this summer much of the Massachusetts coastline was affected by a toxic red tide, resulting in several weeks' closure of shellfishing operations. The impact of these closures was especially devastating to shellfishermen on outer Cape Cod whose income is dependent on the summer steamer clam season. In late June the Sailors' Snug Harbor trustees voted a special off-cycle grant to the Lower Cape Outreach Council, a nonprofit partner regularly supported through the Massachusetts Fishing Communities Initiative, to provide emergency assistance to affected fishermen and their families in the form of food and clothing; financial aid for mortgages, rents, health insurance, car payments, and utility payments; and information and referral to other available resources. Any funds not expended in connection with the red tide crisis will be applied to the Council's ongoing provision of emergency assistance to the Cape's fishing families.


Spring 2005

First Elder Program Lunch Held
At the end of November 2004, Sailors’ Snug Harbor convened 26 representatives of nonprofits funded through the foundation’s Elder Program for a convivial lunch with trustees and staff. SSH’s nonprofit partners described their work with Boston’s elders, sharing ideas and forging connections. We are grateful to United South End Settlements for generously allowing us access to their facilities for this first annual event. This luncheon built upon the successful tradition of annual lunch meetings with representatives of programs funded through the Massachusetts Fishing Communities Initiative.

Fishing Initiative Lunch
Donald Perkins, president of the Gulf of Maine Research Institute, is the scheduled guest speaker for the annual Massachusetts Fishing Communities Initiative luncheon in April. This event will again be co-sponsored by the Island Foundation and Sailors Snug Harbor of Boston, partners in this funding initiative, and will be generously hosted by SSH Trustee Arthur Page and the law firm of Palmer & Dodge.


Summer 2004

Elder Program Funding Preferences
The description of SSH’s Elder Program guidelines has recently been modified to include a list of Trustee funding preferences. Though not as restrictive as guidelines, these grantmaking preferences will be applied, when relevant, to the foundation’s proposal review process.

150th Anniversary Report Now Available
If you haven’t yet received a copy of this printed history of Sailors’ Snug Harbor of Boston’s first 150 years, please contact foundation assistant Mary Nicosia at 617-426-7080 x301 (Grants Management Associates). The report begins with the organization’s establishment in 1852 as a home for retired mariners, and describes its transformation to a grantmaking foundation in the 1970s.

SSH Documents at the Massachusetts Historical Society
The Sailors’ Snug Harbor Trustees recently voted to place the organization’s historical records on deposit within the collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, where they will be accessible to students, researchers, and genealogists once their preservation and cataloguing are completed next fall. These materials include early organizational minutes and financial records, photographs and artwork detailing SSH homes in Quincy and Duxbury, lists of SSH residents and cemetery records, and assorted correspondence, including a hand-written fundraising letter by the organization’s first president, China-trader, writer, and philanthropist Robert Bennet Forbes.