Mission Statement
The mission statement of The Sheehan Family Foundation is to protect our environment and to enhance the quality of education. Our focus is on projects in eastern Massachusetts.
Areas of Giving
Education
Our Foundation's contributions are targeted to programs and organizations serving underpriviledged youth and families. The thrust is to support programs and organizations that enhance cognitive and social skills for educational success.
Environment
More than 75 properties in Southeastern Massachusetts have benefitted from the Foundation's efforts. It's approach has been to connect local conservation groups to each other in an effort to scale-up effectiveness. While Director of the Plymouth chapter of the Nature Conservancy, Robb Johnson, said that this approach has “Freed up the attention of all the groups to focus on results - not worrying about who got the credit.”
Programs and Impact
Education
Boys & Girls Clubs
For over a decade The Sheehan Family Foundation has supported local Boys & Girls Clubs on the South Shore of Massachusetts, recently donating funds for the construction of new facilities in Plymouth, MA and Marshfield, MA.
Raising A Reader
Through family participation, the Raising a Reader program teaches early childhood reading as a way to put children on a path to enjoyable reading throughout their school careers. The Foundation now lent its support for three years running for the programs in Brockton and Everett, MA.
Environment
The Trustees of Reservations (TTOR)
For five years, the Sheehan Family Foundation supported the Trustees of Reservations. They're a non-profit organization seeking to preserve scenic, historic or ecologically significant spaces in Massachusetts for the public's enjoyment.
Wildlands Trust of Southeastern Massachusetts
A non-profit conservation organization that strives to protect and manage both private and public lands, the group implements sustainable land-use policies across Southeastern Massachusetts. Our Foundation has been a supporter of Wildlands Trust for a decade.
The Nature Conservancy
Since 2012, The Sheehan Family Foundation has supported this leading non-profit land conservation organization. The Nature Conservancy has lead environmental protection projects across the United States and 35 countries, including land rescue projects in Southeastern Massachusetts.
Jones River Watershed Alliance
The Sheehan Family Foundation has supported the Alliance, a member-funded, non-profit organization, for over ten years. Through advocacy, land protection, habitat restoration and improvements to the watershed infrastructure, The Jones River Watershed Association seeks to protect and improve the Jones River watershed in Kingston, Massachusetts.
Quotes
Henry Woolsey, Director of the Mass Natural Heritage Program:
"The Sheehan’s interest in science-based land protections and their investment in those groups has paid remarkable dividends to nature conservation and to future generations."
Karen Grey, Executive Director of the Wildlands Trust of Southeastern Massachusetts:
"The entire region would look very different if the Sheehans hadn’t stepped forward. It would be more suburbanized, there would be fewer places for rural pursuits […] and less of each town’s special character."
Stephen Smith, Executive Director of the Southeastern Regional Planning and Economic Development District (SRPEDD):
"The conservation groups funded by the Sheehan Family Foundation did an amazing job of raising awareness among residents and community officials in the region. They were the Paul Reveres, alerting us to the threat posed to our natural resources and the character of our communities."
Pine Dubois, Executive Director of the Jones River Watershed Association:
"Their grants have been essential to our efforts to improve water quality and quantity and to creating a corridor of protected, publicly accessible land along the river. None of that would have happened without the Sheehan’s regular generosity and on-going engagement."
