The Santa Foundation, a nonprofit organization, was established in Franklin, Massachusetts, 38 years ago to fulfill one goal: To provide gifts for families in need at Christmas time. It was and continues to be felt that, at least on Christmas Day, these families should be like every other family. Most of our recipients work but just can’t buy any extras, like Christmas presents. They can, however, receive presents from the Santa Foundation and maybe a little hope that things will be better in the upcoming year.

 

Originally founded by Robert Sullivan and his wife Elaine. Bob owned a local accounting firm Sullivan Associates. Started with their own time and money, Bob and Elaine started working with the Franklin Food Pantry to provide gifts at Christmastime. With the need for Holiday cheer to be never ending, Bob grew his organization, drawing in friends, family, clients and the Franklin community to build a thriving non-profit organization.  

 

We lost Bob in 2019. Richard (Dick) Timmons, Bob’s business partner and long-time resident of Franklin, took over the role of President. The Santa Foundation has continued to support families in need in Franklin and surrounding towns. Through generous sponsors (who “adopt” families) and volunteers (filling gift bags and so much more), we have been able to support close to a thousand families each year.

Over the years, Franklin has really come forward to help our mission by sponsoring individual families, donating gifts as part of the Giving Tree Project, as well as donating funds. Fundraising events including our November Raffle Calendars (due out shortly) and local company contributions, including Middlesex Bank, Greenwood Industries, ECO Systems, Norfolk Fire Dept., BLM & C Electrical, 1776 Financial, and NCL Charitable Fund, as well as the Franklin and Medway Police Departments, have all played a large part of the positive impact and success of the Santa Foundation.

With the leadership of Karla Boudreau — Meme’s Stocking Fundraiser — the Franklin community has already supported us through the many sewers who have sewn Christmas stockings to be filled and distributed to our recipient families. For our recent fundraiser, hosted by La Cantina Winery, we invited local artists to make hand-painted ornaments for our guests and supporters.

This year, the Santa Foundation has found a new, larger home in Franklin. We are very excited as this will enable us to serve more recipients and engage the larger Franklin community even more! We will be recruiting volunteers for many tasks that include filling bags and stockings, stocking shelves, filling out gift tags, sewing, reaching out to recipients in Franklin and surrounding towns 

 

Get Involved with the Santa Foundation