Boston Harbor Now offers a variety of group volunteering opportunities in collaboration with city, state, non-profit, and federal partners. Service projects in Boston Harbor’s beautiful blue and green spaces increase community access and environmental health, while providing time for your workplaces and communities to team-build and give back.
Volunteer Project Locations
Boston Harbor Now partners with the City of Boston’s Parks and Recreation Department to activate Moakley Park in South Boston. Moakley Park and Carson Beach are collectively Boston’s largest waterfront park and a place where local residents and thousands of regional visitors enjoy outdoor green and blue space throughout the year.
Moakley Park accumulates trash from the surrounding roadways and other uses and requires routine cleaning to make the park more accessible and enjoyable for all. Volunteer events at Moakley Park are 2-3 hours and occur between 9am to 12pm depending on group preference. During the months of October and November, we also engage in planting flower bulbs throughout the park. Bulb planting opportunities are available upon inquiry.
Moakley Park service days can be offered on Tuesdays from April through October and Thursdays in July and August. Corporate service projects at Moakley Park cost $1,000 for 10-15 people, $1,500 for 16-25 people and $2,500 for 26-50 people. 
The Boston Harborwalk is a stretch of 43 miles of publicly-accessible walking paths and trails along Boston’s waterfront that traverse neighborhoods such as East Boston, Charlestown, and Dorchester. Although all of the Harborwalk is publically accessible, much of it is privately owned and not appropriate as a volunteer site. To conduct clean-ups on designated sites adjacent to the Boston Harborwalk, Boston Harbor Now partners with the Friends of the Boston Harborwalk, who steward these waterfront spaces and identify the sites most in need of volunteer service projects.
Because the Harborwalk spans so much of the shoreline in the city of Boston, service projects can occur at a variety of waterfront locations. Certain sites along the Boston Harborwalk are in more dire need of debris cleanups than others, so we will advise interested groups on which sites may be available for service based on date availability.
Boston Harborwalk clean ups can be accommodated on Thursdays and Saturdays in April, May, June, September, and October. Boston Harborwalk service projects cost $1,000 for a group of 10-15 people, $1,500 for 16-25 people, and $2,500 for 26-50 people. 
Group volunteering opportunities on the Boston Harbor Islands are offered in partnership with the National Park Service (NPS) and the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) and typically focus on coastal marine debris clean-ups or invasive species removal. Most group volunteering opportunities for 2024 are focused on Peddocks Island. Transportation to the Island departs from the Hingham Shipyard; ample parking is available.
Island group volunteering opportunities are scheduled from 9am-3pm. This includes a round trip ferry ride to and from Peddocks Island, a three-hour service experience, lunch on the island, and exploration time. Island volunteer experiences are a fantastic way to provide your group with a beautiful waterfront environment they may not have explored, and the value of the volunteers’ service is apparent for all who participate.
All service days occur on Wednesdays, and can accommodate groups of up to 50 people. Boston Harbor Islands corporate service projects cost a flat fee of $5,000.
Know Before You Go
Boston Harbor Now volunteer days require moderate trail-walking, the ability to repeatedly lift up to 25 pounds, and comfort with boats for our island options. Group volunteering opportunities cost a corporate engagement fee that covers expenses such as water transportation, dumpster rentals, supply acquisition, and more. Lunches and/or refreshments are not included and should be budgeted for and provided by the volunteering group. Volunteer experiences are available for groups ranging from 10-50 individuals; please see the chart below for details on group sizes and pricing. When requesting dates, please provide your top 3 choices in the linked Google form. Booking confirmations are done on a first-come, first-served basis.
Group Sizes for Waterfront Service Projects:
Moakley Park and Boston Harborwalk
Minimum: 10 | Maximum: 50
Cost: $1,000 – $2,500
Boston Harbor Islands
Minimum: 15 | Maximum: 50
Cost: $5,000
Inquire about your volunteer opportunity today!
All inquiries will be received through group volunteering request form. Use the form to select your desired site and your top 3 preferred dates. Completion of the form is the only method of requesting a date. Please note that as dates are limited, completion of the booking inquiry form is not a guarantee that the selected dates will be available. A team member will be in touch soon to update you on your booking status, learn more about your group and establish points of contact.
Inquire Now
Cancellation Policy:
Volunteer opportunities in all parks are rain or shine. Cancellations may be made by Boston Harbor Now or other park partners in the interest of safety; in the event that a major weather event requires the cancellation or postponement of a volunteer opportunity, Boston Harbor Now will work with volunteer groups to reschedule service days. If it is not possible to reschedule within a calendar year, the group will receive priority booking for the following year, or have their corporate engagement fee refunded. Should a group need to cancel a committed volunteering date, we request notice of one week prior to the agreed upon service date. Cancellations made with less than a week’s notice forfeit 100% of paid fee. As dates are limited, we cannot guarantee reschedules after a group has already confirmed a date.
