Welcome to the Autism on the Seas Foundation

Supporting Families, Enriching Lives...

The Autism on the Seas Foundation is a charitable nonprofit tax-exempt corporation under IRC Section 501(c)(3).  

For Tax-deductible donations to the Foundation, see our Donation page.

Our Mission is to enrich the lives of families with autism and other developmental disabilities by providing the support required for family bonding, stress relief opportunities, reducing disability travel related barriers, and increasing public empathy through our financial assistance programs that help provide community support systems, travel subsidies, professional staffing services, quality of life research, and professional consultation and training to the travel industry.  

Programs
The AotSF Foundation programs include:

Vacation Financial Assistance Program
To provide financial assistance to families and individuals with developmental disabilities to afford them the opportunity to participate in an AotS Vacation.

Research Program – Quality of Life
To use research studies to analyze accommodated vacations effects on "Quality of Life" for families with special needs to better understand the value of and to further assist the direction of the accommodations required.

Organizational Relationship
The Autism on the Seas Foundation (AotSF) has a unique relationship with Autism on the Seas (AotS) a state of Connecticut Limited Liability Company.   AotS has been providing the additional staffing for caring for children with developmental disabilities (primarily autism) to the autism community since 2007, in order to assist the cruise lines in providing their daycare program to children with exceptional care needs relating to their disabilities.  

AotS provides services (travel related special needs accommodations and professional staffing) that AotSF subsidizes and provides financial assistance to families who have financial burdens and/or disabilities that require the unique accommodations created and supported by AotS.

Legal Guidance
The Autism on the Seas Foundation retains the services of Charitable Allies, an Indianapolis, Indiana non-profit legal organization.  Charitable Allies provides effective and efficient compliance, donor stewardship, risk management, financial transparency and litigation.  As a nonprofit organization, Charitable Allies is uniquely qualified to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with our foundation – as an advocate, an adviser, a back-office extra pair of hands and, when necessary, as a litigator.