The organization aims to protect the bay from development and land reclamation by encouraging restoration to a natural state, allowing habitats such as salt flats to reform.

[4] The organization was founded in 1961 as the Save San Francisco Bay Association by three women — Sylvia McLaughlin, Kay Kerr, and Esther Gulick — and originally began as a lobby group.

The organization works to protect the wildlife of the Bay Area and quality of the large inland body of water.

[1] This work has been noted as the first successful conservation effort in an urban area.

[6] Save The Bay supported the 2012 San Jose, California, ban on plastic bags.