Funding search · EIN 521086761 · Washington, DC

National Park Foundation

Name: National Park Foundation grants, 2021–2023
Creator: PaperOrbit
License: https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/exempt-organization-public-disclosure-and-availability-requirements

A grantmaking public charity (files IRS Form 990, Schedule I). Charities like this often run real grant programs with application cycles.

1,262
grants reported: $265.8M
total given: 2021–2023
filing years: $50,000
median grant

Based on grants this organization reported to the IRS for tax years 2021–2023. This is what they filed, not a complete record of their giving, and recent years may be incomplete because filings lag.

What they fund

connect protect mitigation

Funder website ↗Full IRS filings ↗How this is built Report an error

Funding pattern

What this funder pays for, at what size, and how to position adjacent work. Read from their filings, with every number checked against the record.

Where the money goes

Park-unit stewardship grants to friends groups and park conservancies
Direct awards to National Park Service units, regions, and divisions
Youth and young adult conservation corps crews in parks
Civil rights and underrepresented-history sites: Selma, Evers, Amache, Camp Nelson
Natural resource science: air, water, inventory and monitoring networks
Land protection and public access near park boundaries

Typical grant

Median grant is $50,000 and the middle half runs $21,306 to $128,112, so a request in the $50,000 to $250,000 range fits the pattern comfortably. The seven-figure checks go to a small set of flagship park partners and corps intermediaries, Yellowstone Forever at $10.9M and American Conservation Experience at $2.4M being the extremes, while most park friends groups land in the low hundreds of thousands. With 1,262 grants to 847 recipients across three years, roughly a third of the giving repeats to the same organizations, and the corps and conservancy relationships in particular recur year over year.

Their words

Phrases from their own grant descriptions, worth speaking back to them.

“Protect”
“Connect”
“Conservancy”
“Friends of”
“National Park Service”

Positioning adjacent work

Anchor the work to a specific named park unit; nearly every grant in the record has one.
Route the ask through the park's friends group or conservancy rather than pitching independently.
Frame as Protect for resource stewardship and science, Connect for youth, access, and workforce.
Ask $75,000 to $250,000 for a first request; seven figures goes only to established flagship partners.

Worth knowing: This is the congressionally chartered partner of the Park Service, so a large share of the money moves to NPS offices and units themselves or to the friends group attached to a park, not to independent nonprofits. A handful of names absorb most of the dollars, and recent giving shows real money going to civil rights and Japanese American incarceration sites alongside the traditional western landscape parks.

Top recipients

Repeat recipients are the strongest signal of whether a funder has an open door or quietly re-funds the same organizations.

National Mall and Memorial Parks3 grants · $77.4M
Yellowstone Forever1 grant · $11.0M
Little Bighorn Battlefield Ntnl Monument1 grant · $5.3M
Conservation Legacy3 grants · $3.7M
Yosemite Conservancy3 grants · $3.7M
Independence National Historical Park1 grant · $3.3M
Friends of Katahdin Woods and Waters3 grants · $3.0M
Friends of Flight 931 grant · $2.5M
Yellowstone Forever3 grants · $2.4M
American Conservation Experience1 grant · $2.4M

Giving over time

$118.1M

2021

$65.9M

2022

$81.9M

2023

Grant history

The 100 largest of 1,262 grants.

$32.5M
National Mall and Memorial Parks · Washington, DC · 2021
Protect
$32.5M
National Mall and Memorial Parks · Washington, DC · 2021
Protect
$12.4M
National Mall and Memorial Parks · Washington, DC · 2022
Protect
$11.0M
Yellowstone Forever · Bozeman, MT · 2023
Protect
$5.3M
Little Bighorn Battlefield Ntnl Monument · Crow Agency, MT · 2022
Protect
$3.3M
Independence National Historical Park · Philadelphia, PA · 2022
Protect
$2.5M
Friends of Flight 93 · Shanksville, PA · 2022
Protect
$2.4M
American Conservation Experience · Flagstaff, AZ · 2023
Connect
$2.2M
Midwest Regional Office · Omaha, NE · 2023
Protect
$2.0M
Yosemite Conservancy · San Francisco, CA · 2022
Connect
$2.0M
Friends of Acadia · Bar Harbor, ME · 2023
Protect
$1.6M
Conservation Legacy · Durango, CO · 2023
Protect
$1.6M
Everglades National Park · Homestead, FL · 2022
Mitigation
$1.6M
Rocky Mountain Conservancy · East Park, CO · 2023
Protect
$1.6M
Cape Cod National Seashore · Wellfleet, MA · 2022
Protect
$1.5M
Mount Rainier National Park · Ashford, WA · 2023
Connect
$1.5M
Conservation Legacy · Durango, CO · 2022
Protect
$1.4M
Everglades National Park · Homestead, FL · 2023
Protect
$1.4M
Bering Land Bridge National Preserve · Anchorage, AK · 2022
Protect
$1.4M
Friends of Katahdin Woods and Waters · Portland, ME · 2021
Protect
$1.4M
Friends of Katahdin Woods and Waters · Portland, ME · 2021
Protect
$1.3M
National Capital Regional Office · Washington, DC · 2023
Protect
$1.2M
Prince William Forest Park · Triangle, VA · 2023
Protect
$1.2M
Grand Canyon Association · Grand Canyon, AZ · 2023
Protect
$1.1M
Friends of Katahdin Woods and Waters · Portland, ME · 2023
Protect
$1.1M
Conservation Legacy · Durango, CO · 2021
Protect
$1.1M
Conservation Legacy · Durango, CO · 2021
Protect
$1.0M
American Conservation Experience · Flagstaff, AZ · 2022
Connect
$1.0M
Independence National Historical Park · Philadelphia, PA · 2023
Protect
$1.0M
Petrified Forest National Park · Petrified Forest, AZ · 2023
Protect
$1.0M
Martin Luther King Jr Ntnl Historic Park · Atlanta, GA · 2022
Protect
$1.0M
Haleakala Conservancy · Pukalani, HI · 2023
Protect
$1.0M
Gettysburg National Military Park · Gettysburg, PA · 2021
Protect
$1.0M
Gettysburg National Military Park · Gettysburg, PA · 2021
Protect
$1.0M
Nps-Nrss I&Mne Coastal and Barrier Network · Herndon, VA · 2023
Protect
$1.0M
National Park Service Natural Resource Stewardship · Fort Collins, CO · 2021
Connect
$1.0M
National Park Service Natural Resource Stewardship · Fort Collins, CO · 2021
Connect
$975,630
Sitnasuak Native Corporation · Nome, AK · 2023
Protect
$975,630
Sitnasuak Native Corporation · Nome, AK · 2022
Protect
$911,077
Valles Caldera National Preserve · Jemez Springs, NM · 2023
Protect
$894,839
Yosemite Conservancy · San Francisco, CA · 2023
Protect
$876,893
Yellowstone Forever · Bozeman, MT · 2022
General
$850,000
Emmett Till Interpretive Center · Sumner, MS · 2022
Protect
$848,040
Student Conservation Assoc · Arlington, VA · 2022
Connect
$827,087
Yosemite Conservancy · San Francisco, CA · 2021
Protect
$827,087
Yosemite Conservancy · San Francisco, CA · 2021
Protect
$821,206
Zion National Park Forever Project · Springdale, UT · 2023
Protect
$810,588
George Washington Memorial Parkway · McLean, VA · 2023
Protect
$800,500
Selma To Montgomery National Historic Trail · White Hall, AL · 2023
Protect
$785,079
Yellowstone Forever · Bozeman, MT · 2021
Protect
$785,079
Yellowstone Forever · Bozeman, MT · 2021
Protect
$781,192
Nps- Southeast Regional Office · Atlanta, GA · 2023
Protect
$733,840
Nps Waso Cultural Resources Office of Interpretation & Education · Washington, DC · 2023
Protect
$717,832
Student Conservation Assoc · Arlington, VA · 2023
Connect
$678,311
South Florida National Park Trust · Coral Gables, FL · 2022
Connect
$675,237
The Trust for Public Land · San Francisco, CA · 2023
Protect
$626,101
Zion National Park Forever Project · Springdale, UT · 2021
Connect
$626,101
Zion National Park Forever Project · Springdale, UT · 2021
Connect
$610,142
National Park Service Southeast Regional Office · Atlanta, GA · 2023
Protect
$607,651
The Trust for Public Land · San Francisco, CA · 2022
Protect
$607,365
Haleakala National Park · Makawao, HI · 2023
Connect
$602,568
Nps - Air Resources Division · Denver, CO · 2023
Protect
$599,498
Glacier National Park · West Glacier, MT · 2023
Protect
$583,036
The Alliance for Florida National Parks · Coral Gables, FL · 2023
Connect
$582,000
Schoodic Institute · Winter Harbor, ME · 2023
Protect
$573,690
National Mall and Memorial Parks · Washington, DC · 2023
Protect
$566,720
Friends of Big Bend National Park · Big Bend National Park, TX · 2022
Connect
$544,439
The Trust for Public Land · San Francisco, CA · 2021
Protect
$544,439
The Trust for Public Land · San Francisco, CA · 2021
Protect
$543,000
Canyon De Chelly · Chinle, AZ · 2022
Protect
$512,775
Wild Rivers Conservancy of the St Croix & Namekagon · St Croix Falls, WI · 2023
Protect
$500,000
The Corps Network · Washington, DC · 2023
Connect
$500,000
Friends of Acadia · Bar Harbor, ME · 2022
General
$500,000
The Corps Network · Washington, DC · 2021
Connect
$500,000
The Corps Network · Washington, DC · 2021
Connect
$479,666
Bering Land Bridge National Preserve · Anchorage, AK · 2021
Protect
$479,666
Bering Land Bridge National Preserve · Anchorage, AK · 2021
Protect
$468,579
Ice Age Trail Alliance · Cross Plains, WI · 2023
Protect
$460,733
Student Conservation Assoc · Arlington, VA · 2021
Connect & protect
$460,733
Student Conservation Assoc · Arlington, VA · 2021
Connect & protect
$459,550
Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument · Jackson, MS · 2023
Protect
$450,000
Pride Live · Long Island City, NY · 2022
Protect
$441,199
Groundwork USA · Yonkers, NY · 2023
Connect
$439,500
Color-Ad · Manassas, VA · 2021
Connect & protect
$439,500
Color-Ad · Manassas, VA · 2021
Connect & protect
$430,000
Nps Learning and Development · Harpers Ferry, WV · 2023
Protect
$428,829
Child and Family Services of Nw'N Michigan · Traverse City, MI · 2021
Connect & protect
$428,829
Child and Family Services of Nw'N Michigan · Traverse City, MI · 2021
Connect & protect
$423,976
American Youthworks · Austin, TX · 2023
Connect
$418,152
Cuyahoga Valley National Park · Brecksville, OH · 2023
Protect
$418,008
Santa Monica Mountains Fund · Thousand Oaks, CA · 2023
Connect
$400,787
Child and Family Services of Nw'N Michigan · Traverse City, MI · 2022
Connect
$400,000
Upstream Policy Institute · Damariscotta, ME · 2023
Protect
$400,000
Nrss Water Resources Division · Fort Collins, CO · 2022
Protect
$399,330
Santa Monica Mountains Fund · Thousand Oaks, CA · 2021
Protect
$399,330
Santa Monica Mountains Fund · Thousand Oaks, CA · 2021
Protect
$397,827
Friends of Anacostia Park · Washington, DC · 2021
Connect
$397,827
Friends of Anacostia Park · Washington, DC · 2021
Connect
$388,054
Fund for the City of New York · New York, NY · 2023
Protect
$384,600
Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument · Crow Agency, MT · 2023
Protect

View all 1,262 grants →

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Source: IRS Form 990, Schedule I, as filed by this organization. These are grants already paid. Grants paid directly to individuals are reported to the IRS only as totals, so they do not appear as named lines here.