National Park Foundation

The National Park Foundation is a congressionally chartered charitable nonprofit and the National Park Service’s official national nonprofit partner. The Foundation raises private support and works with the Park Service and other partners on projects across the national park system. The National Park Service, by contrast, is the federal bureau responsible for the parks; the Foundation is a separate, nongovernmental organization. The Foundation’s official website is nationalparks.org, while the Park Service’s is nps.gov.

The partnership connects philanthropy with park needs, including conservation, historic preservation, education and opportunities to experience parks. It is one part of a much wider network of organizations and communities that work with individual parks.

Congress established the National Park Foundation through Public Law 90-209, approved on December 18, 1967. The original charter created a charitable corporation to receive and administer private gifts for the benefit of the National Park Service and its work. It described a broad set of purposes, from protection of natural and historic resources to educational and recreational uses. The original law also required an annual report to Congress.

The Foundation traces its beginnings to park philanthropy and identifies Lady Bird Johnson and Laurance Rockefeller among those who advocated its creation. Its history describes early grants and land acquisitions connected with places including Sagamore Hill, Gettysburg, the Blue Ridge Parkway and Muir Woods. The text of the original charter is available on the Foundation website; readers researching present legal provisions should also consult current law.

Private contributions to parks predate the Foundation. In its account of twentieth-century park philanthropy, the National Park Service describes Congress’s 1935 creation of the National Park Trust Fund Board to receive gifts for the agency. Congress replaced that body with the Foundation in 1967.

The Foundation and Park Service collaborated on Find Your Park for the agency’s 2016 centennial, encouraging people to connect with national parks. These examples show how support can take several forms: gifts of land, funding for a specific place, campaigns, or grants that support activities in many parks.

The Foundation’s fiscal 2025 management discussion identifies landscape and wildlife conservation as an area of investment. It describes supporting native wildlife and restoration of habitats and ecosystems, alongside resilience projects involving water conservation, waste reduction and infrastructure. The details of any particular project depend on its park and partners.

One example in the Foundation’s 2025 annual report is Big Cypress National Preserve in Florida, where it reports supporting GPS collar monitoring of panthers and bobcats. The resulting information can contribute to research on movements, survival and animal health. The example illustrates the role of private support in a research partnership; it does not imply that every park receives the same kind of project or funding.

The Foundation includes history and culture among its program areas, supporting historic sites and collections and the interpretation of the people and events associated with them. Preservation can involve physical repair as well as projects that make collections and stories accessible.

The 2025 annual report describes work by a Student Conservation Association crew at Yorktown National Cemetery, part of Colonial National Historical Park. The crew excavated, aligned and reset more than 600 damaged grave markers over three months. The report also describes support for a renovated Heritage Center at Bering Land Bridge National Preserve, developed in partnership with the Sitnasuak Native Corporation. Its exhibits and virtual education space are intended to share resources and stories connected with the area.

The Foundation’s youth education work supports learning experiences connected with national parks. Its fiscal 2025 management discussion describes park-based and virtual experiences, as well as classroom activities before and after visits. Outdoor exploration is a separate program area, with partners helping people develop skills and connections to places and their histories.

In its 2025 annual report, the Foundation reports that its support helped more than 536,000 students from 5,000 schools experience a national park during the reporting year. The report cites a Newport, Rhode Island, after-school program in which students sailed and explored coastal ecology and Revolutionary-era history. These are Foundation-reported results, and the kinds of experience vary by project.

Local nonprofits, volunteer groups and service corps are among the partners through which park work happens. The Foundation’s fiscal 2025 management discussion describes support for crews that restore trails, remove invasive plants and work on historic places, as well as investments in the capacity of park partner organizations. Such programs can combine practical park projects with experience for participants.

The 2025 annual report describes a $4 million investment in 30 service corps crews and maintenance action teams working on priorities ahead of the nation’s 250th anniversary. It also reports a fifth Park Partner Capacity Building Grant cycle, with $4.25 million across 55 nonprofit partners for organizational needs such as fundraising and communications.

Foundation-supported work can also address the infrastructure and people needed to serve visitors. Its 2025 annual report describes a multiyear investment in modular employee housing at Yellowstone and grants for partner-led housing projects at other parks. The Foundation presents housing as a way to help parks recruit and retain employees in places where nearby housing is scarce or expensive.

At Voyageurs National Park, the same report describes a three-year Foundation grant supporting work by the park, Voyageurs Conservancy and Tribal and First Nations communities. Projects include exhibits and an ethnobotanical garden. The partnership illustrates how a grant may support interpretation, relationships and care for a place together.

The Foundation’s fiscal 2025 management discussion says it raises money from individuals, corporations and institutional sources. Its national campaign also involves local park partners, reflecting the different organizations that support the park system. Gifts can support a specific initiative or broader programs according to their terms and the Foundation’s policies.

For fiscal 2025, the Foundation’s annual report states that $83.8 million was granted to parks and partners and that funding reached more than 285 parks and partners. Its audited financial statements and accompanying management discussion use additional financial measures; figures should be read with their definitions and reporting period rather than treated as interchangeable measures of grants, total support or annual revenue.

The Foundation publishes annual reports, audited financial statements and IRS Forms 990 through its financial reports page. These documents offer different views: annual reports describe projects and selected results, while financial statements and tax filings provide more detailed financial and organizational information. The page lists fiscal 2025 materials and earlier years, allowing readers to examine figures in context and compare periods.

The fiscal 2025 financial statement package also includes a management discussion, which is identified as unaudited. It outlines program areas, fundraising and organizational objectives. Readers seeking precise definitions or the auditor’s conclusions should consult the financial statements and notes directly; an annual report’s project examples are not a substitute for those documents.

The Foundation’s website provides information about its work and links to its published financial records. The National Park Service partnership page independently identifies the Foundation as its official nonprofit partner. For park-specific plans, visitor information and current conditions, the relevant park’s National Park Service website remains the appropriate starting point.

The examples and numerical results in this chapter are tied to the Foundation’s 2025 reporting and should not be read as guarantees of current funding, current project status or results at every park. Project descriptions and financial reporting can change over time; the linked original documents provide dates, context and further detail.