A Foundation 50 Years In The Making

Through lobbying efforts of visionaries like First Lady of the United States, Lady Bird Johnson and philanthropist Laurance Rockefeller, the official charter to establish the National Park Foundation (NPF), the successor to the National Park Trust Fund, was passed by Congress in 1967. 

With funding from Ralston-Purina, NPF sponsors an anthropological study of native Alaskan village life along 1,300 miles of traditional dogsled trading routes.

NPF expands functions into communications programs, management assistance, education and anticipating future needs of the National Park Service.

The Yellowstone Fires of 1988 burned the park for several months, affecting almost 800,000 acres of park land. NPF established the Yellowstone Recovery Fund to raise needed funds to help the park recover from these devastating summer fires.

The Foundation helps the National Park Service launch the national Parks as Classrooms ® (PAC) education program, and receives a $1 million grant from The Pew Charitable Trusts.

NPF launches a Friends Initiative to help build and strengthen local citizen organizations working at the grassroots level to support individual parks.

Target Stores partnered with NPF and adopted the Washington Monument restoration project as its funding priority, cleaning and repairing over a century of wear and tear on the monument's marble walls and observation windows.

The National Parks Omnibus Management Act of 1998 that passed through Congress further expanded NPF's role in park conservation and supported the development of local organizations, Park Funds, and Friends Groups. 

2003 marks the first year of the now-annual George and Helen Hartzog Awards for Outstanding Volunteer Service, jointly presented by NPS and NPF. Each year, nearly 250,000 volunteers provide invaluable support throughout the National Park System by donating their time, talent, and energy to America’s most treasured places.

With support of longtime partner Coca-Cola, NPF establishes its Active Trails program, bringing communities together to recreate, learn and have fun in their local national park while simultaneously protecting and enhancing more than 18,000 miles of precious land and water trail resources.

NPF announces its successful completion of the the Flight 93 National Memorial Capital Campaign. Through the support of over 110,000 contributors – comprised of individuals, corporations, and foundations, from every state in the country – over $40 million is raised to fund the primary construction of the memorial. 

The launch of Open Outdoors for Kids with our partner Disney, creates pathways for kids to enjoy, understand and connect with nature in exciting ways by facilitating outdoor activity, experiential learning, and cultural heritage exercises.

NPF announces a study to examine the economic value of the national parks. It is found that our national parks and their programs are conservatively worth around $92 billion in total economic value, including $28.5 billion in recreation use value for national park lands, waters, and sites.

NPF receives a total of $2.2 million in proceeds from coin sales as a result of the 100th Anniversary of the National Park Service Commemorative Coin program.

NPF and NPS launch Parks 101, an ongoing content series highlighting lesser-known sites, stories, and experiences from America’s national parks and programs.

To help meet the urgent needs of national parks affected by multiple natural disasters in 2017, NPF sets up the National Park Foundation Disaster Relief Fund. The funds raised will be granted to parks impacted by disasters large and small whenever and wherever they need it most.