Grants for community parks and recreation centers

Name: Top 25 grants made to community parks and recreation centers
Creator: Cause IQ
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

1,357 community parks and recreation centers received at least $53.2 million in grants for the most recent fiscal year. This includes 1,895 grants made from 1,453 grantmaking organizations, with a median grant amount of $1,048. Of these 1,453 foundations, 85% made just a single grant to community parks, and 2% made grants to four or more community parks. This analysis is based on grantmakers that e-file their Form 990s, and likely is an undercount of grants.

$53,248,876

Total grant dollars given to community parks and recreation centers

1,895

Number of grants made annually to community parks and recreation centers

1,453

Number of grantmakers funding community parks and recreation centers

$1,048

Median grant size to community parks and recreation centers

Foundations that support community parks and recreation centers

Out of all grants made to community parks and recreation centers, 76% came from small foundations with less than $10 million in assets. The top 10 grantmakers accounted for 73% of the dollar-value of grants to community parks. Foundations funding community parks also made grants to parks and playgrounds, youth development programs, food banks, community recreation centers, and art museums.

Foundation size

Foundation size	Number of grantmakers
Small	1,116
Medium	182
Large	155

Small foundations have <$10M in assets. Medium foundations have $10M to $50M in assets. Large foundations have >$50M in assets.

Foundation type

Foundation type	Number of grantmakers
Community	48
Private	1,227
Corporate	73
Other	105

Grants made

Grants made to community parks	Number of grantmakers
1	1,247
2-3	176
4-10	20
11+	10

Top 10 foundations supporting community parks and recreation centers

Grantmaker	State	Geographic focus	Percent of grant dollars to community parks	Number of grants made to community parks	Median grant size
Seattle Foundation	WA	State	0.0%	25	$1,000
Community Foundation of Greater Des Moines	IA	State	0.1%	20	$2,000
Alliant Energy Foundation	WI	State	0.6%	17	$538
Shell Oil Company Foundation	TX	National	0.1%	17	$250
Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee (CFMT)	TN	Metro	0.1%	16	$764
Salesforce Com Foundation	CA	National	0.1%	16	$100
Baird Foundation	WI	National	0.2%	16	$250
JP Morgan Chase Foundation	NY	National	0.0%	15	$500
Abbvie Foundation	IL	National	0.0%	14	$150
Carmax Foundation	VA	National	0.1%	13	$1,000

See all grantmaking to community parks and recreation centers

Community parks and recreation centers grantees

Community parks and recreation centers with more than $5 million in total revenues received 63% of all grant dollars. These larger organizations accounted for 29% of all community parks.

Grant amounts

Size of grant	Number of grants
<$10k	1,881
$10k-$25k	0
$25k-$100k	0
$100k+	14

Grant amount by grantee size

Grantee annual revenue	Median grant size
<$100k	$1,300
$100k-$500k	$1,500
$500k-$1M	$1,100
$1M-$5M	$1,000
>$5M	$1,000

Grantee states

State of grantee	Number of grants
New York	448
California	184
Pennsylvania	105
Texas	76
Other	1,082

Grantee metros

Metro area of grantee	Number of grants
New York City	402
San Francisco	87
Atlanta	56
Chicago	55
Other	1,035

Top 25 grants made to community parks and recreation centers

Grantee	Grant size	Purpose	Grantmaker
Jewish Community Center of Greater Baltimore	$6,564,659	General Support	The Associated Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore
Muskingum Recreation Center	$4,688,950	General Support	Muskingum County Community Foundation (MCCF)
San Francisco Parks Alliance	$4,500,000	General Support	Stanford University
The Big Sky Community Organization (BSCC)	$4,000,000	Environment	Silicon Valley Community Foundation (SVCF)
Central Park Conservancy	$3,750,000	General Unrestricted	Thomas L. Kempner Jr Foundation
National Winter Activity Center Winter4kids (NWAC)	$3,342,190	General Support	Community Foundation of New Jersey
The Bay Park Conservancy	$3,120,966	Environment	Gulf Coast Community Foundation
The Big Sky Community Organization (BSCC)	$3,026,612	Community Center/trailhead Improv	Yellowstone Club Community Foundation
Minneapolis Parks Foundation (MPF)	$3,019,600	General Operating Support	The Minneapolis Foundation
Rushville Fitness and Community Center	$2,890,000	Support the Community Fitness Center Project	The Chicago Community Trust
Jewish Community of Louisville	$2,854,005	Capital Campaign, Programs, Education, Preschool, Camps, Security, Outreach, Engagement	Jewish Heritage Fund for Excellence (JHFE)
FitLot	$2,799,858	Grant To Design & Build 15 Publicly Accessible Fitlot Outdoor Fitness Parks for the 50+ Population Across the United States	Aarp
Dorothea Dix Park Conservancy	$2,515,058	Public & Societal Benefit	North Carolina Community Foundation (NCCF)
Shepherd Center Foundation	$2,500,000	Traumatic Brain Injury Center Expansion Partner	Boulder Crest Foundation
Blanchester Pool and Recreation Center	$5,000	Repair Community Center	Richard and Shirley Vallee Charitable Foundation
Aspinwall Riverfront Park	$5,000	Collaborative Program Support	Pennsylvania Environmental Council (PEC)
City of Fountains Foundation	$5,000	Operating Support	The Estelle S and Robert A Long Ellis Foundation
Central Park Conservancy	$5,000	General	The Bonnie Ward Simon Foundation
Central Park Conservancy	$5,000	General Support	The Jerome P and Carol B Kenney Trust
Piedmont Park Conservancy	$5,000	General Operations	Speedwell Foundation
Santa Barbara Mountain Bike Trail Volunteers	$5,000	Human Services	Santa Barbara Foundation
Boston Harbor Now	$5,000	General	Marion L Decrow Foundation
Alchemy Skateboarding	$5,000	Charitable Contribution Through the Matching Gifts Program	Annie E Casey Foundation (AECF)
Oshman Family Jewish Community Center	$5,000	In Support of the Icon Program	Shimon Ben Joseph Foundation
Oshman Family Jewish Community Center	$5,000	General Operating Support	Shimon Ben Joseph Foundation

See all grants to community parks and recreation centers

Methodology: To determine grants and grantees, Cause IQ analyzes electronically-filed Form 990, Form 990-EZ, and Form 990-PF financial disclosure documents, matching grantees to specific organizations using EINs and fuzzy matching logic. The "Community parks and recreation centers" category for this page is determined by the "N30: Physical Fitness and Community Recreational Facilities" National Taxonomy of Exempt Entities (NTEE) code. Cause IQ determines NTEEs for organizations by its own internally-developed secret-sauce algorithms.