Grants for parks and playgrounds

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

701 parks and playgrounds received at least $19.2 million in grants for the most recent fiscal year. This includes 1,243 grants made from 982 grantmaking organizations, with a median grant amount of $1,000. Of these 982 foundations, 86% made just a single grant to park conservancies, and 1% made grants to four or more park conservancies. This analysis is based on grantmakers that e-file their Form 990s, and likely is an undercount of grants.

$19,201,155

Total grant dollars given to parks and playgrounds

1,243

Number of grants made annually to parks and playgrounds

982

Number of grantmakers funding parks and playgrounds

$1,000

Median grant size to parks and playgrounds

Foundations that support parks and playgrounds

Out of all grants made to parks and playgrounds, 76% came from small foundations with less than $10 million in assets. The top 10 grantmakers accounted for 88% of the dollar-value of grants to park conservancies. Foundations funding park conservancies also made grants to art museums, animal shelters, food banks, international humanitarian organizations, and educational service providers.

Foundation size

Foundation size	Number of grantmakers
Small	755
Medium	120
Large	107

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	30
Private	852
Corporate	52
Other	48

Grants made

Grants made to park conservancies	Number of grantmakers
1	854
2-3	110
4-10	12
11+	6

Top 10 foundations supporting parks and playgrounds

Grantmaker	State	Geographic focus	Percent of grant dollars to park conservancies	Number of grants made to park conservancies	Median grant size
Seattle Foundation	WA	State	0.0%	25	$1,000
Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee (CFMT)	TN	Metro	0.0%	14	$393
Salesforce Com Foundation	CA	National	0.1%	14	$100
JP Morgan Chase Foundation	NY	National	0.0%	12	$325
Baird Foundation	WI	National	0.1%	11	$250
Shell Oil Company Foundation	TX	National	0.0%	11	$250
Carmax Foundation	VA	National	0.1%	9	$500
Abbvie Foundation	IL	National	0.0%	9	$52
Alliant Energy Foundation	WI	State	0.2%	7	$538
Community Foundation of Greater Des Moines	IA	State	0.0%	6	$2,119

See all grantmaking to parks and playgrounds

Parks and playgrounds grantees

Parks and playgrounds with more than $5 million in total revenues received 63% of all grant dollars. These larger organizations accounted for 34% of all park conservancies.

Grant amounts

Size of grant	Number of grants
<$10k	1,238
$10k-$25k	0
$25k-$100k	0
$100k+	5

Grant amount by grantee size

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

Grantee states

State of grantee	Number of grants
New York	395
California	124
Pennsylvania	62
Texas	49
Other	613

Grantee metros

Metro area of grantee	Number of grants
New York City	362
San Francisco	79
Seattle	40
Atlanta	32
Other	604

Top 25 grants made to parks and playgrounds

Grantee	Grant size	Purpose	Grantmaker
San Francisco Parks Alliance	$4,500,000	General Support	Stanford University
Central Park Conservancy	$3,750,000	General Unrestricted	Thomas L. Kempner Jr Foundation
The Bay Park Conservancy	$3,120,966	Environment	Gulf Coast Community Foundation
Minneapolis Parks Foundation (MPF)	$3,019,600	General Operating Support	The Minneapolis Foundation
Dorothea Dix Park Conservancy	$2,515,058	Public & Societal Benefit	North Carolina Community Foundation (NCCF)
San Francisco Parks Alliance	$5,000	Party for the Parks Program	The Justin and Michelle Hughes Foundation
Cancer Survivors Park Alliance	$5,000	Unrestricted	Harper Family Foundation
Aspinwall Riverfront Park	$5,000	General & Unrestricted	Glenlaurel Foundation
Friends of Congress Square Park	$5,000	For Operations	The Old Bug Light Charitable Foundation
Bannack Association	$5,000	Charitable Donation	Liatis Foundation
Christmas Circle Community Park	$5,000	Public Charity	Porter Sesnon Foundation
The Loppet Foundation	$5,000	General Support	Dorsey & Whitney LLP
Tahoe Area Mountain Biking Association (TAMBA)	$5,000	Community Outreach & Enrichment Programs	Goldman Sachs Gives
Piedmont Park Conservancy	$5,000	Urban Affairs	The Columbus Foundation
The Battery Conservancy	$5,000	General Operating Support	J M Kaplan Fund
City Parks Foundation (CPF)	$5,000	Ny Tree Trust Greening	J M Kaplan Fund
Washington on the Brazos Association	$5,000	Charitable Contribution	The Broesche Family Foundation
Central Park Conservancy	$5,000	Social Benefits	The Bunny Williams Foundation
City Parks Foundation (CPF)	$5,000	General	Michael Tuch Foundation
Houston Parks Board (HPB)	$5,000	Directed Grant for Unrestricted Operating Support	Houston Endowment
Houston Parks Board (HPB)	$5,000	Directed Grant for Unrestricted Operating Support	Houston Endowment
Houston Parks Board (HPB)	$5,000	Directed Grant for Unrestricted Operating Support	Houston Endowment
Friends of Payson Parks and Recreation	$5,000	Casa Supt	Rim Country Arizonans for Child
Pogo Park	$5,000	Program Support	Chamberlin Family Foundation
Fund for Park Avenue	$5,000	To Aid the Donee Organization in Carrying Out Its Exempt Functions.	Thompson Family Foundation

See all grants to parks and playgrounds

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 "Parks and playgrounds" category for this page is determined by the "N32: Parks and Playgrounds" National Taxonomy of Exempt Entities (NTEE) code. Cause IQ determines NTEEs for organizations by its own internally-developed secret-sauce algorithms.