PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — The official nonprofit of the National Park Service is set to receive the largest grant in its history: a $100 million donation that the fundraising group called transformative for the nation’s national parks.
The National Park Foundation, which was established by the U.S. Congress in the 1960s to support national parks, is receiving the donation from Indianapolis-based Lilly Endowment Inc. The park foundation on Monday called the gift the largest grant in history to benefit U.S. national parks.
The money will be used to meet the needs of the country’s more than 400 national parks, said Will Shafroth, president and CEO of the National Park Foundation.
The foundation hopes to announce the first round of grants resulting from the donation later this year, Shafroth said.
Exactly how the money will be used remains to be seen, but one of the foundation’s priorities is restoring coral reefs in Biscayne National Park in Florida, Shafroth said, while another priority is restoring trout species in western national parks. These are some of the foundation’s most recent investments.
In addition to funding initiatives to protect sensitive ecosystems and species, Shafroth said the money will also be used to give young people the opportunity to visit national parks.
“This grant will enable us to intensify our efforts to ensure our national parks remain available to all for generations to come,” he said.
The system’s hundreds of units include national parks, memorials, monuments, historic sites, and other places. It includes famous national parks such as Yellowstone National Park in Montana and Yosemite National Park in California, as well as popular sites such as the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. It also includes protected areas that are less accessible to many people, such as Buck Island Reef National Monument in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The National Park Foundation is in the midst of its “Campaign for National Parks,” a $1 billion fundraising effort to support national parks, and Lilly Endowment has made a donation to support the effort, said N. Clay Robbins, chairman and CEO of Lilly Endowment.
“We believe the National Park Foundation’s campaign will enhance programming and promote the future vitality of our nation’s wonderful system of parks, monuments and historic sites,” Robbins said.
