About Omaha Parks Foundation
Omaha Parks Foundation directs its largest recent grants to special park projects for the City of Omaha’s Department of Parks, Recreation and Public Property, helping cover work that cannot be addressed by the city budget. That pattern appears in grants of $4,343,843 in 2023, $2,324,674 in 2025, and $1,780,454 in 2024, all to the same municipal recipient in Omaha. The foundation’s mission is to improve, promote, preserve, protect, and support the Omaha Park and Recreation System, with an emphasis on making parks more accessible, inclusive, and beneficial to residents. Its grantmaking is tied to park and recreation infrastructure, green space improvements, and public amenities, rather than broad operating support. Public-private partnership support is a recurring part of the model: the foundation enlists individuals, corporate donors, and other charitable foundations to conserve and enhance city parks and green spaces. It also supports smaller project-based efforts through structured programs for park improvements, benches, and youth access to recreation activities.
What Omaha Parks Foundation Funds
A central part of Omaha Parks Foundation’s work is park infrastructure and capital improvement. The foundation’s Project Fund and related project-specific applications are designed for individual park projects, while its recent municipal grants support special park projects outside the city budget. It also backs small-scale physical upgrades through mini grants for Omaha’s publicly owned parks, trails, green spaces, and recreation facilities. Youth access is another clear theme. The Play It Forward: Junior Scholarship Program helps local children participate in day camp, swim, tennis, and golf when cost is a barrier, with scholarships awarded to individual children. The foundation also supports amenities and memorialization through its Bench Program, which allows groups and individuals to donate benches and memorialize people or events in Omaha parks.
How Omaha Parks Foundation Gives
The foundation’s typical grant size is large, with a 25th percentile of $2,421,301, a median of $3,062,148, and a 75th percentile of $3,702,996. Recent awards show a repeated pattern with the City of Omaha’s parks department across 2023, 2024, and 2025, all for special park projects. That points to multi-year, project-specific funding rather than one-off individual gifts. Omaha Parks Foundation does not fund individuals broadly, though its junior scholarship program is an exception with small awards for youth access. Its program descriptions also show unsolicited applications are accepted for several project-based and mini-grant options.
