About National Recreation and Park Association
National Recreation and Park Association uses program support to move park and recreation work into community health, equity, and environmental resilience. The largest recent grant in the file was $250,000 to the City of Imperial Beach Parks & Recreation Department for program support, showing a willingness to back local agencies at meaningful scale. Other large awards include $150,000 to Citywide Development Corporation of New Castle and $142,600 grants to Onepgh Fund and the City of Detroit Parks and Recreation Dept, indicating repeated support for public-facing park and recreation organizations.
The foundation’s giving is tied to parks and recreation as a field, but the recipient list shows that field expressed in municipal departments, recreation foundations, health districts, and community coalitions. NRPA’s active programs also point to a mix of professional development, youth sports access, play spaces, coach development, healthy food access, and pollinator-related community science. Across the recent grants, the association appears to favor restricted, activity-based support rather than open-ended operating aid.
What National Recreation and Park Association Funds
In parks and recreation infrastructure, National Recreation and Park Association backed play-space and department-level work with $77,000 to the City of La Verne and $90,000 to the City of New Braunfels, both listed as program support. It also gave $75,000 to The Woodlands Township, another sign of direct investment in local park systems.
Community health shows up in several awards. Carter County Drug Prevention Coalition received $76,689 and $54,300 in separate program support grants, linking park and recreation funding with prevention-oriented community work. Ledge Light Health District also received $85,000, placing a public health organization among the recent grantees.
Environmental resilience appears in the support for place-based public agencies and in NRPA’s active pollinator and wellness-hub programs. Recent grants to Broward County and Mount Airy Parks and Recreation fit that broader pattern of community-level implementation through local institutions.
How National Recreation and Park Association Gives
Typical grant size sits at $15,403 at the 25th percentile, $28,986 at the median, and $45,000 at the 75th percentile, but the recent grant list also includes larger program awards such as $250,000 and $150,000. The pattern is clearly recurring: several grantees appear in multiple years, including Onepgh Fund, the City of Detroit Parks and Recreation Dept, New Orleans Recreation Development Foundation, the City of Farmington Parks and Recreation, The Navajo Nation, Carter County Drug Prevention Coalition, and City of Lynnwood Parks Recreation and Cultural Ar.
National Recreation and Park Association functions as a membership-and-program association rather than a private family foundation, and it does not fund individuals. The grant style is activity-based and restricted to program support, with no-cost training, scholarships, and targeted initiative grants appearing alongside direct project awards.