Greater Washington National Parks Fund Accomplishments

Greater Washington National Parks Fund Accomplishments
Annual Report May 2002-2003
May 30, 2003

Background: This is a summary of the status of activities related to the Greater Washington National Park Fund (GWNPF), created by National Capital Region (NCR) and the National Parks Foundation (NPF) in 2001. These activities include messaging, partnering and fundraising for twelve* of the thirteen NCR units. The Greater Washington National Parks include more than 100 sites, 2 million museum objects, 3,059 historic structures, 717 miles of trails and bike paths, 152 statues, 22 historic forts, 7 Presidential Memorials, 5 scenic parkways, 4 civil war battlefields, 3 historic canals, and 1 White House, comprising nearly 87,000 acres of NPS parkland. Collectively these parklands serve approximately 40 million visitors annually.

Public Law 90-209, approved by Congress in 1967, established the NPF to encourage private gifts of real and personal property for the benefit of the National Park Service. The National Park Act of 1998 specifically authorized NPF to promote philanthropic programs of support at the individual park unit level.

In 1999 the NCR Cluster identified the impact of budget shortfalls on current and future operations of parks as one of the highest regional priorities. They felt that one element of a comprehensive strategy to address funding needs could be accomplished by identifying a non-profit partner to develop private sector sources of supplementary support for parks in this region.

After a series of small discussions NCR park and program managers met with the NPS National Partnerships Office and NPF to further explore alternatives for a region-wide fundraising effort. After a day of discussion and presentations all of NCR's superintendents agreed that a collaborative fundraising effort is the best strategy for NCR parks to use to work with NPF to raise funds to supplement money appropriated by Congress.

The group developed an "initial design" to create a Greater Washington National Parks Fund of the National Park Foundation. Leveraging the efforts undertaken in conjunction with the creation of the NCR Partnerships Office and "Messaging Project", the goals of the initiative are to:
--Improve service to the community by developing programs and providing new opportunities to experience the parks.
--Improve communication to the residents of the metropolitan Washington, D.C area including Virginia, Maryland, the District, and West Virginia about the extensive resources that exist under the common bond of the local National Parks and that have a direct impact on their quality of life.
--Educate and motivate the public to help ensure long-term protection of resources under the National Park Service's care.
--Improve the public’s awareness of the National Park Service in the region.

The Greater Washington National Parks Fund proposal
was approved by the NCR Cluster and Directorate in May 2001. The Fund is intended to ensure that the National Parks in the National Capital Region are more prominent and relevant to the diverse communities they serve and to supplement funds appropriated by Congress. Initial support for the creation of the Fund came from NPS park units, NPF, a loan from the LBJ Grove Fund, and a donation from L.L. Bean Company.

The Fund is a committee of the NPF and is governed by up-to twenty volunteer Trustees. Trustees are invited to serve by the NPF Board and are charged with increasing and coordinating philanthropic support for NCR National Parks. To date eight Trustees have been recruited to join the Fund and NPF has identified additional Trustee prospects to talk with in the coming months to reach the full compliment of 20 Trustees.

In May 2001 NCR's Superintendent's and Regional Directorate formed the Parks Fund Council, which serves as the liaison between the parks, the Executive Director, and the Trustees of the Fund. The Council is comprised of five elected members confirmed by the Regional Director. Current Council members include: Robert Sutton, Supt. MANA and Council Chair; Audrey Calhoun, Supt. GWMP; John Hale, Supt. NACE; Don Campbell, Supt. HAFE; and NCR Regional Director Terry Carlstrom.

GWNP Fund Accomplishments:

Overall first 18 months of the Fund’s activities focused on five major areas of activity:
1. Refining the GWNP Fund message
2. Building relationship with NPS, NPF and park partners
3. Building volunteer leadership
4. Building public, philanthropic and agency awareness of the Fund
5. Raising funds for Greater Washington National Parks

GWNP Fund Message

Public awareness
• Assisted with the development of the icons for all the Parks as well as creating one for GWNP Fund
• Produced a map of the NCR National Parks with LL Bean
• Produced a Draft Mission, Vision, Objectives and Community Engagement Strategy
• Held two focus group meetings with various interests to better understand the public’s perception of the Greater Washington National Parks

Relationship Building

Creating the Park Fund Council
• Held regular meetings between NPS and NPF to implement the activities of the Council

Collaborative Fundraising
• Helped Central and White House Liaison to create a fundraising partnership with the Trust for the National Mall.
• Assisted Rock Creek to develop a partnership with the Federal City Council to raise funds for the Carter Barron Amphitheater
• Provided assistance to George Washington Memorial Parkway for fundraising for Great Falls
• Assisted East, and the Accokeek Foundation, with a fundraising agreement and plan for Piscataway Park
• Continued fundraising collaboration with the Georgetown Waterfront Park Steering Committee
• Provided assistance to C & O Canal National Historical Park in the design of a community development fund
• Assisted East, and others, with fundraising for Greenbelt Park

Volunteer Leadership

Trustee Recruitment
• Recruited eight initial trustees in 2002– most have made a contribution
• Group met three times in 2002
• Hosted two “Get to know your Parks” engagement events at Rock Creek and Arlington House
• Additional recruitment underway

4. Building Awareness

Information & Events
• Donor Brochure mailed to LL Bean contacts
• Spring issue of GoParks featured GWNP Fund – went to 100,000 individuals
• Co-sponsored East Coast Partnership Reception, featuring GWNP Fund, for 225 government and private sector leaders.
• Co-sponsored two park partnership forums for Trustees, superintendents and park partners featuring the GWNP Fund, and Greg Moore and Brian O’Neill from the Golden Gate National Parks effort.
• Assisted with GWNP Fund Public Service Announcements in the Frederick Business Gazette
• Developing an inaugural “Summer in the Parks Program”

Training
• Provided fifty NCR Park, and park partners, with training in partnering, friends raising and fundraising through the East Coast Partnership Seminar

Fundraising

Corporations and Foundations

Corporations: NPF is currently approaching DC-based corporations to become inaugural members of the GWNPF corporate council. These are intended to be unrestricted requests for support. The climate for corporate fundraising is quite difficult now, but the hope is to have success by approaching not only the major corporations based in the region, such as Marriott or US Airways, but also the many lesser known corporations that are included in the Washington Post’s “top 200” area companies.

Foundations: Since November of last year, NPF has submitted letters of inquiry to 35 foundations with interests in the greater Washington area. NPS has also identified approximately 20 additional foundations and will submit requests to them over the next 2-3 months. The majority of these are small foundations that provide grants in the range of $10,000-$50,000. Foundation gifts may also need to be restricted to support certain types of projects, such as education or conservation.

The results of these contacts include:
• $13,000 in grants to NCR parks from GWNP Fund since July 1, 2002
• $5,000 grant from Marjorie Merriweather Post Foundation
• Submitted requests to a number of private foundations still pending
• Also speaking with a number of local corporations, including Colonial Parking
• Ten mountain bicycles donated by Mercedes Benz for parks and US Park Police
• $2,000 donation for planting eight Cherry trees from the Washington Rotary
• $5,000 donation from five major Sushi companies for Cherry tree plantings

Leveraging support of NPF Proud Partners
• American Airlines: Included information about Greater Washington National Parks in several newsletters e-mailed to their frequent fliers
• Ford: Donation of 46 mountain bikes that went to Catoctin, C&O Canal NHP, Potomac Heritage National Scenic Trail and Rock Creek Park
• Discovery: Working with NPS to produce a visitor center film for the Greater Washington National Parks
• TIME Magazine: 2 of the 9 advertorials -- The American Presidency” and “Urban Parks” – featured NCR Parks on the cover and in the text of the advertorial
• Kodak: Distribution of professional photographic equipment to a number of Parks in the region, including

Reaching out to individuals
• NPF web-site: Since September 02, have received over $4,000 in on-line donations and the average gift is nearly $125
• Ranger Registry: Piloted this with NCR parks. Four parks have participated in this fundraising effort which has netted $520 for three projects at Manassas, Antietam and Harpers Ferry
• Created Tree & Shrub Replacement Fund and Cherry Tree Fund Endowment Funds created to seek donations for tree and shrub planting and maintenance
• Generated $895 as a result of the LL Bean donor brochure mailing

Contacts:
For additional information about the Greater Washington National Parks Fund contact:

• Robert Sutton, Superintendent, Manassas National Battlefield Park and Chairman of the Greater Washington National Parks Fund Parks Council, (703)754-1861

• Hedrick Belin, Acting Executive Director, Greater Washington National Parks Fund, National Parks Foundation (202)238-4177

• Glenn Eugster, Assistant Regional Director, Partnerships Office, National Park Service, National Capital Region, (202)619-7492