Park Foundation
/OVERVIEW: The Park Foundation’s areas of grantmaking include higher education, democracy and civic engagement, racial justice, marine conservation, clean energy reform, journalism, film and the local communities of Ithaca and Tompkins County, New York.
IP TAKE: Initially a higher education funder, the Park Foundation now supports a broad range progressive causes including journalism and media, social justice, civic engagement and environmental initiatives across the U.S. With roots in the media industry, the foundation’s prioritizes investigative journalism, public media, documentary film and policy development for a free and independent media in the U.S. In other areas of grantmaking, funding is skewed toward policy development and advocacy. While most of its work is national in scope, the Park Foundation runs three local initiatives that provide significant support to the the communities of Ithaca and Tompkins County, New York, where the foundation is located. More than half of this funder’s grants support specific projects or campaigns; general operating support awarded less often.
Park accepts letters of inquiry through its online grant application portal at any time. Full proposals are accepted by invitation only, with four deadlines each year that fall in January, March, July and September. The foundation welcomes phone calls and emails from grantseekers who have questions and ideas. Staff members’ email addresses are available at the team page.
PROFILE: Established in 1966 and based in Ithaca, New York, the Park Foundation was created by Roy H. Park, Sr., who founded, chaired and served as chief executive officer of Park Communications, Inc., a company that published newspapers and owned television and radio stations in the 1970s and 1980s. Roy Park is also credited with creating the Duncan Hines food brand. The Park Foundation’s early grantmaking emphasized higher education, but it has since broadened its scope to include democracy, civic participation, media, environment and animal welfare. It also runs local funding programs for Sustainable Ithaca and community needs and school-based food and nutrition for Tompkins County, New York.
Grants for Higher Education
The Park Foundation’s higher education funding supports North Carolina State University, where Roy Park earned his journalism degree, and Ithaca College, where he served on the board of trustees. The foundation’s education grants prioritize the founder’s affiliations. Over the past decade, the foundation has given $50 million to North Carolina State’s endowment, with the stipulation that the gift be “invested in a socially responsible fashion.” The foundation also supports a scholarship fund for the university that supports more than 30 scholarships each year. At Ithaca College, the foundation made a recent gift of $30 million, bankrolled the Roy H. Park School of Communications and a Park Scholars program. Recent funding has also supported SUNY Cortlandt.
Grants Civic Engagement and Democracy
The Park Foundation’s grantmaking areas for democracy and civic participation focus on election reform, government accountability and educating and engaging people to participate in the democratic process. The democracy initiative also names as priorities “ending partisan or racial gerrymandering” and “overturning Citizens United,” the conservative group that won a federal case to allow corporations and unions to finance elections. Recent grant from the democracy initiative have gone to the Project on Government Oversight, the Sustainable Markets Foundation and the Center for Popular Democracy. Civic participation grantees include Black Women Unerased, the People’s Action Institute and the National Congress of American Indians.
Grants for Racial Justice and Equity
In 2020, in the wake of the murder George Floyd, the Park Foundation reaffirmed its commitment to racial justice in the U.S. and its support for “peaceful demonstration and the work that must be done for meaningful and measurable change to end systemic racism.” The foundation does not maintain a funding initiative for its racial justice giving but works across all areas to support equity. Recent grants have gone to “front line” organizations in the fight for racial justice including the Movement for Black Lives, PushBlack, Color of Change, Ultimate Re-Entry Opportunity and Alternatives Federal Credit Union.
Grants for Journalism and Film
Park’s grantmaking for media overlaps with its progressive work for democracy and civic participation in that it supports “public interest media that raises awareness of critical environmental, political and social issues to promote a better-informed citizenry in the U.S. Grants focus on investigative journalism, policy, public broadcast media and documentary film projects. Recent recipients of media grants include the WGBH Educational Foundation of Boston, Investigative Reporters and Editors of Columbia, Missouri and the Center for Media and Democracy.
Grants for Marine and Freshwater Conservation, Climate Change and Clean Energy
The Park Foundations environment grantmaking names two main areas of focus. The drinking water sub-initiative works in New York and across the U.S. to support protection of clean drinking water from public sources, as well as policy and advocacy for clean drinking water and reduced consumption of commercial drinking water from plastic bottles. Water grantees include the Mountain Watershed Association of Appalachia and a study of the effect of fracking waste disposal on New York’s waterways conducted at Duquesne University. The environment program also funds policy development, advocacy, organizing and corporate accountability initiatives related to the adoption of affordable and accessible clean energy sources. This grantmaking prioritize the state of New York but has gone to organizations in other parts of the country as well. Recent recipients of clean energy grants include the Oil and Gas Action Network, the Environmental Action Research Center and the Fractracker Alliance of New York.
Grants for Animals and Wildlife
Grants stemming from Park’s animal welfare initiative support “nationally significant efforts to advance the protection and conservation of wildlife.” The bulk of this funding supports advocacy for conservation of endangered species. Animal sanctuaries and Indigenous groups have received support, and the foundation names specific interest in pollinators, wolves, whales and birds, but has supported efforts for other endangered animals as well. In a recent year, the foundation has supported organizations including Cornell University’s Laboratory of Ornithology, Wildearth Guardians and the Human Society of the United States.
Other Grantmaking Opportunities
The Park Foundation maintains three initiatives that serve the local communities of Tompkins County, New York.
Sustainable Ithaca supports conservation, clean energy initiatives, environmental education and sustainable zoning, transportation and planning initiatives. Collaborative projects and those that empower low-income and minority communities are emphasized.
A second initiative, Community Needs, strives to establish equity and create opportunity to low-income residents of Tompkins County. Recent areas of focus include youth services, advocacy and community organizing.
The foundation also maintains an initiative for School Food and Nutrition, which aims to ensure “that every student in Tompkins County has access to and is choosing to eat nutritious and appealing food in school.
Grantees of the Tompkins County programs include Ithaca’s Drop-In Children’s Center, Tompkins Cortland Community College, Tompkins-Seneca-Tioga BOCES and the Southside Community Center of Ithaca.
Important Grant Details:
The Park Foundation gives away about $26 million a year with grants ranging from $5,000 to $600,000. The foundation’s average grant size is about $25,000. This funder supports a range of large national nonprofits and small grassroots organizations in its areas of interest. A significant portion of grantmaking supports policy development and advocacy. The foundation provides information about past grants on its grants awarded page.
The Park Foundation accepts applications for funding for its four annual funding cycles. Due dates are in January, March, July and September. Guidelines and application forms are provided on the foundation’s application page. General inquiries may be addressed to the foundation’s staff via email or telephone at (607) 272-9124.
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