United States National Parks Set to Receive Largest Gift in Their History

The National Park Foundation is set to receive a huge grant that is the largest in the history of national parks in the United States.

Grand prismatic spring in Yellowstone national park, United States of America. Memory card from vacation, travel background, Wyoming nature landscape, colorful geyser. World famous landmarks. / Iryna Marienko/Unsplash

The National Park foundation shared the news on Monday that they would be receiving a record-setting gift of $100 million from the Lilly Endowment Inc. It is both the largest grant that the NPF has ever gotten and but also the largest grant benefitting national parks as well.

Lilly Endowment is an Indiana-based philanthropic foundation that has also donated $100 milion grants to the United Negro College Fund and Purdue University this calendar year. The family that founded it came from pharmaceuticals business, but this a separate organization.

“Our founders were inspired by the beauty and wonders of the natural world and supportive of research and educational programs about archaeology and the cultural history of our nation,” said N. Clay Robbins, the company's chairman and CEO. “We are pleased therefore to further their interests through this grant. We believe the National Park Foundation’s campaign will enhance the programming in and promote the future vibrancy of our country’s marvelous system of parks, monuments, and historic sites.”

There are four specific areas that the NPF listed that these funds will go towards:

• Inspire the Next Generation of Park Stewards: A planned focus on reaching the younger generation to ensure that there will be people interested in the upkeep of national parks well into the future.
• Conserve and Preserve Threatened Parks and Wildlife: Preservation is almost, if not more, important than any reservations that get done. Keeping the history of both wildlife and natural formations are crucial to the history of the United States.
• Ensure a World-Class Visitor Experience: One way to get more people to visit a national park is to make them more accessible. Their focus on will be using new technology to enhance the experience for guests.
• Tell a More Complete Story of America: The story of the United States cannot be told without the help of the national parks. Keeping them alive and enhancing the voice of the communities that keep them thriving is a complete plus.

The grant is a part of the current $1 billion fundraising campaign that the NPF is undergoing under the name of The Campaign for National Parks.

National parks have been getting more popular over the past couple of years and overcrowding has been an issue. So much so that some are opting to go for a reservation-based system.

While an increase in traffic is always the goal, that will increase the need for additional funding going towards upkeep and improving the experience for each guest.

This huge grant from Lilly Endowment is a nice step in the right direction.