Shifting federal funding, macroeconomic uncertainty, and limited philanthropic resources mean traditional funding models are no longer enough. Modern parks require a blended approach that weaves together financial resources from diverse buckets across the public, private, and philanthropic sectors, strategically deploying each to multiply the impact of every dollar invested.
Equitable development often requires cities to confront uncomfortable histories and reinvest in communities that have faced long-standing disinvestment. For example, our Greater & Greener 2026 host city, Austin, bears the legacy of a segregated planning history. The 1928 city master plan institutionalized racial segregation in part by siting public facilities and infrastructure to encourage separating communities of color from neighborhoods for Whites. The impact remains stark today: 62% of parkland sites remain undeveloped in East Austin, where Black residents from other parts of the city relocated, joining existing neighborhoods of color there.
Rosewood Park opened in 1929, becoming the city’s only segregated park for African Americans. At the same time, Mexican American leaders, feeling dissatisfied with the limited area allocated for their community, organized to advocate for a larger park. Their efforts led to the opening of Parque Zaragoza in 1931, specifically designed to serve the Latino community in Austin. For 95 years, these parks remained among the few publicly funded recreational areas available to otherwise disenfranchised and underserved communities. The Roots to Resilience mobile workshop, led by Black Austin Tours, featured elders in the community who highlighted the history of these parks, shining a light on segregation’s past and, despite their discriminatory foundations, on how these parks have helped build thriving, vibrant communities in East Austin.
The city of Raleigh, North Carolina, is working to redefine equity and confront gentrification by reinvesting in places long left behind. When approaching the design for Dorothea Dix Park, which sits on the grounds of a former convict leasing site and a decommissioned mental health institution, Raleigh focused on creating not just a tourist destination but a space where connections can be made, fractures can be healed, and trust can be built through their Cultural Interpretive Plan. This plan seeks to answer the question, “How does Dix Park honor the history of place in a park where most people are coming to recreate?” They have since built spaces for gathering and reflection, hosted an annual Inter-tribal Pow Wow, and continued community history and storytelling projects.
No single revenue stream can support a modern park system. At our Greater & Greener session, No Money? No Problem, cities demonstrated how they are diversifying their financial playbooks:
Peer conversations at Greater & Greener also help leaders navigate these complex models. In How Your Park Is Made – Demystifying the Mechanisms that Fund and Govern Public Space, urban design firm PORT highlighted a 64-card tool developed with the University of Pennsylvania to evaluate how financing decisions impact long-term equity and sustainability.
While quality parks can boost adjacent real estate values, those tax gains usually flow into general municipal funds. To capture the value of parks at the neighborhood level, some parks are adopting self-funding and entrepreneurial models that leverage market-based earned income opportunities from adjacent restaurants, sponsorships, events, and real estate value capture to build financial sustainability and relationships between people and place.
Leaders from Raleigh, NC; Brooklyn, NY; Detroit, MI; and Boston, MA shared how creative concessions can serve a dual purpose in urban spaces. Beyond providing amenities and improving public safety, flexible partnerships and revenue-sharing models can offer a steady stream of revenue to be used for maintenance and programming.
Connecting parks to local tourism and cultural economies can also be a source of recurring revenue. The annual Austin City Limits Music Festival at Zilker Metropolitan Park, a partnership between Alliance members the City of Austin and Austin Parks Foundation, allocates a portion of every ticket sold to support citywide parks. Since 2006, this festival has generated over $71 million for the Austin park system, including more than $8 million towards park support and improvements in 2024.
In Omaha, NE, three underutilized parks were transformed into The Riverfront, a 72-acre connected public realm linking downtown to the Missouri River. Following a master planning process, programming was turned over to a nonprofit venue manager, resulting in 1,200 annual events, 2.5 million visitors in two years, and more than $500 million in adjacent private reinvestment. Under this unique partnership, the land is owned by the City and managed by Omaha’s Metropolitan Entertainment & Convention Authority.
Parks also drive commercial vibrancy and economic development across North America. Cities like Providence, RI, are leading the way with free programming at a 7-acre urban park built on former highway land, supporting local artists and incubating small businesses while keeping the park vibrant. The Gathering Place, a 67-acre riverfront park, partnered with the tourism office and cultural institutions in Tulsa, OK, to become a regional and national destination. Calgary’s Olympic Plaza was transformed to support a reimagined multi-venue arts complex that integrates public space with cultural activity while generating local economic return.
Relying on opportunistic revenue generators isn’t enough, though. Cities need formal policy mechanisms, like the ones shared at our Using Dedicated Revenue Streams and Financing Tools for Park Equity panel, to guarantee equitable outcomes across all neighborhoods:
Federal programs, like the Outdoor Recreation Legacy Partnership (ORLP) competitive grant, are vital for attracting matching funds to underinvested communities.
In our mobile workshop, A Modern Park Makeover, we learned how Austin’s bustling Montopolis neighborhood combined two community-led bond cycles with an ORLP grant and a public-private partnership to upgrade the park and replace the neighborhood playground. Today, the park serves as a multi-functional resilience hub, offering heat relief, emergency shelter, public health services, a food pantry, and a commercial kitchen under one roof.
Planners and park leaders from Richmond, VA, shared how creatively stacking federal funding can transform a system. The City secured $83 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to build four new community centers in historically underinvested neighborhoods. By strategically pairing ARPA dollars with additional federal grants—including Land and Water Conservation Fund, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, and ORLP—and matching them with local nonprofit, foundation, and neighborhood partnerships, Richmond is filling critical system gaps, expanding connectivity, and empowering local stakeholders to steward public spaces.
Beyond grant stacking, agencies are leveraging technology to realize operational efficiencies. The Atlanta Department of Parks and Recreation, an Alliance member, is integrating Artificial Intelligence (AI) into daily operations, streamlining program registration, permitting, and public inquiries to meet growing demand without overloading staff.
In times of fiscal austerity, parks are often treated as non-essential “niceties” and are among the first budget items to be cut. This is especially acute in post-industrial cities where declining populations and reduced municipal tax revenue can leave large park footprints underfunded, resulting in crippling deferred maintenance over time.
To defend park budgets, leaders at Greater & Greener discussed advocacy efforts such as using maintenance data to educate elected officials, building ballot-measure campaigns for dedicated local park taxes, and keeping community advocates engaged for the long haul.
When fiscal austerity threatens park budgets, cross-sector coalitions can also turn crisis into opportunity. In New York City, after pandemic-related declines in private giving threatened park conservancies, City Parks Foundation and 45 peer organizations formed the Parks and Open Space Partners coalition. Together, they raised $8 million for the NYC Green Relief & Recovery Fund to deliver emergency grants to grassroots groups across all five boroughs.
City Parks Alliance can help keep you ahead of the funding curve with these year-round learning opportunities:
Sustaining our nation’s urban parks in turbulent times requires robust public funding, policy innovation, and unwavering cross-sector commitment. By leveraging public, private, and philanthropic resources, city leaders can build resilient park systems that withstand economic uncertainty and protect equity at every level.
Whether you couldn’t make it to Austin or want to relive the experience, you can watch recordings of our general sessions and browse the photo gallery.