Equitable Park Funding Hub

The Equitable Park Funding Hub provides easy access to information on a variety of funding sources relevant for parks and recreation in low-income communities and communities of color, and highlights the partnerships required for successful funding.

Parks, trails, and nature support public health, workforce development, local economies, the environment, and community cohesion. And yet historic disinvestment has left many communities with the greatest need with the least access to quality parks and recreation opportunities.

The Equitable Park Funding Hub highlights six sectors and summarizes grant and technical assistance opportunities under each, including eligibility, park funding use, match requirement, and other important information to help determine if the program is the right fit for a project. It is not intended to be a comprehensive source of funding opportunities but a starting point with examples and links to the various agencies that oversee the programs.

As many federal funding sources in the Hub are competitive, require match dollars, and often cannot cover maintenance or programming, stable local public funding is essential for a successful and equitable park system. Local funding enables communities to ensure investments promote equitable impacts and address local disparities.

The COVID-19 pandemic shined a spotlight on the need for safe, quality parks and on park inequities throughout communities. Now more than ever, high-quality parks and public spaces in disadvantaged communities require creative and wide-ranging partnerships to unlock public and private funding sources. We hope you will find this resource helpful in assisting with your local park funding needs.

View Funding Areas

The Equitable Park Funding Hub is the result of a two-year collaborative research effort between the City Parks Alliance, Groundwork U.S.A., and the Urban Institute. Support for this work was provided by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and The Speedwell Foundation.

Explore Equitable Funding Strategies for Parks and Green Infrastructure

The Equitable Park Funding Hub is a living resource intended to be a starting point for researching funding strategies with examples, case studies, and links for further information.

Explore each funding area in depth with links below, or use the sorting feature to help you identify the funding sources that may best match your needs.
We invite you to help us make this Hub stronger by sharing your experiences applying for, and implementing programs with these funding sources. Share your experience below.

Funding Areas

Conservation

Conservation funding can be used to create equitable access to park and recreation amenities, which is critical to improving the health and quality of life of residents in low-income communities.

Brownfields

Brownfields contribute to blight and prevent reinvestment in economically distressed communities. Transforming them into parks can drive reinvestment and improve community health.

Climate Resilience & Stormwater Management

Parks, trees and nature play an important role in cooling neighborhoods and building resilience to natural disasters. Communities of color often lack the greenspace needed to mitigate the impacts of climate change.

Community Development

Increasingly, community reinvestment efforts are leveraging the benefits of parks to create vibrant, healthy, and livable neighborhoods with access to jobs and affordable housing.

Local Funding

Stable, local public funding is essential for a successful and equitable park system. It is the primary source for critical maintenance, operations and programming.

Transportation

Federal transportation funding can create trail connections for parks and neighborhoods, which provide new outdoor recreation and commuting options, air-quality and congestion benefits, and local economic development opportunities.

EXPLORE PARK FUNDING

Use this tool to filter, sort, and learn about funding opportunities and potential partnerships.

Safeguarding Tomorrow through Ongoing Risk Mitigation (STORM) Act
Resilience and mitigation spending saves taxpayers more than $6 for every $1 invested. But the majority of current disaster relief programs focus on post-disaster response, rather than pre-disaster mitigation, preparation, and resilience. The Safeguarding Tomorrow through Ongoing Risk Mitigation (STORM) Act creates a new “resilience revolving loan fund” program modeled after similar water programs (the Clean Water and Drinking Water State Revolving Funds) and will spur investment ahead of future disasters. Led by FEMA, this new revolving loan fund will be eligible for mitigation projects and activities to increase resilience and mitigate the impacts of events such as drought, extreme heat, severe storms, wildfires, floods and earthquakes. This provides an opportunity to prioritize low-impact development, wildland-urban interface management, conservation areas, reconnection of floodplain and open space projects. These low-interest funds will allow for cities and states to repay the loan with savings from mitigation projects. It also gives states and localities the flexibility to respond to oncoming disasters without paying high-interest rates so they can invest in their communities – cutting the red tape of having to wait on the federal government. Planning ahead to prevent serious disruptions when a disaster strikes will reduce risks to people, property, and save taxpayer dollars.
Eligibility for Accessing Funds
States, Federally recognized tribes that received a major disaster declaration pursuant to Section 401 of the Stafford Act, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and the District of Columbia.
Learn More
Clean Water Action Section 319 – Nonpoint Source Program
Section 319 funding supports the implementation of state nonpoint source management programs. In each state, a significant portion of funding goes to local watershed projects that control stormwater runoff. Many projects feature green and nature-based approaches such as rain gardens, bioswales, permeable pavement, and streambank restoration. Each state runs its own project solicitation process. Find your state nonpoint source program here.
Match from other sources
40% (can include in-kind contributions)
Park Funding Use
Capital/Land Acquisition
Learn More
Five Star and Urban Waters Restoration Program
Co-sponsors, the EPA and the Urban Waters Federal Partnership, work to develop community capacity with modest financial and technical assistance to diverse local partnerships for urban restoration and education programs. Streambank and shoreline stabilization, stormwater management, urban tree canopy restoration, and projects to prevent trash in waterways are just a few of the projects awarded grants. The grants are administered by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation's (NFWF) Five Star and Urban Waters Restoration Grant Program.
Match from other sources
50 to 75%
Park Funding Use
Capital/Land Acquisition, Operations/Maintenance
Learn More
Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC)
The Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) aims to categorically shift the federal focus away from reactive disaster spending and toward evidence-based investment in resilience through nature-based solutions to enhance the resilience of infrastructure. BRIC supports innovative approaches and enhanced partnerships, like those that share funding mechanisms or project design. An innovative project might have multiple funding sources or in-kind resources from private- and public-sector stakeholders or offer benefits to the community beyond risk reduction.
Park Funding Use
Capital/Land Acquisition
Eligibility for Accessing Funds
State Governments, Local Governments can be sub-applicants to states
Learn More

Additional Equitable Funding Research

Report

Investing in Equitable Urban Park Systems: Case Studies and Recommendations

Learn from seven municipalities using equitable, data-driven park investment strategies for distributing park resources.