February 2015 - Parks & Recreation - 52

NRPA Update
Raising Money and Awareness
One Dollar at a Time
This past fall, NRPA launched Fund Your Park - the only
crowdfunding site dedicated to parks and recreation
By Michele White

Crowdfunding:

The practice of funding a
project or venture by raising many small amounts of
money from a large number of people, typically via
the Internet.

Even though crowdfunding is a new
buzzword, it has been around for
quite some time. The first crowdfunding project in the U.S. was in 1885 to
raise money for the Statue of Liberty
to be installed in the New York Harbor. That campaign garnered 160,000
donations and achieved its goal of
$100,000 through an ad in the New
York World.
Today, crowdfunding is being
used for anything from venture
capitalism and improving communities around the world to supporting personal goals and even raising
money to make some potato salad.
From the small and mundane ideas
to a real game changer, this online
giving tool can provide the capital
to achieve whatever anyone can

50 Parks & Recreation

dream up if there is someone out
there willing to back it.
Appealing to the first project of
this country, the public has an inherent interest in promoting projects
and ideas that will benefit them.
Parks, public spaces and experiences
that are in need of attention or that
haven't been created yet appeal to
the public's desire to improve their
community.
Fund Your Park was created to
allow agencies to do just that -
raise funds in local communities
to achieve projects that would provide benefits through conservation,
health and wellness, and social equity. Agency crowdfunding campaigns
not only raise funds for a given project, they also raise awareness in their

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local communities and create park
and recreation supporters by reaching new audiences.
For the launch of Fund Your Park,
nine NRPA member agencies were
selected to host their campaigns on
the site for 45 days. They included Illinois' Lake County Forest Preserves,
Michigan's Grand Blanc Parks and
Recreation Commission, Ohio's
Bowling Green Parks and Recreation Department, Oklahoma's City
of Edmond Parks and Recreation,
Texas' City of Sugar Land Parks and
Recreation Department, Wisconsin's
West Allis-West Milwaukee Recreation and Community Services Department, Indiana's Porter County
Parks and Recreation, California's
Riverside County Regional Park and
Open-Space District, and California's
Santa Clara Parks and Recreation
Department. Their projects aimed
to raise funds for student gardeners,
ADA-compliant playgrounds, new
playground builds, outdoor fitness
equipment and a sanctuary for veterans. The first round of nine projects were followed soon after with
six more, and NRPA will launch the
third round later this spring.
Together, the initial nine projects garnered a total of $78,664 in donations,
grants and in-kind donations. Even
though these projects did not reach
their monetary goals for their 45-day
campaigns, many of them achieved

February 2015 - Parks & Recreation

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