October 2011 - Parks & Recreation - 68

using PRoRaGIS for
Fundraising and advocacy
nrPa's fUndraisinG and PUBliC PoliCy sPeCialisTs aGree:
Whether the goal is to pursue grant money or to appeal to lawmakers, park leaders should be prepared to perform two vital steps:
demonstrate a need that an agency is poised to meet and offer empirical evidence of the needs it is already meeting.
" Whenever people ask me about 'grant-chasing', " says rebecca
Wickline, senior director of development, " i steer the conversation
back to relationship-building. " ProraGis provides a way for nrPa
members, she says, to " solidify and verify the information that becomes the spine of an agency's story. " data, no matter how well presented, cautions Wickline, cannot take the place of patiently
cultivated relationships-but it can be the perfect complement to
those relationships. Wickline advises including relevant data reports in routine communications with donor prospects-both to
document need and impact and to demonstrate professionalism.
Jimmy o'Connor, senior manager of corporate grants, lists a
number of promising fundraising-related uses of the system: showing where
trails might easily be connected, mapping park-poor and program-poor areas, highlighting gaps in feeding
programs or community gardens in a region, presenting employee engagement
opportunities, and determining where
conservation areas might best serve and
educate the public. Wickline agrees and
points out also that the core inventory
functions of ProraGis are equally important: " you need to know what you
have before you can have the conversation about what you need. "
nrPa's public policy team stress the
tool's ability to cross-reference and visually present a wide spectrum of imp a c t- r e l a te d d a t a - f o r exa m p l e ,
mapping the uses of federal land and
Water Conservation fund (lWCf) and
transportation monies in a given Congressional district. advocacy and outreach specialist Joel Pannell adds that
ProraGis's cross-referencing possibilities apply to members' own
advocacy efforts at every level of government. " one application, "
he says, " might be the far-reaching impact of transportation enhancements. With a trails project, for example, you could show local
or state elected oﬃcials economic data, jobs created, fuel conservation numbers, and public health consequences-all in an easy-tounderstand map. "
Parks and recreation agencies are already connecting communities, battling the national obesity epidemic, enriching local economies, feeding children and seniors, shepherding natural resources,
creating new transportation options, and forming effective partnerships with private entities. ProraGis can document that vital
work-and, just as importantly, it can measure the results.
-Maureen Hannan

66 Parks & Recreation O C T O B E R

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technology. The thinking behind the funding, says
Clark, was that this kind of benchmarking and planning data ought to be available to park agencies
across the country " without big fees or increases in
association membership. " There was simply nothing
else like it available.
And so the fi rst online GIS database especially
for park systems was born-and its name, PRORAGIS, reflected that goal of merging raw park data
with global mapping capabilities: Parks and Recreation Operating Ratio Geographic Information System. Launching the system, Beckner knew, would
involve two formidable challenges: The fi rst would
be designing a cutting-edge, easy-to-use web platform-and the second, even more ambitious, would
be to bring the database to maturity.
Beckner, whose professional credo is, " Nothing
destroys an opinion like a number, " believes NRPA
is, through PRORAGIS, seeking to equip park leaders to destroy with hard numbers opinions about the
value and impact of what they do. Numbers that tell
stories not just of funding needs-but of children and
seniors fed, communities made healthier, volunteers
engaged, parks made more accessible, public lands
cared for, and creative funding sources procured.
Tulipane comments, " There is no one who can tell
our story but us. PRORAGIS will not only add to the
professionalism of our industry-it will help us tell
our stories with facts and figures. We've never been
able to do that before. "

a ProraGis Primer
So how does the system work? How can users be
sure of " apples-to-apples " comparisons? And what
is required to participate in the PRORAGIS database?
The process begins with user registration at
www.nrpa.org/proragis and submission of an agency profi le. Any agency may register at no charge,
though NRPA members have free access to a host of
reporting options once their data is complete. Profi le
completion consists of gathering and entering data
about jurisdiction, governance, department structure
and responsibilities, programs, budget and funding,
personnel, facilities, and land. Those who have completed the profi le typically report that they broke the
process into sections and compiled the data needed
before sitting down to enter it. Most say that process
was straightforward and required approximately two
work days.
Many NRPA members have questions relating
to benchmarking standards. How can they be sure,
they ask, that the reports they generate will offer valid comparisons? Tulipane comments that the establishment of useful standards across all categories of
data has been one of the guiding factors behind the

October 2011 - Parks & Recreation

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