Park Pride
Parks for All
Park Pride engages communities to activate the power of parks. Working with over 100 local Friends of the Park groups across 200 greenspaces, the organization provides leadership, services, and funding to help communities realize their dreams for parks that support healthy people, united neighborhoods, a resilient city, and a healthy environment.
In 2021, Park Pride was ready to expand its services, deepen its impact, and increase funding for parks, with an emphasis on historically disinvested communities, through its grantmaking program. These goals became even more urgent in the wake of the pandemic and a nationwide movement for social and racial justice, as people rediscovered their local parks and Atlanta’s park inequities became clearer.
“Coxe Curry gave us the support to look at the challenges we’ve faced with a fresh pair of eyes. The study that led into the campaign gave us a level of objectivity and a chance to have a new set of conversations with current and future funders—and it helped funders see us in a new light. The balance of public and private support for Park Pride has taken things to a scale that, before the campaign, wasn’t possible for us. We’ve built more capacity, we’ve scaled our grantmaking program, and our advocacy led to structural changes that removed barriers and helped us marshal more dollars back into community parks.”
Park Pride came to us with already-strong fundraising skills and an excellent track record of donor stewardship. We kicked off the campaign planning study by helping them chart out their vision and engage key stakeholders.
The strategic stewardship of public officials, paired with the right timing, led to a nearly unprecedented level of support from both the City of Atlanta and Park Pride’s single largest funder. In 2021, Atlanta City Council unanimously approved legislation to dedicate $2 million to Park Pride’s grantmaking program. Soon after, the Robert W. Woodruff Foundation made its largest grant to Park Pride to date with a $3 million gift.
With this seed funding, the Parks for All campaign was up and running, and the foundation laid way for others to come on board.
Thanks to the success of the campaign and the power of public-private partnerships, Park Pride announced its grantmaking program’s largest investment to date. What began as a funding pool of $470,000 in 2004 grew to $3.9 million for park improvements to 37 parks across Atlanta and Dekalb County, with approximately half of those funds going to projects in historically disinvested communities.
And thanks to Park Pride’s advocacy work throughout the campaign, the City of Atlanta increased funding for the Department of Parks and Recreation, dedicated an additional $14 million annually to maintenance of parks, trails, and recreation centers through an increase to the City’s Park Improvement Fund, and is investing in Park Pride’s grantmaking program. Together, these investments and the continued support of the foundation community will maintain the momentum sparked by Parks for All.
Location: Atlanta, GA
Sector: Environment and Preservation
Proudest Moment: Helping Park Pride dream bigger, think bigger, and make the right asks at the right time to the right supporters
Coxe Curry Services Utilized: Pre-Study Consulting, Campaign Planning Study, Campaign Consulting