The U.S. national park system gets a $100 million grant, the largest in its history

By Joe Hernandez

Published August 26, 2024 at 12:55 PM EDT

A visitor xtakes photographs of bison in Yellowstone National Park on June 13.

The National Park Foundation announced Monday that it had received the largest grant in its nearly 60-year history, a $100 million gift from Lilly Endowment Inc.

The foundation, which is the fundraising arm of the National Park Service, said the money would help pay for programs to enhance the park system, which includes more than 400 sites nationwide.

“For over 50 years, private philanthropy has played a vital role in bridging the gap between park needs and available funding,” Will Shafroth, president and CEO of the National Park Foundation, said in a statement.

“This grant will allow us to supercharge our efforts to ensure our national parks are for everyone, for generations to come,” he added.

The $100 million gift is also the largest grant benefiting national parks in U.S. history, the NPF said.

The money will be used to fund four key priorities, including creating opportunities for young people to visit the parks and conserving threatened ecosystems and wildlife, national park officials said.

The foundation also plans to use the money to tell a more comprehensive version of U.S. history, including the “experiences of communities whose voices and contributions have not been fully told as a part of the American story,” and ensure the national park system’s more than 320 million annual visitors have a “world-class” experience.

The National Park Service had a $3.3 billion budget in the 2024 fiscal year.

Based in Indianapolis, the Lilly Endowment was created in 1937 by members of the family behind the pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Company — J.K. Lilly, Sr. and his sons, Eli and J.K. Jr.

Lilly Endowment chairman and CEO N. Clay Robbins said the group's founders were “inspired by the beauty and wonders of the natural world and supportive of research and educational programs about archaeology and the cultural history of our nation.”

Congress established Yellowstone National Park — the first U.S. national park — in 1872. Over the following years the list of national parks and monuments continued to grow, and in 1916 President Woodrow Wilson signed an act creating the National Park Service.