Austin Parks Foundation (APF) is a 501c3 non-profit organization that works in collaboration with the Austin Parks and Recreation Department (PARD). While PARD owns and operates Austin’s parkland, APF provides funding, volunteer labor and improvements to parks in need that is supplemental to what the city provides. APF is not a city owned entity and receives financial support through donors, sponsors, grantees, Austin City Limits Music Festival, and more.

We sincerely wish this funding were enough! When residents pay their property taxes, these funds go to our city’s General Fund and from there, the City Council decides how to use these dollars. Parks compete with public safety, public health, housing and planning, libraries, etc.

Unfortunately, even with high property taxes, our tax dollars do not cover what the city needs to pay for, and Austin’s parks system is always at the bottom of the list and is vastly underfunded. Our work at APF helps to close the gap between what the city can provide and what our parks and green spaces actually need.

Austin Parks Foundation is the presenting partner and charity beneficiary of Austin City Limits Music Festival. A portion of every ticket sold comes to APF and goes toward improving Austin’s parks, trails and green spaces!

The use of these funds are not limited to Zilker Park–they help complete projects in parks big and small, all over the city. Since our partnership began 16 years ago, ACL Fest has generated nearly $50 million for Austin’s parks, trails and green spaces. You can learn more about our partnership at austinparks.org/acl.

Check out this interactive map of projects made possible by Austin Parks Foundation’s ACL Music Festival Grants Program!

We sincerely wish it was! We are immeasurably grateful and count ourselves lucky to be able to partner with ACL Fest on behalf of Austin’s parks, but it still isn’t enough. As Austin’s population grows, so does the gap between our park system’s needs and available funding.

To help bridge this $700 million gap of deferred maintenance, Austin Parks Foundation relies on private contributions. Our donors and sponsors are essential to funding improvement projects across Austin!

As much as we can! In addition to volunteer park maintenance and park improvement projects both large and small, we use our funds in the following ways:

• Invest in events and programs that connect people to parks, like movies in the park and fitness in the park!
• Provide our volunteers with tools and materials they need to get their jobs done (our 6,000+ volunteers donate over $775,000 every year in volunteer labor!)
• Provide the resources to advocate for increased funding from the city, equitable investments in park infrastructure, and for more parkland when possible
• Hire and retain the absolute best parks professionals that Austin has to offer
• Invest in marketing, public relations, and community outreach, which translates to increased public funding and grants
• Fund vision-planning efforts to ensure new parks meet the needs of the community

Our main goal is to leverage a relatively small amount of money into the biggest impact possible while increasing the rate of investment into our parks.

APF’s leadership staff and board of directors determines what projects we invest in. In addition, we also accept community-initiated applications for our ACL Music Festival Grants Program. Most of these applications are submitted by Adopt-A-Park park adopters looking to make a difference in their community. We also partner with other organizations and local businesses who want to do work in their neighborhood parks.

The easiest and quickest way to contribute is to do so online here. If you prefer another method, you can review those here.

If you have any questions about giving to Austin Parks Foundation, email us at development@austinparks.org. We’re happy to help!