By Kacee Saturay, Donor Stewardship and Social Media Manager
Ranging from the fifth established national park in the whole country in 1899 to land protected by congress as recently as the 1960s, Mount Rainier, North Cascades, and Olympic National Parks represent a chapter of our country’s shared heritage and commitment to preserving wild places for future generations.
On March 11, 1993, former Governor and Senator Dan Evans, legendary mountaineer Lou Whittaker, and other prominent community leaders came together to build a nonprofit dedicated to supporting some of the wildest and most scenic places in Washington state. The Mount Rainier & Olympic Fund was created and eventually included North Cascades into the mix in 1995. Four years later, the organization transformed into what we know today as Washington’s National Park Fund (WNPF). We are forever thankful to our founders for setting the foundation for us to have such a strong and steadfast partnership with the parks and their leadership.
Through the years, our fundraising has diversified into unique ways for our donors to give. From park endowments and Climb for a Cause to workplace giving and recurring donors, we have been able to provide crucial support to projects that would otherwise go unfunded by the government. To this day, we remain the only philanthropic organization dedicated exclusively to supporting the three national parks through charitable contributions, operating under a Partnership Agreement between each park and the Fund.
Projects that we have supported within Mount Rainier, North Cascades, and Olympic National Parks have advanced science, improved the visitor experience, enhanced volunteerism, and focused on embracing inclusion. Over four million people experienced the wonders of these parks in just the last year, according to the National Park Service visitation report. Many of them choose to give back, helping keep these lands truly wild by donating to support their upkeep and helping fund everything from trail work and meadow restoration to middle school field trips and partnership programs with local tribes. The parks would probably look different without the support of the WNPF community, although our work is not done yet!
With the increasing popularity of outdoor recreation, it is no secret that visitation has grown in the last 30 years… But funding, unfortunately, has not kept up with that growth. As park visitors, we are fortunate to have access to resources like maintained trails, climate change research, ranger-led programming, and essential SAR operations. But as visitors continue to be drawn in and staffing fluctuates, this begs the question for park visitors: Are we serving the parks the way the parks have served us?
Through our mission, we see an opportunity for us all to strengthen the parks year after year. We are proud to have awarded a record-setting $1.1 million to the three parks in 2022 and we look forward to what we can do together for the parks next year, and every year moving forward.
To each and every donor to Washington’s National Park Fund over the last three decades: thank you. In another thirty years, our hope is that these wild places are just as wild and untouched as they are today. And with supporters like you, we know that will happen.
Special thanks to WNPF Board Member, Mitch Pittman, for capturing these featured videos in celebration of our 30th anniversary.
Cover photo and North Cascades aerial footage was captured by Mitch Pittman and made possible through donated flights from LightHawk – thank you!