CELEBRATING 35 YEARS! :: 1971-2006 San Francisco Parks Trust
Mission
San Francisco Parks Trust is dedicated to enhancing and protecting the parks, open spaces, and recreational activities that we believe are vital to the physical and mental well being and happiness of our City’s residents. We also value and respect the vital role our parks and open spaces play in preserving our natural environment and are committed to ecological and wildlife stewardship.
Through organizing, advocacy, and education we seek to increase the recognition of the value of parks in daily life and to ensure that our City’s parks and green spaces are open, accessible, clean, safe, and fun. We raise funds to improve and maintain parks, advocate for the importance of supporting parks, and for accountability in how resources are used.
History
Founded in 1971 with a $50,000 grant from developer and philanthropist, Walter Shorenstein, San Francisco Parks Trust, formerly Friends of Recreation & Parks, began as an all-volunteer organization dedicated to supporting San Francisco parks.
In 2006 we celebrated 35 years of leadership and successes in supporting San Francisco parks, recreation centers, and open spaces. With a commitment to improving and sustaining our park system, we honor the achievements of the past. By building on our successes, we are creating healthy environments and promoting citizen stewardship of our parks to ensure a healthy City for future generations.
Some of our earliest programs, started in the 1970’s continue to this day, such as the annual Opera in the Park, Park Partners program, and Golden Gate Park Tours.
During the 1980’s we proved our fundraising strength. In 1986, Friends launched the Landscape Garden Show (now the San Francisco Flower and Garden Show) at Fort Mason. Proceeds from the show helped to fund renovations at the Golden Gate Park Carrousel, Japanese Tea Garden, and the 6th Avenue entrance to Golden Gate Park. We also supported the Huntington Park playground renovation, park guides at Coit Tower, and annual Play Days for the children of San Francisco.
In the 1990’s we built on these early accomplishments by growing our programs and projects. In 1995, our parks suffered a brutal storm that caused millions of dollars in damage and closed the Conservatory of Flowers. With the support of then First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton’s Save America’s Treasures and the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund, we launched the Campaign to Restore the Conservatory of Flowers, our largest capital undertaking to date, raising over $25 million. Completed in 2003, San Francisco has since welcomed more than 1,000,000 visitors to the oldest existing public conservatory in North America.
In 1996, we received the first of two grants from the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Fund. This, the first national funding for San Francisco parks commenced the multi-year restoration of the West End of Golden Gate Park and launched new neighborhood park programs and projects.
We continue to support the work of partner organizations with this gift by awarding small park groups funding for physical improvements and special projects in neighborhood parks. Through 2003, we awarded more than $500,000, helping groups leverage local resources and mobilize volunteers to benefit their parks. We are reintroducing this program as the Park Partner Innovator Awards to honor the innovations of our Park Partners and other community-based organizations that steward and preserve San Francisco green space.
We launched Project ReCreation, a program that identifies high-use, high-need recreation centers to revitalize them with fresh paint, supplies, and repairs. To date, we have completed more than 14 Project ReCreation workdays in neighborhood playgrounds and clubhouses across the City contributing more than $128,000 in added value to local parks.
In 2004, we changed our name to San Francisco Parks Trust to emphasize the work we do, with our Members’ support, to improve the City’s parks, recreation centers and open spaces.
The San Francisco community has placed trust in our organization to improve the park system and to provide opportunities to ensure the long-term sustainability of our green spaces. To continue our promise to the community, we launched the Healthy Parks Initiative that same year, to fund programs that increase healthy environments, healthy communities and citizen stewardship of parks.
The San Francisco Parks Trust launched the Playfields Initiative in 2005 to address the chronic lack of available athletic fields in San Francisco. SFPT established a working group of non-profit partners, community members, and city staff to develop a plan to renovate a number of existing playfields. From this initial group, the City Fields Foundation was formed. Also in 2005, SFPT initiated Project Jumpstart to fund and develop community-initiated programming in local parks. Three programs serving children in the Mission, Visitacion Valley, and Bayview neighborhoods were created in its inaugural year.
In 2006 and 2007, SFPT renewed its dedication to its core fiscal competencies and financial services to Park Partners, which garnered a four-star rating from Charity Navigator- its highest rating for fiscal management. In July 2007, we also completed the restoration of one of the oldest playgrounds in the country, Children's Playground in Golden Gate Park, which reopened in July 2007 as the Koret Children's Quarter, reflecting the Koret Foundation's generous $1.8 million contribution to the project.
For more than 37 years we have worked together to improve and sustain San Francisco’s 5,400 acres of parkland and recreation facilities. Our cadre of more than 3,500 members, staff, board, and park lovers across the City are grateful to San Francisco and those urban oases that improve our quality of life.
Download the 2007/2008 Annual Report