Founded in 1969 by William Penn Mott, Jr., former director of California State Park and National Park Systems, the Foundation has contributed more than $125 million to benefit our parks. We are grateful for the support of our 95,000 members, foundations, and corporate partners. The California State Parks Foundation encourages private sector investment in state parks through membership and fundraising.

• Since 1996, membership in the Foundation has grown from 13,000 to 95,000. Its funding has increased 650% and its asset growth has exceeded 200%.  

• The Foundation has opened Southern California and Sacramento offices, expanding its reach throughout the Golden State.

• Since 1998, more than $2.2 million has been raised and thousands of grants have been distributed to parks throughout California as a result of the California State Park Foundation’s Earth Day program.

• From 1999 to 2002, the Foundation worked to pass Proposition 12, which provided $545 million to State Parks and Proposition 40, the California Clean Water, Clean Air, Safe Neighborhood Parks and Coastal Protection Act of 2002.

• In August 2004, CSPF partnered with community-based Literacy for Environmental Justice (LEJ) to launch Bay Youth for the Environment, the community-involvement component of the Yosemite Slough Restoration project.

• In 2007, the Foundation, thanks to the support of our presenting sponsor, PG&E, provided more than $100,000 in Earth Day grants to approximately 50 project sites.

• In its last fiscal year, the California State Parks Foundation raised more than $7.8 million and provided $6.1 million in programs and services to benefit state parks while building a statewide constituency of parks supporters.