of America national parks they belong to the public, but their creation and maintenance have often required private money. For more than a century, wealthy philanthropists have purchased land, restored monuments, and funded programs throughout the National Park System.
Few families shaped that tradition more than the Rockefellers. John D. Rockefeller Jr. (1874–1960), the only son of Standard oil founder John D. Rockefeller Sr., helped finance and donate land for parks including Acadia, the Great Smoky Mountains, Yosemite, Shenandoah and Yellowstone. In Wyoming, he quietly collected land to protect the Grand Teton landscape, later donating 32,000 acres that became part of the park’s 1950 expansion. His son, Laurance Rockefeller (1910–2004), took the work forward, helping to establish the Virgin Islands National Park, donating the family’s JY Ranch in Grand Teton, and contributing $1 million to start the National Park Foundation, the Park Service’s official nonprofit partner, in 1967.
Today’s park philanthropy has expanded beyond just land conservation. As the US marks its 250th birthday, living donors are supporting the preservation of civil rights, climate resilience, monument restoration and greater access to parks. Here are five American philanthropists whose money has helped create or reimagine the nation’s national parks and National Park Service sites.
Ken Griffin, founder of Citadel
Ken Griffin established The castle in 1990 after starting trading from his Harvard dorm room, eventually building it into one of the largest hedge fund firms in the world. Through Griffin Catalyst, his philanthropic platform, he has given more than 2.5 billion dollars because of education, medical research, civic life, and American history.
In June, the National Park Foundation announced that Griffin would lend his collection of signed copies of the Emancipation Proclamation and the 13th Amendment to be displayed inside the newly opened Lincoln Memorial. the underground museum. The rare documents, which Griffin bought in 2025, will remain there until June 2027. Griffin said in a statement that he was proud to share them “as a reminder of our continuing responsibility to strengthen America’s promise.“
This isn’t the first time Griffin has used his vast wealth to release key US documents. In 2021, he successfully offered one record $43.2 million IN Sotheby’s for the first printing of the US Constitution. The billionaire now owns two private first printings of the Constitution, which he has loaned for public display ahead of America’s 250th anniversary: a. at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia and the other to South Street Seaport Museum in New York.
Lately, Griffin gave $26 million to help finish Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library in Medora, ND, where the west wing will bear his name. Although not part of the National Park System, the library will be expanded with exhibits on Roosevelt’s life and conservation legacy, along with an AI guide that draws on his letters and speeches to answer visitors’ questions.
Roxanne Quimby, co-founder of Burt’s Bees
Roxanne Quimby led one of the most significant private land gifts in the recent history of the National Park Service. After living in a remote cabin in Maine in the 1970s, Quimby co-founded Burt’s Bees in 1984, transforming the personal care company from a humble beeswax business into a household name. in 2007, Clorox won the brand for 925 million dollarsgiving Quimby the means to pursue her conservation efforts in Maine.
In the late 1990s, Quimby began collecting land piecemeal around Mount Katahdin, the northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail. While its goal was to create a protected national park, the plan initially drew opposition from residents concerned about federal control and the loss of logging jobs. Over the next decade, Quimby and her son, Lucas St. Clairmet with locals to build support.
For Quimby, parks represent a shared alternative to private ownership. A park, she said Yankee magazine in 2008, “takes away the whole issue of ownership. It’s off the table; we all own it and we all share it. It’s so democratic.”
“Growing up, one of the things I loved about national parks was that there were no barriers to anyone,” Quimby. he is quoted as saying in an article for the National Park Foundation. “Everyone was welcome, and to me, that was a true symbol of democracy and what this country meant to our family and what this country means to everyone.”
In 2016, Quimby and her family donating 87,500 acres to create Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument on the eastern border of Maine’s Baxter State Park, along with a $20 million endowment and a pledge of $20 million more in future support. The National Park Foundation facilitated the transfer of land and the President Barack Obama FIXED monument on August 24, 2016, the day before the National Park Service’s centennial.
David Rubenstein, co-founder of The Carlyle Group
The Baltimore-born billionaire and longtime philanthropist co-founded The Carlyle Group in 1987, helping build the Washington, DC-based private equity firm into a global investment giant. Before Carlyle, he worked in the Carter Administration and practiced law; recently, he became the controlling owner of Baltimore Oriolesleading a $1.7 billion purchase of the team in 2024.
His giving to national parks is concentrated in the nation’s capital. Instead of funding wilderness reserves, Rubenstein has given at least 60 million dollars at National Park Service sites and related projects, directed primarily at U.S. monuments and memorials that attract millions of visitors each year. “To give back to the country –what I call patriotic philanthropy—it reminds people of our country’s history and heritage,” Rubenstein writes. philanthropy site.
In recent years, his donations have helped restore Washington Monument damaged by the earthquake, FUND a new modern museum at the Thomas Jefferson Memorial, and SUPPORTING The Lincoln Memorial has long been hidden the underground museumwhich opened to the public in June. He has also supported restoration and visitor projects at the US Marine Corps War Memorial, Arlington House, The Robert E. Lee White House Memorial and Visitor Center.
Robert F. Smith, founder of Vista Equity Partners
Robert F. Smith built one of the largest private equity fortunes by betting early on enterprise software. The Denver-born son of two educators earned an MBA from Columbia Business School and spent six years at Goldman SachsPre-foundation technology investment banking group Vista Equity Partners in 2000. Forbes estimates his wealth at approx 10 billion dollarsmaking him one of the wealthiest black Americans.
In 2017, Smith became the first black American to sign the Giving Pledge, pledging to give away more than half of his wealth. Two years later, he made national headlines when he committed to pay off the student debt of Morehouse College’s entire graduating class, which totals $34 million.
As founding director and president of Fund II Foundation charity, Smith helped fund the National Park Foundation PURCHASE e Martin Luther King Jrthe birth house of . and the Atlanta home where King lived with Coretta Scott King. At the time, Smith said a key part of the foundation’s mission was to “bring African-American history to life and preserve it for generations.” In 2019, the properties were transferred to the National Park Service as part of the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park. in Atlanta.
Smith’s public image took a hit in 2020 after he admitted to tax fraud. In a plea deal with the Justice Department, Smith admitted he hid income and evaded millions in taxes from 2000 to 2015 and agreed to pay more than $139 million in taxes and penalties. IN a letter to Vista investors, Smith called the case “a humbling experience,” but said he remained “as committed as ever” to moving forward as a CEO, investor and philanthropist.
Steve and Connie Ballmer, co-founders of the Ballmer Group
Philanthropy of Steve and Connie Ballmer it’s less about landmarks than scale. Steve, who was Microsoft‘s CEO from 2000 to 2014, is one of the richest in the world tech billionaires. Connie, a former public relations and technology marketing professional, has been the family’s “kitchen table” philanthropist, with a longtime focus on foster children and families.
Together, they co-founded the Ballmer Group in 2015, growing it into a major donor focused on economic mobility and place-based partnerships. The couple’s philanthropy is rooted in part in a sense of obligation. Talking to Chronicle of Philanthropy last year, Steve Ballmer said that Connie often invokes the idea that “to whom much is given, much is expected.”
Their parks philanthropy has followed the same approach. In 2024, the National Park Foundation discovered a $25 million gift by the Ballmers to support national parks across the U.S. Instead of having their name attached to a monument, the gift is being used for programs including Open OutDoors for Kids and Service Corps for young adults. It will also support climate adaptation work in parks such as Mount Rainier National Park in Washington and Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore along the Lake Michigan shoreline.
Recently, the Ballmers announced PLANs THE to focus their regional work to three independent, locally led philanthropies in Washington state, Los Angeles County and southeast Michigan, where Ballmer Group teams have awarded more than $1.5 billion in grants over the past decade. “Our aim is to provide that these local philanthropies can be permanent and continuous resources in any region,” said Balmers DECLARING“as we focus our national efforts on advancing economic mobility in new ways.”
