America’s national parks belong to the public, but their creation and maintenance require private money. For more than a century, very fortunate philanthropists have purchased land, restored monuments and funded programs throughout the National Park system.
Few families practiced 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 area, later donating 32,000 acres that became part of the park’s 1950 expansion. His son, Laurance Rockefeller (1910-2004), continued the work, helping to create the Virgin Islands National Park, donating the family’s JY Ranch in Grand Teton, and donating $1 million to launch the National Park Foundation, the official nonprofit partner of the Park Service, in 1967.
The park’s generosity today extends beyond just land conservation. As the US celebrates its 250th birthday, living donors support the preservation of human rights, climate resilience, monument restoration and greater access to parks. Here are five American philanthropists whose money has helped create or reimagine national parks and National Park Service lands.
Ken Griffin, founder of Citadel
Ken Griffin founded Citadel in 1990 after he started trading from his Harvard house, eventually building it into one of the world’s largest hedge fund companies. Through Griffin Catalyst, his philanthropic platform, he has given more than that $2.5 billion to cause ranging education, medical research, public health 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 for display inside the newly opened Lincoln Memorial. the undercroft museum. The rare documents, which Griffin discovered in 2025, will remain on display there until June 2027. Griffin said in a statement that he is proud to share them “as a reminder of our continuing responsibility to strengthen America’s promise.”
This is not the first time Griffin has used his wealth to put basic American documents in the public domain. In 2021, he successfully bid ia a record $43.2 million in Suthini to print the US Constitution for the first time. The billionaire now owns two of the first privately published copies of the Constitution, both of which he lent for public display ahead of America’s 250th anniversary: one. at the National Constitutional Center in Philadelphia and the other in South Street Seaport Museum New York.
Recently, Griffin he gave $26 million to help complete the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library in Medora, ND, where the west wing will be named after him. Although not part of the National Park System, the library will be expanded with exhibits on Roosevelt’s life and conservation legacy, as well as an AI guide that draws from his books and speeches to answer visitors’ questions.
Roxanne Quimby, 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, turning the personal care company from a beeswax business into a household name. In 2007, Clorox got the type of $925 milliongiving Quimby the means to pursue his conservation efforts in Maine.
In the late 1990s, Quimby began collecting land parcels near Mount Katahdin, the northernmost point of the Appalachian Trail. Although his intention was to create a protected nature reserve, the plan was initially opposed by residents who were concerned about state control and the loss of logging jobs. During the next ten years, Quimby and his son, Lucas St. Clair, they met with local people to build support.
For Quimby, parks represent another shared and private identity. The park, he told Yankee Magazine in 2008, “removes the whole issue of ownership. It’s not on the table; we all own it and we all share it. It’s very democratic.”
“Growing up, one of the things I loved about national parks was that there were no barriers for anyone,” Quimby was quoted as saying in a National Park Foundation article. “Everyone is 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 his family is given 87,500 acres to create the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument on the eastern border of Maine’s Baxter State Park, along with a $20 million gift and a promise of an additional $20 million in future support. The National Park Foundation promoted the land transfer, along with President Barack Obama nominated monument on Aug. 24, 2016, one day before the National Park Service’s centennial.
David Rubenstein, founder of the Carlyle Group
The Baltimore-born billionaire and longtime philanthropist 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; most recently, he became the controlling owner of the Baltimore Orioles, leading a Purchase of 1.7 billion of the group in 2024.
His offering of parks is centered on the nation’s capital. Instead of funding the preservation of wilderness, Rubenstein provided the minimum $60 million on National Park Service sites and related projects, particularly directed at US monuments and memorials that attract millions of visitors each year. “Giving back to the country — what I call patriotic philanthropy — reminds people of our country’s history and values,” Rubenstein wrote in his book. philanthropy web page.
In recent years, his contributions have been helped restore the earthquake-damaged Washington Monument, a bag a new modern museum at the Thomas Jefferson Memorial, and support the Lincoln Memorial has long been hidden the undercroft museumwhich opened to the public in June. He also supported restoration and visitor projects at the US Marine Corps War Memorial, Arlington House, The Robert E. Lee Memorial and the White House Visitor Center.
Robert F. Smith, founder of Vista Equity Partners
Robert F. Smith built one of the biggest private equity fortunes by betting early on business software. The Denver-born son of two teachers earned an MBA from Columbia Business School and spent six years in Goldman Sachs’ technology investment group before founding Vista Equity Partners in 2000. Forbes puts his wealth at approx. $10 billionmaking 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 they promised student loan repayment for Morehouse College’s entire graduating class, totaling $34 million.
As the founding director and president of Fund II Foundation In need, Smith helped fund the National Park Foundation shopping the birthplace of Martin Luther King Jr. and the Atlanta home where King lived with Coretta Scott King. At the time, Smith said an important part of the foundation’s mission was to bring African-American history to life and preserve it for generations. In 2019, the buildings 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 major hit in 2020 after he admitted to tax fraud. In a plea deal with the Justice Department, Smith admitted to hiding income and avoiding millions in taxes from 2000 to 2015 and agreed to pay more than $139 million in taxes and penalties. In a book to Vista investors, Smith called the case a “humbling experience,” but said he remains “as committed as ever” to moving forward as a CEO, investor and philanthropist.
Steve and Connie Ballmer, founders of the Ballmer Group
Steve and Connie Ballmer’s philanthropy is less about landmarks than scale. Steve, who was CEO of Microsoft from 2000 to 2014, one of the richest people in the world technology billions. Connie, a former public relations and advertising major, was the family’s “kitchen table” helper, with a longtime focus on children and families.
Together, they founded the Ballmer Group in 2015, building it into a major supplier focused on economic mobility and place-based partnerships. The couple’s generosity is based in part on a sense of responsibility. Talking to The Chronicle of Philanthropy last year, Steve Ballmer said that Connie often used the idea that “to whom much is given, much is expected.”
Their donation of parks followed a similar pattern. In 2024, the National Park Foundation revealed a $25 million gift from the Ballmers to support national parks across the US Rather than affixing their names to any monument, the gift is used for programs including Open OutDoors for Children and Service Corps activities 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 shores of Lake Michigan.
Recently, the Ballmers announced plans to consolidate their regional work into three independent, locally-led organizations in Washington state, Los Angeles County and southeast Michigan, where Ballmer Group teams have contributed more than $1.5 billion in grants over the past decade. “Our goal is to ensure that these community services can be permanent, sustainable resources in each region,” the Balmers. said“while focusing our national efforts on improving economic mobility in new ways.”
