Parks

Management

Photo: Portland's Pioneer Courthouse Square (Project for Public Spaces, Inc.)

Photo: Portland's Pioneer Courthouse Square (Project for Public Spaces, Inc.)

Strategies, tips, case studies and more, from parks departments and nonprofits who have developed innovative - and often entrepreneurial - ways to deal with management issues.
  • Marketing

    Marketing for urban parks has grown more sophisticated than public relations, posters, direct mail, and advertising. Learn about various outreach mechanisms to attract new users and supporters, get tips for working with media professionals, and assess "the competition."

  • Safety & Security

    Increasing your park's security doesn't have to mean hiring people in uniforms - we believe that safer parks are busy, active parks. Here you'll find ideas and strategies to help accomplish that, plus articles on community policing and organizing the community to "take back" a park.

  • Maintenance & Operations

    Materials on zone gardening, graffiti, rating the quality of park maintenance, dealing with dogs, and more...

  • Economic Activities & Concessions

    This section covers income-generating ideas and strategies such as facilities rental, gifts and catalogs, naming programs, and vending.

  • Corporate Sponsorships

    Whether you need funds for a program or event, or an entire capital campaign, corporate sponsors could mean more "buy-in" than "sell-out."

  • Volunteers

    Volunteers play an important, often crucial role in parks, helping to build community stewardship, support, and involvement. This section has information on recruiting, managing and rewarding volunteers - as well as materials for those who want to be volunteers.

  • Managing a Parks Nonprofit

    This section offers lessons and strategies from some of the leading parks organizations in the country, on management basics - structuring an organization, financing, strategic planning - and more.

  • Dogs

    Should Rover roam free? How does one handle pet owners who don't stoop to scoop? Let's face it - man's best friend is a hot issue in many parks. We hope the materials here can bring together people from both sides of dog-run fence.

  • Comparative Park Management Models

    This 2003 study delves into the departmental organization, partnership programs, and funding models and strategies for parks systems in Chicago, San Francisco, and Boston.
    New Yorkers for Parks