We are often asked, “what’s the difference between Friends of Metro Parks and Metro Parks?”
Columbus and Franklin County Metro Parks is an independent political subdivision of the state of Ohio organized to conserve natural resources and provide natural area parks for people to enjoy. Metro Parks is a separate subdivision of the state of Ohio and is not under the administration of any other governmental unit. The Metro Parks are funded by a 10 year levy voted on by Franklin County residents.
Friends of Metro Parks is a 501c(3) nonprofit organization designed to help support the Metro Parks through advocacy, outreach, and fundraising. All of our funding comes from individual donations, membership dues, and grants.
Friends of Metro Parks sells beer at Scioto Fest as a fundraising opportunity
While the Metro Parks use their funding to buy equipment, hire rangers, maintenance staff, and naturalists, and generally keep the parks safe and clean, the Friends of Metro Parks are able to do some more fun things with our money. Friends of Metro Parks is responsible for beer sales at Metro Parks events, giant bubbles and bird feeding stations, popcorn machines and winter hiking sticks, passports and fancy fundraisers in the parks. We add the extras so that the Metro Parks can focus on the bigger things.
One of the ways we do this is through our Tad Jeffrey Memorial Fund. The Tad Jeffrey Fund was created so that we can provide parks with a grant to make improvements to the Metro Parks. This is one of the best funds to donate to if you want to see your donation make a change through tangible additions to the Metro Parks. This year, we funded a Basketball Hoop at Battelle Darby, Prairie Oaks Lake Temperature Monitoring, Blacklick Woods bird feeding station updates, a falconry package at Blendon Woods, bathyscopes for creeking, and binoculars for birding, screech owl nest boxes and purple martin nesting structures, as well as updated prescribed burn equipment to help keep our natural resources team safe.
Black Women in Nature, one of our Parks Connect recipients, takes a stroll
Another way our nonprofit helps support the Metro Parks is by getting more people to the parks. We partner with community groups to help provide transportation to the Metro Parks through our Parks Connect Grants. If you want to see more people in the Metro Parks and improve access to these amazing free spaces, we have a fund for that! In 2026, the Parks Connect Grants have helped 14 community groups get their participants out to the Metro Parks. That’s hundreds of people! For every $250 that are donated to this fund, we are able to send a school bus full of kids to visit the Metro Parks, many of them for the first time!
This Giving Tuesday, December 1st, help us replenish our Parks Connect and Tad Jeffrey funds. When you donate to these funds, we are able to make a direct difference in the Metro Parks. Because these donations are allocated specifically to these funds, you donation cannot be used for anything but making improvements (Tad Jeffrey) or for introducing new people into the Metro Parks (Parks Connect.)
Follow along this month to see more about how we impact our community through the Parks Connect and Tad Jeffrey grants.