On Feb. 18, Atlanta nonprofit Park Pride announced its 2026 grant recipients with 19 capital projects across the city and DeKalb County, ranging from benches and entrances to playgrounds and “gathering spaces.”

Over 60 percent of this year’s funds,  or about $2.5 million, are being invested in historically disinvested communities. Just a few years ago, in 2023, the entire grant cycle cost $2.5 million.

The grants are made possible through public and private support, with funders from the Robert W. Woodruff Foundation, The Home Depot Foundation, The Coca-Cola Foundation and the City of Atlanta.

“Partnership is at the heart of how we deliver great parks for Atlanta,”  the city Department of Parks & Recreation Commissioner Justin Cutler said. “We’re proud to support Park Pride’s efforts to uplift Atlanta’s parks and communities.”

Park Pride is several years into its 2022  “Parks for All” multi-year initiative, a comprehensive campaign to increase “park equity” and investment. In 2025, the organization awarded over $3 million to 23 park projects across the city.

Park Pride’s Director of Grantmaking and Implementation, Andrew White, said the nonprofit has invested over $10 million since 2021 into historically disinvested communities alone. The goal is simple: “great parks for everyone to enjoy.”

The projects are split into “three buckets,” play, access and gathering. Here’s a list of each park and its awarded project.

Places to play:

• Ellsworth Park: Redesigned and replaced the playground with new, more durable structures for different ages
• Frazier-Rowe Park: A new playground with interactive climbing structures and an integrated slide
• Thomasville Park: A new, inclusive, ADA-accessible playscape expansion

Spaces to gather:

• Ben Hill Park: New picnic tables
• Cabbagetown Park: New amphitheater
• Ella Mae Wade Brayboy Memorial Park: Three new gathering places
• Grant Park: A new outdoor classroom and gathering space behind the Milledge Foundation, which will also address drainage issues

Improved Access

• Adair Park II:  Murphy Avenue entrance will be transformed into a safe, welcoming, multi-use gateway
• Chattahoochee Park: Restored parking lot, new lighting and a dog park
• Coach Rambo Park: A new bridge to connect Dixie Hills neighborhood residents to the park
• Empire Park:  Revitalized basketball court, walkways and an improved main entrance
• Freedom Park: Updated wayfinding signage to show connecting neighborhoods and paths
• Maddox Park: New pedestrian park entrance and trail connection at the Bankhead MARTA station
• Mountain Way Common: A connective trail segment to unlock both sides of the park for all
• Wade Walker Park:  New wayfinding and trail markets

As the Grantmaking Director, Andrew White explained that the process begins a year in advance.  Park Pride sends out an alert to their network of community groups, often called “Friends of” the park, to ask what they are most interested in working on.

From there, the groups submit pitches. There are some key requirements: the city must grant permission, and they must align with the grant goals. But Park Pride works with all levels of “readiness.”

“It’s a complicated process, but it’s meant to support groups that might not otherwise feel it,” White said.

Some organizations do significant fundraising and come to Park Pride with shovel-ready, fully designed projects. Others come with great ideas but need more help to get started.

“We work closely, especially with those communities,” White said.

This year, the nonprofit gave out three Design Awards to park support groups: Friends of Herbert Greene Nature Preserve, Friends of Lionel Hampton Beecher Hills Park and Friends of Mozley Park will each be able to create a “community-supported construction design” and apply for a grant next year.

White said this is the first year Park Pride has used “project type” categories for its grantees. It helps organize the projects, but it also helped the grant director see what needs more support.

“Access is one that I really see, in my own observations, a need for further investment,” White said. “You can put in a new playground, but if you don’t have a way for people to, you know, get to the playground pushing the stroller, then what have you really done?”

He described the new approach as more “holistic” or “comprehensive” than years past. It’s also a more hands-on approach. White is not only the grant director, but he’s also the head of “implementation.” It’s his job to make sure the projects actually get done.

“We’re trying to think not just about the individual things that we can put into the park, but about the park design itself and how it connects to the neighborhood,” White said.

Once the organizations and volunteers have funding, Park Pride helps with permitting and procurement to make sure each group can complete its vision within its budget.

Throughout the process, White said most people would be “surprised by how much stuff costs.” Some things, like a park bench, seem simple. But one bench would cost around $8,000 from design to installation. Larger-scale projects like a playground will run a bill north of $300,000.

The entire affair is “hard work,” according to White. He has already begun working on the 2026 grant cycle. But as each community brings its park vision to life, he thinks the hard work is “worth it.”

“The most important thing is that the community, it’s their project, it’s their idea, it’s their initiative,” White said. “We don’t want to be the ones deciding what the project should be, but rather we come alongside the community.”

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