How Local Businesses Support Olympic National Park

Local business support matters a great deal to a small national park nonprofit like ours. Friends of Olympic National Park is a volunteer-led 501(c)(3) in Port Angeles, and the shops, breweries and companies around us help in ways big and small. Here is what that support looks like, what it has already done for FONP, and how your business can take part.

Why local businesses matter to a park friends group

We are a small, volunteer-led group. Our volunteer board of 12 community members runs cleanups, guided walks, Junior Ranger Day and the Winter Perspectives Series, and funds park activities the National Park Service budget doesn’t cover. Every dollar and every pair of hands goes a long way.

Businesses on the North Olympic Peninsula also have a stake in a healthy park. Visitors who come for Hurricane Ridge, the Hoh or the coast eat, sleep and shop in our towns. When a business helps the park, it helps the place its customers came to see.

Host a giveback night: a Port Angeles business fundraiser

A giveback night is the simplest Port Angeles business fundraiser there is. A business picks a day, shares a portion of its sales with a nonprofit, and both sides invite their friends. Customers do what they would do anyway, and the park benefits.

Our own example is Worthy Wednesday at Mighty Pine Brewing. On Earth Day, April 22, 2026, the brewery at 540 E 8th St in Port Angeles gave 15% of all sales from 2 PM to 9 PM to Friends of Olympic National Park. Thank you, Mighty Pine.

What makes a giveback night work

• A clear share of sales, announced ahead of time
• A date with a hook, such as Earth Day or the start of summer
• Both partners sharing the event with their own customers and members
• A few volunteers on hand to say thank you and talk about the park

Corporate giving: small grants go a long way

Corporate giving for a national park doesn’t have to mean a big check. On February 20, 2025, FONP was awarded a $250 Clean Trail Program Grant from Extreme Terrain. The funds are for trail maintenance, as needed and directed by trail crews working in the park.

You can read about it on our Extreme Terrain Clean Trail grant page. Trail work is close to our hearts, from park crews to our own Heart O’ the Forest adopt-a-trail crew. If your company runs a community grant program, we would be glad to apply.

In-kind gifts: goods and services

Not every gift is cash. A café might bring coffee to a cleanup morning, a print shop might print flyers for a talk, or a hardware store might offer gloves and bags. Skills count too, from photography to bookkeeping.

Before you box anything up, please email us. We are a small group with no warehouse, so we’ll tell you honestly what we can use right now.

Employee volunteer days

A morning outdoors together is good for a team. Our public work days include beach cleanups, Visitor Center grounds cleanups and invasive plant pulls, and a group from one workplace is welcome to join. Volunteers register through Volunteer.gov.

Start with our guide to beach cleanups in Olympic National Park and the list of upcoming events. Then email us with your group’s size, and we’ll suggest a work day that fits.

Matching gifts and volunteer grants

Many employers match the gifts their staff make to charities, and some also give a grant when an employee volunteers a set number of hours. The rules differ from company to company, so check with your HR or giving team.

If your employer offers a match, you’ll usually need our legal name and Tax ID. We are Friends of Olympic National Park, a registered 501(c)(3), Tax ID 02-0619892. A matched gift on Giving Tuesday for Olympic National Park doubles what you give.

Ways a business can help, compared

Option	What it involves	Good fit for
Giveback night	Share of one day’s sales	Breweries, restaurants, cafés
Grant	A set amount for a project	Companies with giving programs
In-kind gift	Goods, printing or skills	Shops and service firms
Volunteer day	Staff join a public work day	Teams that want time outdoors
Matching gift	Employer matches staff gifts	Employers of any size
Direct gift	A one-time or yearly donation	Any business owner

Business sponsorship and how we say thank you

We don’t publish sponsorship tiers or benefit packages. Each partnership is worked out with our board, and we keep thanks simple and honest, such as a mention on our events page or at the event itself.

Under IRS rules on advertising and qualified sponsorship payments, a charity naming a sponsor or showing its logo counts as an acknowledgment, not advertising. Endorsements or price information would cross that line. How a gift counts on your own return is a question for your accountant.

Inside the park itself, the rules are stricter. National Park Service policy (Director’s Order 21) notes that federal law bars advertising, endorsements and the sale of naming rights in parks. We are a local friends group, not the park, so we never promise a logo on a park sign.

How to get started

1. Pick the kind of help that suits your business from the table above.
2. Email fonp2020@gmail.com with your idea and a few dates.
3. Agree on the details with our board, then tell your customers.

Prefer to give directly? Visit our page to support Olympic National Park, or contact our volunteer board. To see how we fit alongside the park’s other partners, read our guide to Olympic National Park support organizations.

Frequently asked questions