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Since its formation, the Foundation has served as a vehicle for scores of special projects, large and small. In some cases, volunteers have chosen to form a Friends Group that is formally affiliated with the Foundation and involved in ongoing promotional and fundraising activities for their favorite park or park resource.
Benefits of Friends Group status include having the Foundation serve as an advocate for their plans to the Department of Park and Planning and the Montgomery County Planning Board. The Foundation can help expedite the project through government channels. In addition, a Friends Group can use the endorsement of the M-NCPPC and the Foundation to help aid its fundraising efforts. The Foundation may, under appropriate circumstances, also provide staff support and direction on a project-by-project basis.
More typically, community groups organize to undertake and complete a special park project such as a playground renovation rather than to provide long term support for a particular park or park resource. Such groups prefer not to incorporate and acquire Friends Group status but, instead, to have the Foundation serve as the recipient of tax-deductible donations and as a conduit for payment of expenses for the project’s duration. This option offers a practical vehicle for completing projects in a timely way. Donors are thereby provided with the added incentive of ensuring that their donations to the group’s special project are tax-deductible.
See the guidelines that provide further details on the relative advantages of Friends Groups vs. Special Project Affiliates, as well as the obligations of both. For further information, telephone the Foundation’s office at (301) 767-0002.