Philanthropic Support
As the official philanthropic partner of the C&O Canal National Historical Park, the C&O Canal Trust provides essential funding to sustain and enhance one of the nation’s most visited national parks.
Contributions from individuals, foundations, and corporations allow the Trust to invest in critical priorities: preserving historic structures, conserving natural landscapes, ensuring towpath continuity, and expanding educational and recreational opportunities. This philanthropic support strengthens the park today while building long-term capacity for future generations.
The C&O Canal Trust is proud to make it possible for park lovers like you to play a direct role in preserving this national treasure. Your generosity supports the care of historic structures, the protection of natural landscapes, and the creation of meaningful experiences for millions of visitors. Every gift helps safeguard the canal’s beauty and stories so they can inspire generations to come.
While national parks face ongoing challenges, partnerships like ours provide critical support that builds capacity, preserves the park’s resources, and enhances the visitor experience.
The Trust currently provides dedicated funding to five specific park initiatives: Beautification; Canal Classrooms; Friends of Great Falls Tavern; Natural Resource Conservation; and Towpath Rehabilitation.
To date, 115 miles of the C&O Canal’s 184.5-mile towpath have been rehabilitated. Thanks to the funding support of private donors to the Trust’s Towpath Forever campaign, along with investment from the National Park Service and the State of Maryland’s Transportation Alternatives Program (TAP), towpath rehabilitation continues. The Trust has helped the park secure over $7 million of TAP funding for towpath rehabilitation. A new Trust initiative to expand support for historic culvert repairs and preservation was launched in fall 2025 to build awareness and essential funding for the park’s supporting structures.
The C&O Canal is beloved by millions for its natural beauty, rich recreational opportunities, and accessibility for millions of visitors. What is less well known is that it is one of the most biologically diverse national parks in the nation. Through phiilanthropic support, volunteer engagement, and educational programs, the Trust is committed to advancing the conservation of natural resources in the park. We help protect our region’s incredible mosaic of natural habitats. Through focused stewardship, we can ensure the natural beauty of the C&O Canal, one of the nation’s most biologically diverse national parks, endures for generations to come.
In 2024, through the generosity of individual donors and foundations, the Trust raised over $50,000 for Canal Classrooms – a program for K-12 students that is built on STEAM-based curricula (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Math). Students can expect to be fully immersed in the natural and historical resources of the C&O Canal. During the 2023-2024 school year, over 3,000 students visited the park through the Canal Classrooms program through 45 field trips with student groups participating from a variety of 19 different program offerings across the 184.5 miles of the park, meeting local curriculum needs and standards including topics such as Weathering & Erosion, Dendrology, Transportation History, Immigrant History, Environmental Education, and Plant Identification.
Questions?
Please contact our development team at [email protected].
Photo credits: Francis Grant-Suttie, Trust Staff, Leigh Scott, National Park Service