There are a variety of non-profit organizations that work to promote or help sustain programs within and on behalf of Yellowstone.
The nonprofit Yellowstone Association funds and provides educational products and services for Yellowstone National Park. The Yellowstone Association is the National Park Service’s primary partner in providing educational programs, exhibits, and publications for park visitors and has furnished over $21 million in support for Yellowstone since its inception in 1933.
Since its inception, the Yellowstone Association has reached millions of park visitors through publications, trail leaflets, artwork, exhibits, pamphlets, films, and countless other programs and projects. The Association’s educational sales areas and field school programs also play a key role in visitor education. These efforts have furthered the preservation of Yellowstone Park through education, and the exceptional mission of the Association continues today in increasingly diverse and effective ways. All of the net proceeds from Association activities are used to support preservation through education in Yellowstone National Park.
The Yellowstone Association also operates the Yellowstone Institute.
You can become a member of the Yellowstone Association and help support Yellowstone. Members get discounts on YA publications, classes, and lodging within the park itself during certain times of the year.
There is a Grand Teton Park Association as well. Membership in either allows you to obtain discounts at stores operated by either group.
The Yellowstone Park Foundation
The Yellowstone Park Foundation is a 501(c)3, non-profit organization created in 1996. A group of concerned citizens, working with the National Park Service, started the Foundation in order to protect, preserve, and enhance Yellowstone National Park.
The Foundation works to fund important projects and programs, many of which are beyond the financial capacity of the National Park Service. The Foundation receives no annual government funding; it relies instead upon the generous support of private citizens, foundations, and corporations to ensure that Yellowstone’s great gifts to the world will never diminish.
Since its inception, the Yellowstone Park Foundation has successfully funded more than 150 projects in Yellowstone.
The Yellowstone Ecological Research Center
The Yellowstone Ecological Research Center is committed to long-term, large-scale, multi-disciplinary research and education in the Yellowstone Ecosystem. We are an independent, private, non-profit organization dedicated to increasing the role of science at the decision-making table.
YERC is currently conducting 27 research projects encompassing a wide variety of ecosystem inhabitants, processes, and indicators. Those projects include modeling elk migration across biologically complex boundaries; fusion of hyperspectral and radar imagery to identify and monitor indicators of ecosystem health; wetland and amphibian surveys to understand their declines; investigating the interactive role of predation and habitat structure in declining pronghorn antelope populations; mapping the diseases of whitebark pine–a crucial fall food source for grizzlies; understanding the long-term effects of the ’88 fires on streams and small mammal communities; and, of course, the continuation of our long-term study of Yellowstone’s three canids: wolves, coyotes, and red foxes.
The Geyser Observation and Study Association
The Geyser Observation and Study Association (GOSA) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit scientific and eductional corporation. Founded in 1983 and incorporated in 1988, GOSA’s purpose is the collection and dissemination of information about geysers and other geothermal phenomena in Yellowstone National Park and elsewhere.
Historical Figures
Working in Yellowstone