Your opportunity for getting involved in protecting and caring for the Blue Ridge Parkway is provided through two organizations, The Friends of the Blue Ridge Parkway and the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation.  Operating alongside Friends and the Foundation is Eastern National, the Parkway's cooperating association that sells educational items at all visitor centers, returning a percentage of the sales back to the park.

The Friends of the Blue Ridge Parkway is a membership organization founded in 1989 and currently having over 5,000 members.  The Friends' primary mission is to mobilize and provide leadership for volunteers who assist with a wide variety of Parkway projects.  Contact them to find out more about how to be involved with projects such as trail construction or viewshed protection.

The Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation is a non-profit foundation, serving as the primary fundraising organization for the Parkway.  The Foundation solicits donations and bequests from individuals, as well as grants and corporate support for a broad range of programs and activities that providing lasting benefits to the Parkway and its visitors.  Contact the Foundation if you would like to help support Parks As Classrooms, Preservation of the Moses Cone Memorial Park, or if you have an idea of your own!

We appreciate your interest in volunteering or in giving a financial gift, either of which helps us preserve park resources and serve present and future generations of visitors. The tradition of philanthropy that began in the last century continues to make a critical difference in the important work of preserving national parks. You may specify the intended purpose of a gift made directly to the Blue Ridge Parkway. Those funds will be deposited in a donation account and the full amount will be spent as you intended. Please contact us at (828) 271 4779, x241 for details concerning a direct financial contribution to the Blue Ridge Parkway. Thank you.

Other Parkway partners include:

 The Conservation Trust for North Carolina, whose "Preservers of the Parkway" initiative raises funds to protect scenic vistas along the Parkway in North Carolina.  The Western Virginia Land Trust protects Parkway vistas in a similar fashion in Virginia.

The National Council for the Traditional Arts, heavily involved in arranging the concert series each summer at the Parkway's Blue Ridge Music Center.

The Blue Ridge Parkway Association, an association that promotes the region through chambers of commerce and travel businesses throughout the Parkway region.

The Southern Highlands Craft Guild, the region's premier non-profit craft organization, that sells items at the Moses H. Cone Memorial Park and at the Folk Art Center.