Cooperating Associations and the National Park Service
Cooperating Associations are one of the oldest and most enduring partnerships of the NPS. Beginning in the 1920s, Park Service naturalists and historians partnered with private citizens to form nonprofit organizations to assist park areas and serve park visitors.

These nonprofit organizations supported park programs and projects that were not readily achievable through the use of federal funds and personnel. The first of these, Yosemite Museum Association, was established in 1923 to lead a fundraising effort for a museum in Yosemite Valley. Upon successful completion of that project, the Association expanded its mission to support other kinds of park educational needs, such as providing inexpensive quality guides, maps and interpretive literature.

Today, cooperating associations are a vital extension of the NPS’s interpretive and educational operations. Cooperating associations help connect individuals to the nation’s parks by selling educational and interpretive materials, providing information services, conducting educational programs and field institutes, and raising contributions to support the interpertive and educational mission of the parks. Sixty-four associations operated 1,000 outlets in 325 units of the National Park Service in fiscal year 2004.

Many federal land management agencies, as well as some state and local public land agencies, have partnerships with cooperating associations (also known as interpretive associations). After more than 80 years of collaboration with government agencies, cooperating associations are well established as mechanisms for providing exceptional interpretive and visitor services.