The urgency and importance of your support

Over the course of 30 years of collaboration and partnership, we have built more than 1,000 miles of East Coast Greenway that have become the most visited park in America. Supporters of our nonprofit, the East Coast Greenway Alliance, have made that possible. Thank you to everyone who has contributed. We have made a huge impact together, as we welcome people biking, running, walking and rolling throughout our 450 communities and 15 states.

But our job isn’t done. We need your continued partnership. And if you are one of the 100,000-plus people who have been following our Greenway progress, but haven’t yet donated – now is the perfect time to join the team.

Our staff members are key to the development of the East Coast Greenway. The recent record-setting federal, state and local funding for design and construction goes directly to building the Greenway - as it should. The Alliance needs your support to continue our advocacy work that is fueling completion of the Greenway. We have historically turned every dollar donated into $100 in public investment by leveraging our expertise, experience and the relationships we have developed through the years to navigate infrastructure funding programs from the local to the federal level.

Historic Need Meets Historic Opportunity

With catastrophic fires, droughts, floods and heat, the climate needs us to step up. With the tragic increase in deaths of people walking and bicycling across the United States, public safety needs us to step up. With our media system pushing division across lines of difference at dangerous levels that makes governmental compromise for the common good extremely difficult, our nation needs our unifying project to step up. And with public health challenges persisting as sedentary lifestyles and staring at screens inhibits our ability to move and connect with nature and each other, our mental and physical health needs us to step up. Completing the East Coast Greenway will strike at the heart of key issues of the day with transformative power for the climate, safety, community and health.

This federal infrastructure moment is our best chance to get the Greenway done. We have moved almost $1 billion in Greenway investment forward during the COVID recovery period. And we have three more years of unprecedented transportation infrastructure funding totaling another $300-plus billion. Less than 1% of that would be enough (with a 20% state or local funding match) to complete the entire East Coast Greenway from Maine to Florida. This is our moment to meet the needs of our communities during a once-in-a-generation opportunity.

We have scaled up our organization over the past few years to meet the moment, but the only way we can sustain this higher level is with your strong support.

With our sustained track record of a 100-fold return on every donation to the East Coast Greenway Alliance, a $50 membership turns into $5,000 that can become a bench to rest, signs for navigation or lights for safer winter commuting. A $1,000 gift can help us secure $100,000 to plan and design one of the last remaining gaps in your region. And a philanthropic institution’s $100,000 grant can give us the capacity to connect with a $10 million funding program to construct miles of Greenway that transform a community. 

Unrestricted donations are the lifeblood of our nonprofit, making everything possible from essential organizational functions to visionary events that bring the Greenway dream to life. Please support our transformational vision in this historic moment of need and opportunity, whether you are a longtime supporter who has been our foundation for success or you are a new teammate who can help take us to new heights of impact. 

Every donation makes a difference. 

I appreciate you and everything you bring to this effort to complete the most visited park in the United States. We already host people from all over the world today. Imagine the transformation we can achieve together by seizing this infrastructure moment for our climate, our safety, our community and our health.

Onward together,

Dennis Markatos-Soriano, Executive Director

Invest in the East Coast Greenway today: