AMERICAN PUBLIC GARDENS ASSOCIATION
Advancing public gardens as leaders, advocates, and innovators
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Our vision is a world where public gardens are indispensable. Our role as an Association is to Connect, Protect, and Champion the work of public gardens and the work they do. The Association: * Connects the field of public horticulture to strengthen collaboration and to enhance its impact. * Protects our natural heritage and ensures the future of public horticulture through pioneering programs and advocacy. * Champions the role of public horticulture in improving the quality of life for all.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Plant Protection Program
The Plant Protection Program encompasses a variety of activities and resources that engage public gardens in forest health protection and plant conservation.
Educational Outreach: Providing interpretive signs and plant labels to enhance the experiential learning opportunity that your garden provides and educate visitors about a wide variety of topics related to forest health, invasive species and plant conservation.
Plant Heroes Youth Program: A valuable resource for public garden professionals, parents and teachers looking for innovative ways to educate young learners about the importance of plants and engage them in protecting forest health.
Sentinel Plant Network: Scouting resources, diagnostic support and educational materials to help public gardens stop serious pests and diseases by working on the front lines of early detection and engaging community members as citizen scientists.
Plant Collections Network
The American Public Gardens Association Plant Collections Network coordinates a continent-wide approach to plant germplasm preservation, and promotes excellence in plant collections management.
Nationally Accredited Plant Collections may serve as references for plant identification and cultivar registration. Collection holders make germplasm available for taxonomic studies, evaluation, breeding, and other research. Participating institutions compare holdings with others to identify duplications and gaps. This makes efficient use of available resources, strengthening collections through combined collaborative activities.
Plant Collections Network is a long-term collaboration between the American Public Gardens Association and the USDA–Agricultural Research Service. Formerly the North American Plant Collections Consortium (NAPCC), its first collections were accredited in 1996.
The Climate and Sustainability Alliance
The Climate & Sustainability Alliance offers a portal of resources for public garden professionals. From operational sustainability and benchmarking tools to educational curriculum, the new resources provide public gardens with support for communicating about and mitigating the impacts of climate change on plants and the ecosystems we all depend upon.
Climate Change poses an existential threat to the flora and ecosystems public gardens showcase and conserve. The American Public Gardens Association is committed to supporting member gardens as leaders in sustainability and global climate change awareness.
Climate Resources
Public Gardens advocate for the value of plants and strive to combat “plant blindness.” The Climate & Sustainability Alliance shares cutting edge research on how climate change is affecting plants and plant conservation efforts. The American Public Gardens Association and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) partnership provides public garden professionals with opportunities for exchange on the impacts of climate variability and change, while utilizing the most current climate data.
Education and Engaging Communities
Public Gardens have unique credibility as trusted science and conservation educators. As important centers of conservation as well as formal and informal science education, public gardens serve as a major source of climate change and sustainability information for visitors and students of all ages and skill levels. The Climate & Sustainability Alliance connects public garden educators and communications professionals with curriculum and pedagogy to address the challenges of communicating climate change to diverse audiences.
Establishing Sector-wide Sustainability Standards
At the intersection of nature, culture and community, public gardens are uniquely positioned to lead the transition to a sustainable future. The Public Garden Sustainability Index is an industry-specific tool to help gardens large and small meaningfully act upon the opportunity and fulfill the evolving stewardship responsibility that lies at the core of our collective mission. Environmental goals are determined within a structure that encompasses Environmental, Social, and Financial Sustainability.
Where we work
External reviews
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Number of attendees at our professional development events
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
This number includes attendees at symposia, Sentinel Plant Network workshops, webinars, and our Annual Conference.
Total number of organization members
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Context Notes
This number represents individuals that are Association members covered under their garden's membership account.
Our Sustainable Development Goals
Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.
Goals & Strategy
Reports and documents
Download strategic planLearn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
GOAL 1: ENGAGEMENT
Grow and nurture relationships with members by offering services and resources that anticipate and fulfill their needs.
GOAL 2: PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Offer quality educational resources and exemplary professional development opportunities to a diverse membership.
GOAL 3: LEADERSHIP & RESILIENCE
Lead the promotion of public gardens as cornerstones for resilient, healthy communities. Build capacity and enhance the ability to extol how their work provides solutions to local and global challenges.
GOAL 4: ORGANIZATIONAL EXCELLENCE
Continue pursuit of organizational excellence and a business model that promotes sustainability, resilience, and core IDEA (inclusion, diversity, equity, and access) principles.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
GOAL 1 ENGAGEMENT OBJ
1. Attract and engage diverse membership; 2. Expand and enhance member benefits and resources; 3.Synergize our signature programs; 4. Cultivate strategic partners
GOAL 2 PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OBJ
1. Expand access to programs and resources; 2. Utilize and create professional development opportunities that promote industry talent to future leadership roles; 3. Promote connections to build relationships
GOAL 3 LEADERSHIP & RESILIENCE OBJ
1. Galvanize gardens to proactively build and sustain resilience while navigating change; 2. Benchmark, articulate, and advocate the value of public gardens as an influential voice for the industry.
GOAL 4 ORG EXCELLENCE OBJ
1. Diversify and increase funding while building efficiencies and reserves; 2. Foster a positive, service-oriented workplace culture that values and develops its people and advances IDEA principles in all operations; 3. Follow best practices for board governance and succession to recruit, engage, and develop qualified, diverse board members that reflect the Association; 4. Ensure efficient use of technology in all operations
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
We have an active, engaged, and knowledgeable Board of Directors and a dynamic and talented staff that works together to achieve goals.
We also work together with our 10,000 members and partnering organizations to strengthen and shape public horticulture, providing the tools and support industry professionals need to better serve the public while preserving and celebrating plants creatively and sustainably.
Since 1940, we have been committed to increasing cooperation and awareness among gardens. Our members include more than 600 institutions, spanning all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Canada, and 20 countries. Our members include, but are not limited to, botanic gardens, arboreta, zoos, museums, colleges and universities, display gardens, and research facilities. We also include Corporate members who are considered partners in the public garden industry.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
Our 2024 Strategic Plan focuses on a goal of raising our collective external voice to empower gardens to grow communities.
We re-tooled our primary public awareness program (GO Public Gardens) to enable public gardens to leverage community connections and to attract corporate partnerships. We evolved our database and website to create a more customized experience.
We also added new tools - the Garden Survey, Conservation, and Compensation and Benefits benchmarking platforms, now in year 4 of data collecting and reporting. We expanded our scholarship program to broaden accessibility, and introduced new fundraising campaigns.
We adopted Gift Acceptance and Corporate Partner policies to position us for more active and diversified fundraising, and adopted an advocacy policy.
Our Sustainability Index Project enables gardens to chart a course to improve their organization's environmental, economic, and social sustainability.
The Association formed an IDEA board committee in 2017 and is working actively to inspire their member gardens to tackle issues of diversity and inclusion in their organizations.
With the onset of COVID-19 and garden closures impacting our membership, the Association quickly ramped up its virtual professional development capacity to reach members where they are with learning tools and connectivity. We also conducted a 9700STRONG fundraising campaign to help support member dues for those hardest hit.
Finally, in light of both natural and financial crises, Association rolled out a Disaster Readiness Initiative. This initiative works to establish public gardens as cornerstones of resilient, healthy communities by creating Disaster Readiness Plans, building capacity and enhancing the ability to extol how public gardens can provide solutions to local and global challenges. It is our hope that this initiative will galvanize gardens to proactively build and sustain resilience while navigating change by:
• Providing disaster preparedness and response resources
• Connecting gardens to a peer support network
• Growing gardens as leaders in operational sustainability
• Providing tools that help gardens achieve financial stability and maintain community relevancy
• Facilitating methods for gardens to safeguard and proactively plan for the long-term health of their plant collections
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To identify where we are less inclusive or equitable across demographic groups, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
We collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, We take steps to get feedback from marginalized or under-represented people, We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We look for patterns in feedback based on demographics (e.g., race, age, gender, etc.), We look for patterns in feedback based on people’s interactions with us (e.g., site, frequency of service, etc.), We engage the people who provide feedback in looking for ways we can improve in response, We act on the feedback we receive, We tell the people who gave us feedback how we acted on their feedback, We ask the people who gave us feedback how well they think we responded
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
We don't have any major challenges to collecting feedback
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
AMERICAN PUBLIC GARDENS ASSOCIATION
Board of directorsas of 01/24/2022
Ms. MaryLynn Mack
South Coast Botanic Garden
Term: 2021 - 2023
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? Yes
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Transgender Identity
Sexual orientation
Disability
No data
Equity strategies
Last updated: 07/06/2021GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more
- We review compensation data across the organization (and by staff levels) to identify disparities by race.
- We ask team members to identify racial disparities in their programs and / or portfolios.
- We disaggregate data to adjust programming goals to keep pace with changing needs of the communities we support.
- We have long-term strategic plans and measurable goals for creating a culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.
- We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
- We have community representation at the board level, either on the board itself or through a community advisory board.
- We engage everyone, from the board to staff levels of the organization, in race equity work and ensure that individuals understand their roles in creating culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.