National Parks Business Plan Internship Program | P21AS00378

Opportunity Information: Apply for P21AS00378

The National Parks Business Plan Internship Program is a National Park Service (NPS) cooperative agreement funding opportunity aimed at partnering with an outside organization to help run a structured, graduate-level internship program that strengthens the long-term financial and operational health of national parks. The program is built around the National Parks Business Plan Internship (BPI) model, where small teams of graduate students (typically two to three interns) are placed on-site in park units or NPS program offices for multi-week assignments. These assignments are designed to tackle real, concrete analysis needs, especially in areas like financial management, strategic planning, and operational decision-making. The bigger goal is not only to complete useful projects for the parks, but also to give advanced-degree students serious professional development and a clearer pathway into public land management careers, while building a lasting stewardship mindset toward public lands.

A key feature of this opportunity is that it relies on substantial NPS involvement alongside the partner organization. Within NPS, overall program management and technical leadership comes from the NPS Business Management Group (BMG) in the Office of the Deputy Director for Management and Administration. The BMG is responsible for identifying and developing the internship projects and serving as the in-house expert on the financial and business management tools used across NPS. They also provide interns with training and orientation so students can work effectively within the realities of federal finance and park operations. Meanwhile, the selected partner organization is expected to take the lead on the program design and day-to-day administration that makes the internship program function smoothly. That includes outreach to universities and students, recruiting and selection support, intern onboarding, coordinating placement logistics (including travel and on-site arrangements as needed), tracking and evaluating program outcomes, and maintaining alumni engagement after internships end. The announcement makes it clear that strong administrative capacity and experience managing similar programs are essential, because the quality and timeliness of the park projects depend on those operational details being handled well.

The program objectives emphasize both mission impact and workforce development. On the mission side, the internships are meant to produce substantive analysis and evaluation that results in practical recommendations parks can use to improve planning, budgeting, and management decisions. On the workforce development side, the program is meant to encourage highly qualified graduate students, especially those from professional disciplines that are less represented in the current NPS workforce, to consider careers in federal conservation and land management. The opportunity specifically highlights degree areas like Master of Business Administration (MBA), Master of Public Policy (MPP), Master of Environmental Management (MEM), and similar programs, reflecting the program focus on business, analytics, and applied management skill sets that complement traditional park and resource roles. Another explicit objective is to cultivate a lifelong stewardship ethic among students from top universities by giving them direct exposure to how parks operate and how management decisions affect long-term outcomes.

From an administrative standpoint, this is a discretionary funding opportunity issued by the National Park Service under a cooperative agreement instrument, which signals an expectation of active federal involvement rather than a hands-off grant. The funding activity is categorized under education, consistent with the internship and training emphasis. Eligible applicants are broad and include various levels of government, public and private institutions of higher education, and nonprofit organizations (including both 501(c)(3) and non-501(c)(3) nonprofits). The opportunity number is P21AS00378, and the posted award ceiling is $2,000,000. The original application closing date listed for this opportunity was June 3, 2021, with a creation date of March 2, 2021.

• The National Park Service in the education sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "National Parks Business Plan Internship Program" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 15.954.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2021-03-02.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2021-06-03. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $2,000,000.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Special district governments, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Nonprofits having a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Nonprofits that do not have a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education.

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