The city is partnering with the Yakima Valley Community Foundation to give people a way to donate directly to parks and recreation programs and facilities.
Going into 2026, the Yakima Parks and Recreation department is facing major cuts that will reduce parks maintenance, community programs and facility availability.
For months, the City Council has been working to address a $9 million budget shortfall. Over the summer, the council approved around $3 million in cuts, reducing funding for things like Tahoma Cemetery lawn watering, the summer concert series and movies in the park. Funding for youth and adult sports programs was eliminated.
After a property tax levy on the November ballot failed, the City Council made an additional $6 million in cuts, including a proposed $3 million from police, $1.75 million from fire and $1.4 million from parks and recreation.
The proposed parks and recreation cuts included reducing parks maintenance by 16% and eliminating general fund contributions to the Yakima Harman Senior Center, Washington Fruit Community Center and Lions Pool. After hearing from dozens of concerned community members, council members agreed to use one-time reserve funding to keep the Harman Center open for all of 2026, the Washington Fruit Community Center open through June and Lions Pool open through February — but the long-term future of the facilities is still uncertain.
Sharon Miracle, president and CEO of the Yakima Valley Community Foundation, said she believes the impacts of the cuts will be hard to ignore, especially when it comes to parks maintenance.
“It means bathroom facilities will be closed. It means those porta Johns that are out around the parks for maybe a senior taking a walk in the park, or a mom with a young child who needs to go to the bathroom — those won’t be available, and our parks won’t be well cared for,” she said. “And those are green spaces that not just local residents use, but people coming to our town see and visit, and it’s one of the things that makes this community vibrant.”
Earlier this year, the city and community foundation set up a fund to help save summer concerts and movies. Now, they’re opening four more funds where people can contribute to the Harman Center, Washington Fruit Community Center, Lions Pool and park maintenance.
A longstanding partnership
Ken Wilkinson, the city’s parks and recreation manager, said the city’s partnership with the Yakima Valley Community Foundation isn’t new.
In 2018, the city received multiple anonymous donations for improvements at Randall Park and approached the community foundation about setting up a fund to manage and invest the money. The community foundation said yes, and with the help of additional donations and state funding, the city was able to complete a $1.4 million renovation project at Randall Park.
The two entities have also partnered to open up funds for Miller Park improvements and construction of the Martin Luther King Jr. Aquatic Center — the latter of which received around $3 million in community donations.
The partnership gives people a place where they can easily make tax deductible donations for city projects with no fees attached. It also helps assure people their money is going to the specific cause they want it to, Miracle said.
“This is a way that folks can actually make sure and feel comfortable that what they’re donating to — for example, Parks and Rec — that those funds can only be spent within the Parks and Rec budget,” she said.
After the levy failed, Wilkinson said it was clear people wanted to help.
“People at city council meetings were there to talk about parks and Washington Fruit Center and Harman Center and Lions Pool and all that,” he said. “And they started to say, ‘Well, can we donate? Can we give? What can we do to continue to support all the great quality of life stuff that you guys do?’”
So, the parks department reached out to the community foundation for help with donations.
Wilkinson said the funds are beginning to gain momentum. The parks maintenance fund recently received an anonymous $300,000 donation, representing a significant step toward the city’s $400,000 goal. The Harman Center also recently received an anonymous $50,000 donation, and Wilkinson is optimistic that the city will be able to host at least a few concerts and movies this summer. The total goal for that fund is $50,000.
In December, Yakima resident and Washington Broadband President Forbes Mercy also made a $115,000 donation to the city to save the youth sports program and fund construction for outdoor calisthenics bars at Chesterley Park. Mercy said he’d made donations to the city last year, and after selling part of his company, he wanted to keep the momentum going.
For him, it’s a way of paying a dividend of appreciation to the community that’s supported him.
“Instead of just handing it back to the government as taxes, even though it’s a small percentage you could write off, I felt it was more beholden that I continued to help things,” he said. “And you couldn’t ask for a better time to help the city than right now.”
Looking to the future
Wilkinson said he’s beyond grateful for the community support he’s seen thus far.
“This community is so generous, and we are so appreciative in Parks and Rec, you know, not just for these funds, but what our individuals have done like that anonymous donation to Randall Park — just incredible,” he said.
Mercy said he’s encouraging people to help pick up small items where they can.
“In this time of lean income and lean abilities for the city to add some of these quality-of-life issues that only can happen when we have a larger funding amount, then we need to fill in that difference,” he said.
But individual donations are just one part of a bigger picture. To ensure a sustainable future for major quality-of-life items, like the pools and community centers, the city will need to find a long-term solution. Both Mercy and Miracle have said that they’re proponents of putting the property tax levy back on the ballot as a way to generate a more sustainable source of revenue for the city.
“That isn’t the role of philanthropy, is to always fill that gap,” Miracle said. “The City Council is responsible for finding a way to fund the services that it provides, and a tax levy is something reasonable, and that’s a very, very affordable tax levy.”
The proposition on the November ballot would have increased the property tax levy to $2.46 per $1,000 of assessed value. Voter turnout for the election was relatively low — around 27%. Miracle said she sees that as a reflection of a need for people to be more engaged with the issues going on in their communities, so they understand what’s at stake.
Moving forward, she hopes the City Council can find a reliable path forward.
“We’ve had a lot of strategy meetings about, ‘Gosh, what can we do? How do we fix this in a bigger scheme?’” she said. “Because it’s one thing just to fill it in with donations, but that’s not sustainable, and I want to really emphasize that relying on donor bases to fill in the city government’s gaps is not a sustainable piece. We need to figure out how to rectify that budget going forward.”
To donate, people can visit the Yakima Valley Community Foundation’s website and click the “Donate Now” button. Miracle said the community foundation also accepts checks.
