Arlington officials are considering whether it would be worth establishing a community foundation to supplement funding for local park facilities and programming.

So far, however, there’s no firm consensus on the Park and Recreation Commission on whether this would be a good step to take.

“I think we should keep noodling on it. We’ll come back to it,” commission chair Jill Barker said at the body’s May 13 meeting .

A foundation would be independent of the county government but would likely require County Board support to be feasible.

At Barker’s request, commission member William Way previously contacted the Fairfax County Park Foundation, which augments county-government funding for park facilities and programming there.

It’s one potential model Arlington could emulate, Way said.

In Fiscal Year 2024, the Fairfax foundation provided $2.1 million in park grants, according to the organization’s IRS filings.

To provide that level of funding, the foundation drew on reserves, as fundraising for the year totaled just $1.85 million.

Established in 2000, the foundation’s work is not without a cost to Fairfax taxpayers. The county government traditionally has funded the salary and benefits of an executive director and two support staff.

Way said an effort in Arlington could follow the model of Fairfax, with the county government at least initially funding staffing costs.

For FY 2024, the total pay-and-benefits cost for the executive director in Fairfax was $147,597, according to tax filings . Other salaries were not reported, but the total county appropriation for salaries and benefits has been about $300,000 a year.

But with local governments facing difficult budget challenges, the commitment to such efforts is being put to the test.

In his proposed FY 2026 budget, Fairfax County Executive Bryan Hill recommended eliminating the county’s $300,000 annual contribution. County supervisors ultimately decided to retain it at $150,000 for the coming year, with the possibility of phasing it out entirely for subsequent years.

In Arlington’s $1.69 billion FY 2026 budget , County Board members set a budget of about $65 million for the Department of Parks and Recreation, up about 2.2%. User fees will bring in about $18 million, with the remainder being funded by taxpayers.