Friends Of Sauguaro National Park

Friends of Saguaro National Park, a tax-exempt nonprofit based in Tucson, Arizona, is a recipient of federal cooperative agreements under the Department of the Interior's Youth and Veteran Organizations Conservation Activities grant program (CFDA 15.931), delivering paid internship and youth workforce development services across Saguaro National Park.

The organization operates exclusively as a grant recipient—100% of its 77 recent federal awards are prime cooperative agreements with no subcontractor role. All funding flows from the National Park Service: 44 awards from the NPS broadly, 29 from the NPS Intermountain Region, three from the NPS National Office, and one from the Department of the Interior. The combined dollar value of recent awards totals $5.5 million, with four distinct customer entities across Interior.

Friends of Saguaro's programmatic footprint centers on the "Next Generation Ranger Corps," a multi-division internship initiative recruiting local youth ages 18–30 from the Tucson area for paid internship placements. The organization recruits, hires, and manages interns who work alongside National Park Service staff across resource management, trail maintenance, facility management, interpretation, education, visitor services, and community engagement divisions. Representative awards include a $285,429 cooperative agreement effective May 31, 2024 through December 31, 2026 for youth recruitment and mentorship across park management divisions; a $266,457 cooperative agreement from July 3, 2025 through May 30, 2027 focused on resource management internships including invasive species removal and ecological monitoring; a $240,660 cooperative agreement from January 26, 2026 through December 31, 2026 for facility management and trade-skills training; and a $124,389 cooperative agreement from July 31, 2024 through December 31, 2025 supporting 9–12 month paid internships with cross-divisional mentorship. Program outputs include paid internship positions, professional development in conservation and facility management, life-skills training (resume building, public speaking, community engagement), hands-on conservation work (trail maintenance, invasive plant mitigation, ecological restoration), and preparation of interns for NPS hiring pipelines and public-lands careers.

Activity has remained modest and variable—four awards in 2022, five in 2023, seven in 2024, two in 2025, and one in 2026—with three awards reaching ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months and therefore facing renewal or recompete.