In September 2008, The Coca‐Cola Foundation provided a generous $300,000 two‐year grant to Rails‐to‐Trails Conservancy (RTC) to create the Metropolitan Grants Program (MGP), a pass‐through grant program that supports exemplary trail organizations and initiatives in select metropolitan areas across the country. Coca‐Cola continued to support this work and awarded RTC four one‐year $150,000 grants in 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014 to continue growing the program. The grants facilitated through RTC are assisting communities in their efforts to increase trail use and provide easy access for more than two million people living near these trails.
In 2014, RTC provided expertise and funding in the form of pass‐through grants to 16 trail organizations, including: six project support grants for specific trail development, expansion and enhancement projects; four community support grants to enhance operations and programming of trail organizations; and six Earn‐a‐Bike/Community Bicycling grants for the implementation of youth bicycle safety and maintenance education programs in which participants were awarded bicycles and/or provided a fleet of bicycles for community use.
This report includes a list of the innovative organizations and projects supported by the MGP in 2014, as well as organization descriptions and project investment details.
