There are three way to organize society and generate cooperative behavior. To dispense justice and protect the weak from the strong, government has an important role. For commodities and the provision of commercial services, the market process has no equal. For many other public purposes, for hospitals, schools, research institutes, and parks, non-government endowment boards, have accomplished a great deal and hold great promise. Endowment boards successfully manage independent schools, hospitals, and museums.
Board members have fiduciary responsibility for their organization's mission.
An endowment board with regional and national members could ensure sensitive stewardship and freedom from shortsighted Congressional politics. Creating mechanisms for collecting payment from various park beneficiaries is a key step. User fees, gifts from membership organizations, concessionaire contracts, and corporate sponsorships all have potential. Endowment boards generating and managing these funds should foster more support, sensitivity, and responsibility than the current political bureaucracy. Apart from its novelty, the proposal's main stumbling block is fear of commercialization.