Awbury Arboretum hopes $39K grant helps boost its marketing initiative

Officials with Awbury Arboretum are hoping that a recently awarded grant will help make the public garden in Northwest Philadelphia more self-sufficient.

The Philadelphia Foundation, a public charity, honored Awbury with a $39,000 grant in late June.

The funds will be funneled into the arboretum’s Marketing Initiative Program. Specifically, they will be used to help expand Awbury Landscape Services’ customer base.

Help them help themselves

It’s hoped the effort will help generate revenue that can then be used to support the Arboretum’s general operations, educational programming and historical-preservation efforts.

“The Arboretum gets much help from members and foundations, but we need to increase our capacity to help ourselves,” said General Manager Christopher van de Velde in a statement.

Awbury Arboretum’s 55-acre site sits just off of Chew Avenue near Haines Street in the city’s East Germantown neighborhood.

In addition to offering horticultural and educational programs, the Arboretum is also home to a two-acre urban farm managed by the Weavers Way Co-op. Weavers Way has food markets in nearby Mount Airy and Chestnut Hill.