The Roanoke Outside Foundation is getting the largest infusion of one-time money it’s ever received — $2 million — in Google money tied to that company’s data center project in Botetourt County.
Google’s investment was announced on Thursday at a news conference at Explore Park. The $2 million will go to Project Outside, the foundation’s community grant fund for outdoor projects.
The foundation is a nonprofit that works to fund and support the region’s outdoor assets to attract growth. Project Outside was started by the Roanoke Regional Partnership, which works to attract business to the region, in 2021 to “fill a funding gap” in regional parks and recreation.
Foundation Director Pete Eshelman called the funding “transformational” for the organizations that Project Outside funds. The foundation’s total revenues in 2025 totaled under $1 million.
He said in the past, the foundation has issued grants from $500 to $8,000. He said this investment will allow the organization to issue grants from $5,000 to $200,000. Over five years, Project Outside has invested over $200,000 into over fifty projects across the region, through individual donations and revenue from the Go Outside Festival that the organization runs.
Clay Allsop, with Google public affairs, said at the event that the funding will support outdoor capital investments and community recreation in the region, including “assets like Carvins Cove” — the water source for the company’s data center project in Botetourt.
“Project Outside allows our support to reach a wider range of users and organizations, and the region’s natural assets are central to its identity and quality of life,” Allsop said in a press release.
Allsop was not made available for questions after the event. In a statement, Allsop said Google “looks forward to partnering with local leaders, land managers and organizations to preserve and improve these vital natural assets for residents and visitors alike.”
Google reached out to several organizations, Eshelman said, after recognizing that the region values “a high quality of life” and the outdoors.
“And then they realized we actually have a grant program that would allow this money to be allocated quickly, and I think that’s one of the selling points as well, is that this money will be spent within two years,” Eshelman said after the announcement.
He said that Google did not place any stipulations on the funding but that Roanoke Outside decided the money should be spent within that timeframe.
“There’s not even an agreement,” Eshelman said of the funding, although he said that Google asked that it be spent “as quickly as possible.”
Eshelman said after the event that the money is “tied” to a Google data center campus that is being built in Botetourt County. He did not elaborate.
That and another Google data center project recently announced for Roanoke County have drawn criticism from citizens, many of whom have concerns about environmental impacts of the data centers while local officials tout the opportunities for economic growth.
Kathryn Hatam, with the Southwest Virginia Data Center Transparency Alliance, said via phone Thursday that it is “unfortunately normal” for Google to “ingratiate” itself into communities — “especially with organizations doing the good work who desperately need funds.”
“I am disappointed, but at the same time I understand that companies like Google prey upon people who desperately need funds,” Hatam said. “This fits into their pattern.”
When asked about the data center environmental concerns after the event, Eshelman said he understands those concerns.
“What we see is a project that’s happening, we see a need that far exceeds what we have. So this program allows us to put it into the trails, the rivers, the greenways, all of that to benefit the community,” he said.
Michael Clark, assistant county administrator in Franklin County, said after the announcement that the county has received grants from Project Outside “nearly every year that it’s been offered.”
“We’ve received grants as low as $1,200 all the way up to almost $10,000, and it’s funded things like tools for our maintenance staff, a skills park for mountain bikers, all the way up to materials for a bridge replacement in one of our parks,” Clark said. “So we’ve been very fortunate to have this funding available.” He said Franklin County has a list of projects it wants to address in grant applications, including deferred maintenance.
The application window for funding is now open and will remain open through the end of February, according to a news release. There is $1.25 million available for the first round of funding, for projects between $5,000 and $20,000.
“For a long time, we treated the outdoors, our natural assets, like wallpaper,” Eshelman said. “It was scenery in the background, but we now know that it’s infrastructure.”
John Hull said during the presentation that as an economic developer, he was “exactly” where he belonged on Thursday afternoon, talking about trails and rivers.
Hull is the executive director of both the Roanoke Regional Partnership and the Western Virginia Regional Industrial Facility Authority. The authority initiated the purchase agreement with Google for the data center in Roanoke County.
“I understand how important the outdoors is to this community and this region,” Hull said. “I don’t just read about it in a report. I see it on the greenway and on the trails.”
Other speakers on Thursday included Virginia’s director of outdoor recreation, Heather Barrar, and Landon Howard, the president of Visit Virginia’s Blue Ridge, the region’s tourism marketing organization.
