Earlier this year, we released our highly anticipated 2025 Parks and Recreation Trends Guide—now available for free to download! Based on our own proprietary data, the guide is packed with some of our best annual insights ever and outlines five major trends for the year to come.

Covering everything from climate challenges to marketing, each of these trends is important for parks and rec pros to consider for 2025. In this article, however, we focus in on the trend that emerged as our number one for this year's guide: Resiliency and Results.

Read on to learn more about this top trend from our 2025 guide, a few of the key statistics that helped our team uncover the trend, takeaways for parks and rec pros, as well as actions that you and your agency can implement this year—and beyond.

If you prefer to skip ahead, here’s a breakdown of what you’ll find further down in the article:

Diving into Our Top 2025 Trend: Resiliency and Results

Parks and Rec Pros Continue Delivering While Stretched Thin

If there’s one thing to be said about parks and recreation professionals, it’s that unwavering passion for your community lies at the heart of everything you do.

Despite widespread reports of understaffing across agencies, many respondents who took our survey shared that staff morale and performance have improved, with leadership also reporting notable revenue growth in 2024.

Your dedication to community doesn’t stop at the workday either. So many of you go even further—volunteering your time with parks and recreation associations, amplifying your impact and strengthening the industry as a whole.

In short, y’all are true community heroes.

Key Stats from Our Parks and Recreation Trends Guide

From All Respondents

🙌 45% noticed better staff performance in 2024, year-over-year.

😓 43% of those with better staff performance felt understaffed.

🫶 52% volunteer at some level within the industry.

For more in depth stats, including those broken out by leadership and non-leadership respondents, download the guide now!

Takeaways for Parks and Rec Professionals

1: Resilience, Dedication and Passion Amid Strain

2: Staffing Challenges Are Universal

Understaffing appears to be a pervasive issue for agencies across North America, regardless of size or revenue generation. According to our respondents, this challenge was also felt by all levels of parks and rec professionals—from front-desk staff to leadership teams.

59% of leadership respondents who reported $10 million or more in revenue felt understaffed.

Surprisingly, larger agencies felt the most strain, with more than half of those who reported $10 million or more in revenue saying that they felt understaffed.

3: Volunteering Is a Pillar of Parks

Volunteer engagement from all respondents spans multiple levels—from local to regional, to national, and specialized groups.

4: Giving Back, a Major Theme in Our Parks and Recognize Interviews

In 2024, our team kicked-off Parks and Recognize, a podcast dedicated to sharing the stories and accomplishments of hard-working parks and rec professionals across North America.

One of the common threads we found through almost every conversation we had was the importance of volunteering. This further shows just how much giving back is a part of the industry.

Listen in to the below episodes to learn how the following Parks and Recognize guests recommend giving back or getting involved!

Actions Parks and Recreation Agencies Can Take

1: Audit Your Operations, Invest Strategically in Employee Well-Being

As reported last year, the industry as a whole has been in a state of constant recovery, after several years of downturn due to COVID-19. In fact, many leaders (49%) shared that they should have more budget in 2025, compared to 2024.

While it’s clear that parks and rec pros are incredibly resilient, their ability to perform under pressure is likely unsustainable without any change. Hopefully, these additional funds in 2025 can be translated into streamlining operations and adding resources for the industry’s hardworking staff.

🔍 Step 1: Review your operations to identify root causes of strain.

🤖 Step 2: Adjust processes and invest in tech (more on this below!) to reduce pressure.

🧘‍♀️ Step 3: Take proactive measures to support staff health and wellness.

2: Lean on Technology and Innovation

The parks and rec industry is at long last beginning to make great strides in adopting new technologies and innovations. From recreation management software to artificial intelligence (AI), there are many tech solutions available that can help alleviate unnecessary stress on your staff.

By offering your customers self-serve purchasing alternatives, you can reduce bottlenecks at your front desk and help free up bandwidth for your hardworking staff. This can include:

💻 Offering online registration for your parks and rec programming

📱 Providing your community with a custom branded mobile app

✅ Setting up self-serve kiosks within your centers

3: Leverage Your Community Volunteer Networks

As we’ve covered, volunteering and giving back is a huge part of being in parks and recreation.

While it’s amazing that so many professionals in the industry are willing to get involved, don’t forget that you can also tap into your community to help support...you!

By creating your own volunteer programs or formalizing partnerships with local or state associations, your agency can support your operations and hard-working employees during peak demand. Not to mention having these initiatives in place can help establish even stronger ties with your community members.

Download Your Free Copy of Our 2025 Parks and Rec Trends Guide

Find out more about the five trends that we uncovered for 2025! Download your free copy today and discover:

📊 Actionable trends based on data collected from hundreds of parks and recreation professionals from across North America

👀 Key takeaways for each trend, identifying how our findings will impact your year ahead

🙌 Things your agency can (and should!) do to stay ahead of customer wants and needs in 2025

Want to Learn More About Xplor Recreation?

Book a free demo with a member of our team to learn more about how Xplor Recreation can support your agency in staying ahead of customer wants and needs in 2025.