[1] Since its founding in 1972, the Trust for Public Land has completed 5,000 park-creation and land conservation projects across the United States, protected over 3 million acres,[2] and helped pass more than 500 ballot measures—creating $70 billion in voter-approved public funding for parks and open spaces.

[3] The Trust for Public Land also researches and publishes authoritative data about parks, open space, conservation finance, and urban climate change adaptation.

[4][5][6] Headquartered in San Francisco, the organization is among the largest U.S. conservation nonprofits,[7] with approximately 30 field offices across the U.S., including a federal affairs function in Washington, D.C.[8][9][10] Consistent with its "Land for People" mission, the Trust for Public Land is widely known for urban conservation work, including New York City playgrounds and community gardens,[11][12] Chicago's 606 linear park,[13] Los Angeles green alleys,[14][15] Climate-Smart Cities programs in 20 American cities,[16] and "The 10-Minute Walk" initiative, which aims to put a high-quality park or open space within a 10-minute walk of every resident of every U.S. urban census tract.

Johnson's goal was to create an organization that would use emerging real estate, legal, and financial techniques to conserve land for human use and public benefit.

An additional founding goal was to extend the conservation and environmental movements to cities, where an increasingly large segment of the population lived.