The Buffalo Green Fund, Inc. began in 1973 as a Junior League of Buffalo project under the auspices of the Environmental Clearing House Organization (ECHO), a not-for-profit agency. In 1978 the Buffalo Green Fund formed its own corporation and received not-for-profit status as a 501(c)(3) organization. The mission of the Buffalo Green Fund, Inc. has always been to promote private contributions for public beautification. Contributions are tax deductible.

When the Dutch elm disease struck Buffalo in the 1970s, the city government could not afford to replace the thousands of elms wiped out by this disease. The Buffalo Green Fund and the city worked together to promote private contributions to replace these trees. Over 3000 trees were purchased and the city planted them on public property at no cost. During the middle 1980s, the Parks Commissioner was no longer sympathetic to this arrangement and the Fund stopped actively soliciting. Since 1994, the Buffalo Green Fund has had excellent cooperation with the city and the Parks Department. However, Forestry has been severely cut back and can no longer plant the trees. In fact, since 2005, the city no longer has a forester, a situation the Green Fund is trying to correct. Work is now done with private contractors and the Buffalo Green Fund continues to work with private citizens and community groups who wish to contribute trees, flowers and shrubs to public areas.

Projects completed with Buffalo Green Fund, Inc. involvement include Gates Circle Restoration, trees for Buffalo Place, beautification of Cathedral Park and Niagara Square, daffodils and trees for Delaware Park, and replanting Delaware Avenue and adjacent streets with large trees through the cooperation of then Erie County Legislator Judith Fisher. In 1995 the Fund organized the first annual Buffalo in Bloom contest, which became the largest in the country during its first year. In 1996 the Fund began a project with the Elmwood Village Tree Fund, resulting in private contributions for over 1300 trees on Elmwood Avenue and adjoining streets in the Elmwood/Delaware neighborhood. Other neighborhoods include Black Rock/Riverside, Linwood Avenue, Allentown, West Side, and Central Park. Reforest Buffalo, a project to restore the trees on Olmsted’s Greenways, as well as to work with communities to plant trees, began in 1999. The Buffalo Green Fund was the lead agency with the city on getting a $75,000 federal grant, as well as a $15,000 private grant to fund a tree survey for the city of Buffalo. In 2003 a tree Master Plan for the City of Buffalo was completed, based on the survey data.

In response to the October 2006 storm, the Green Fund planted 300 new trees this spring. Through generous donations, it is able to offer matching funds to neighborhoods for tree planting and it works with neighborhood groups to plant both balled and burlapped and bareroot trees. The Fund expects and even larger planting in the fall of 2007.

In addition, Green Downtown Buffalo, a subcommittee of the Buffalo Green Fund, Inc., is an advocate for improvement of all of the gateways leading into the City.The Buffalo Green Fund, Inc. is an entirely volunteer organization. It has a 21 member board of directors who take various responsibilities for operations. There are no offices, but information can be obtained by contacting the Fund at 11 Mayfair Lane, Buffalo, NY 14201. Information on Buffalo in Bloom can be obtained on the website www.buffaloinbloom.com.