The ZOO now working Phase II
The Zoo of Northwest Florida is not out of the woods just yet, but there is reason to celebrate.
After reaching its goal of raising $1-million by the end of 2007, The ZOO is working on Phase II - to raise another $2-million by the end of 2008.
“Fundraising is a big thing for us right now,” said Danyelle Lantz, The ZOO’s new executive director. “We are making a strong grass roots effort to appeal to those who enjoy coming to The ZOO.
“We have four major events we are looking at doing, while the board members are looking to work on a separate fundraising drive.
In reaching their goal of $1-million dollars late December, cash contributions accounted for nearly $550,000 of that total along with in-kind contributions, debt forgiveness, cash pledges and in-kind pledges for this year.
Lantz pointed out the cash contributions have been used to supplement operating shortfalls through the winter months of 2007.
Reaching financial stability is one of the major goals for The ZOO, which has been in existence for over 20 years.
“We are trying to meet needs here at The ZOO in phases,” said Lantz. “The first thing we need to take care of is the debt to the bank, which is interest baring.
“We should be able to eliminate that with the completion of Phase II; then we will need to work on the credit sale from the group that owned The ZOO for over 20 years.”
The 50 acres and animal habitats suffered severe damages from Hurricane Ivan and have never really been able to recover.
On top of that they lost their accreditation with the American Zoological Association.
“The ZOO got in a rough spot because of Ivan,” said Lantz. “It didn’t help any by loosing the accreditation with the AZA.”
Another problem The ZOO has had to contend with is the loss of animals, most notably a giraffe and Niles the baby Hippo.
“Our animal care staff is doing a great job based on my review and feedback I have gotten from zoological teams that have visited the zoo,” said Lantz. “The issue most do not realize is that The ZOO has typically served as a rescue location and those animals are not usually in the best of health.
“And our hippos for example have bread many times successfully, but we need the resources to create a third bedroom so we can rotate the male hippo to prevent a situation as to what happened to Niles.”
The male hippo in their habitat attacked Niles, which is part of the nature preserve that can be viewed via the train ride at The ZOO.
Lantz pointed out until this past year The ZOO hasn’t really done any fundraising, but they are looking to with many events in 2008.
“We had a great deal of success with ‘Feast with Beast’ and are looking to do that again as well as the Natural Poker Safari set for May 16 of this year,” said Lantz. “We are looking at anything that has been successful and if we can do that again.”
One successful promotion The ZOO is repeating is “Be a Kid Again.”
For the entire month of January all adult ticket prices will be reduced to the child’s admission price of $8.25.
Lantz also pointed out they still have calendars available, which offer a buy one, get one free coupon inside.