Jungle Jack by Jack Hanna & Amy Parker

Author:Jack Hanna & Amy Parker [Hanna, Jack & Parker, Amy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Published: 2018-08-02T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 11

Monkey Business—Promoting the Zoo

When I was hired as director of the Columbus Zoo, I was charged with generating interest in the zoo among the people of central Ohio. They did not need a zoological expert, a PhD, or somebody who knew all the Latin names for animals—so I guess I fit the bill. I only know a few of those Latin names, but what I do know is how to promote a zoo.

Since I’ve been in Columbus, zoo attendance has grown from 350,000 to about 1.5 million visitors a year thanks to a lot of people’s hard work. The annual budget shot from $1.7 million in 1978 to about $29 million today. In 1985, 70 percent of the citizens of this county voted in favor of a five-year $2.2 million county property tax levy. Ever since, that levy has continued to be passed every five years. The most recent levy—passed in 2004 with a two-thirds vote and 98 percent of the precincts having a majority—will provide $180 million over a ten-year period to support the zoo’s growth and development. There’s no way the Columbus Zoo would have been able to expand, improve, and support seventy conservation projects in thirty-four countries around the world without the gracious support of our taxpayers.

The people of the Columbus area truly love their zoo and see supporting it as an investment. And that investment has proven to pay off. I’ve heard estimates in the $30 million range when it comes to the amount of revenue the zoo has brought into the county from outside the Central Ohio area each year.

“One of the things we’re really proud of is how the community supports the zoo, to the extent that they even vote to tax themselves to support it.”

—GERALD BORIN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR 1992–2008, COLUMBUS ZOO

However, the bottom line remains that most zoos need visitors and donors to survive. Only a few zoos are self-sustaining. State, county, and city funds are a huge help, but you also need solid, consistent attendance and corporate donations to pull through. And the only way to get and keep money coming is to make people aware of the zoo, make them feel as though they’re contributing to a necessary part of the community, a part of the community that’s just as important as the symphony, the arts, libraries, or even the school system.

Like many zoos, the Columbus Zoo is operated by a zoological association. This is a nonprofit corporation composed of a varying number of trustees and an executive board that is appointed to manage the zoo. The property is owned by the city and county, but the zoo is basically association-run and free from politics; most important, it is nonprofit, which helps bring in corporate dollars—providing somebody finds the donors.

Today many zoos have adopted more of a “theme park” approach to compete with the current entertainment options. There’s really no getting around that. Walt Disney set the standard, and that’s what people have come to expect. By this, I don’t

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.