· Public charity
American Association of Zoological Parks and Aquariums Inc
The association is an educational organization dedicated to the advancement of zoological parks and aquariums in the areas of species conservation, animal welfare, and conservation education.
What you funded, over time
Every grant clustered by its grantee’s IRS cause code (NTEE), by year — across FY2017–2024.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
The 50 grants below total $7,122,409 — the rows itemised in this filing. The $7,326,357 headline is the total grant expense reported on the return, so the remaining $203,948 is giving the schedule does not break out: grants under the $5,000 itemisation floor, grants to individuals, and grants reported on other schedules. Every figure below describes the itemised rows only.
By grant size · FY2024
- Under $10k3 grants · $17k
- $10k–50k23 grants · $550k
- $50k–250k17 grants · $2.5M
- $250k+7 grants · $4.1M
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| THE MARINE MAMMAL CENTER | $1,002,077 |
| LINCOLN PARK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY | $618,598 |
| MONTEREY BAY AQUARIUM | $602,176 |
| SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION | $569,093 |
| LOS ANGELES ZOO | $553,428 |
| SAN DIEGO ZOO WILDLIFE ALLIANCE | $377,993 |
| TEXAS STATE AQUARIUM | $335,030 |
| LOUISVILLE ZOO | $246,368 |
| SEA WORLD SAN DIEGO | $244,967 |
| CINCINNATI ZOO & BOTANICAL GAR | $205,388 |
| NATIONAL TROPICAL BOTANICAL GARDENS | $193,134 |
| SAINT LOUIS ZOO | $191,461 |
| AQUARIUM OF NIAGARA | $189,543 |
| WOODLAND PARK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY | $160,059 |
| BLANK PARK ZOO FOUNDATION | $152,803 |
Do your dollars go where the need is?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, then read against the area’s typical level.
Dollar for dollar, your grants (FY17–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 82% of your dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty linein the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP; grantee ZIP can differ from where services are delivered.
Which US states your grants reach
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are actually delivered. Need from public data — U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA — shown as context about the area, never attributed to your giving.
Who you back again
Which organizations you funded more than once, and which you funded a single time. Each grantee is matched to its own filings.
And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +36% since the first grant, against +22% for the ones you funded once.
84 repeat relationships — 33 still active in FY2024, 51 since wound down; 15 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Median revenue growth · since first grant
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2024, 75% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $1.8M went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
First-time = a grantee’s first year in your filing window; renewed = funded in an earlier year too. As a portfolio matures the renewed share naturally climbs — once funded, an org stays “renewable” — so the signal is the years that buck it (a new-grantee intake wave). The earliest year is left-censored: relationships that predate the data read as “new.” Theme is the grantee’s IRS cause.
Backed again, and grew
- LPLINCOLN PARK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY8× · 2017–2024 · $3.8M · revenue +30%
- ZSZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF SAN DIEGO6× · 2017–2024 · $1.6M · revenue +28%
- TMTHE MARINE MAMMAL CENTER2× · 2022–2024 · $1.3M · revenue +2%
Funded once
- NMNational Marine Mammal Foundation Incone grant, 2017 · $900k · revenue -28%
- STSEA TURTLE INCone grant, 2022 · $732k · revenue -38%
- LPLowry Park Zoological Society of Tampa Incone grant, 2022 · $481k · revenue +22%
Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
The map has a center of gravity: the average direction from the rest of the sector toward the organizations the foundation funds — the shape of its giving. Scoring every nonprofit along that direction surfaces the ones that look most like the portfolio. These are the closest matchesthat aren’t grantees — a resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.
Zoo new york, by example and action, provides knowledge and motivation for conserving nature in new york state through science-based natural and cultural experiences.
The zoological society of the palm beaches, inc. exists to inspire people to act on behalf of wildlife and the natural world. we advance our conservation mission through endangered species propagation, education and support of conservation…
We connect your life to wildlife while inspiring lifelong learning and conservation action.
To promote the conservation of arctic, sub-arctic and like-climate species through education, research and community enrichment. the zoo provides rehabilitation and shelter for injured and abandoned animals. the facility is open to the…
The santa barbara zoo is dedicated to the preservation, conservation, and enhancement of the natural world and its living treasures through education, research, recreation and conservation.
To improve the health care and promote conservation of captive and free- ranging wildlife.
Utica zoo creates unique experiences and promotes public appreciation of wildlife through education, conservation and recreation.
The jacksonville zoo & gardens' mission is connecting our community with wildlife and wild places. our vision is a vibrant community energized by a connection to nature that enriches lives and inspires all to preserve and protect our…
The Western Foundation of Vertebrate Zoology is both a natural history collection specializing in eggs and nests of birds from around the world, and a research and education institution dedicated to bird conservation.
Promote essex county turtle back zoo through education and research.
Connecting, caring, advocating for wildlife, people, and wild places.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Maryland Zoological Society Inc and the most unlike its peers is Moody Gardens Inc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
Your grantees are a median of 46 years old; the field is 16. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 22% startups (under 5 years old) — 1% of your grantees by number, and just 1% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% lost their exemption, against 13% of the field you don’t fund.
Age = years since IRS exemption (a founding proxy). “Closed” = auto-revocation for 3 years of non-filing — a floor on closure, not proof, and bigger established orgs lapse least. Association, not causation.
151 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.
Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue from every source. Association, dated; never a causal claim.
Counted here: distinct organizations you funded across 2017–2025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 151 of the 188 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile; the rest are funded organizations whose filings we could not track year by year.
Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee
Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing
Go grantee by grantee — a decade per org, and how each moved after you funded them
A decade per grantee — revenue shaded, your grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.
- Who funds LINCOLN PARK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY ↗
- Who funds ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF SAN DIEGO ↗
- Who funds THE MARINE MAMMAL CENTER ↗
- Who funds NORTH CAROLINA ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY INC ↗
- Who funds THE SAINT LOUIS ZOO ASSOCIATION ↗
- Who funds WILD CANID SURVIVAL AND RESEARCH CENTER INC DBA ENDANGERED WOLF CENTER ↗
- Who funds National Marine Mammal Foundation Inc ↗
- Who funds SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION ↗
- Who funds SEA TURTLE INC ↗
- Who funds The Florida Aquarium Inc ↗
- Who funds MONTEREY BAY AQUARIUM FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds Audubon Nature Institute Inc ↗
- Who funds ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF PITTSBURGH ↗
- Who funds Lowry Park Zoological Society of Tampa Inc ↗
- Who funds South Carolina Aquarium ↗
- Who funds RED CARIBENA DE VARAMIENTOS INC ↗
- Who funds RIVERHEAD FDTN FOR MARINE RESEARCH & PRESERVATION ↗
- Who funds Binder Park Zoological Society Inc ↗
- Who funds Chicago Zoological Society ↗
- Who funds VIRGINIA AQUARIUM & MARINE SCIENCE CENTER FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds DALLAS ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY ↗
- Who funds TEXAS STATE AQUARIUM INSTITUTE FOR WILDLIFE CONSERVATION ↗
- Who funds EAST COAST ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF FLORIDA INC ↗
- Who funds WHITE OAK CONSERVATION FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds Central Florida Zoological Society Inc ↗
- Who funds THE SEATTLE AQUARIUM SOCIETY ↗
- Who funds WOODLAND PARK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY ↗
- Who funds FRIENDS OF THE ZOO INC OF KANSAS CITY MISSOURI C/O LINDA FALK ↗
- Who funds COLUMBUS ZOOLOGICAL PARK ASSOCIATION ↗
- Who funds NATIONAL AQUARIUM INC ↗
- Who funds BLANK PARK ZOO FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds ATLANTA FULTON COUNTY ZOO INC ↗
The grantmakers whose grantees overlap with yours far more than size alone predicts. Each orbits closer the stronger the alignment; the arcs between them show where they also fund each other. Here it reads as a tightly interlocked camp — most of these funders back each other's grantees too.
Open a dossier: National Fish and Wildlife Foundation · Arthur L Bud Johnson in Memory of Elaine V Johnson Foundation · National Marine Sanctuary Foundation · Ibm International Foundation · The Zoological Society of the Palm Beaches Inc · Zoological Society of San Diego · Young Again Foundation · Woodland Park Zoological Society · Arizona Center for Nature Conservation · American Express Foundation · National Geographic Society · Jpmorgan Chase Foundation
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. A research starting point: overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.
Government reliance of your grantees
Every dot is one organization American Association of Zoological Parks and Aquariums Inc funds. Left–right is the share of its income from government; up–down is the share from you. Bigger dots raise more. Filter to federal or a single department — and drag the year to watch it move.
- Oregon Coast Aquarium Inc — 24% of income from government
- New England Aquarium Corporation — 12% of income from government
- Sea Research Foundation Inc — 8% of income from government
- The Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk Inc — 5% of income from government
- Mote Marine Laboratory Inc — 4% of income from government
- Maryland Zoological Society Inc — 3% of income from government
- Bishop Museum of Science and Nature Inc — 2% of income from government
- Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science Inc — 1% of income from government
- Clearwater Marine Aquarium Inc — 1% of income from government
- Fish & Wildlife Foundation of Florida I — 1% of income from government
- National Aquarium Inc — 1% of income from government
- East Coast Zoological Society of Florida Inc — 0% of income from government
- Lowry Park Zoological Society of Tampa Inc — 0% of income from government
- Zoo Miami Foundation Inc — 0% of income from government
- The Florida Aquarium Inc — 0% of income from government
Government income is each org’s traced federal awards (USASpending — grants and contracts) plus state payments (open checkbooks) as a share of its total revenue (IRS Form 990); the self-reported government-grant line (990 line 1e) is carried for cross-check: a grantee that reports government grants we could not trace to a source is left off the chart rather than shown as receiving none. An association, not a claim that your grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first — a floor, not a census; state records exist for 9 states, so a grantee outside them shows no state figure (dimmed) rather than a false zero. Federal award amounts are obligations, which can span years, so a single-year share is indicative. 990 filings lag 12–24 months.