Nebraska · Nonprofit
OMAHA ZOO FOUNDATION
OMAHA ZOO FOUNDATION (Nebraska) receives grants from 83 organizations whose IRS filings report $124,319,549 to it, the largest being WALTER SCOTT FAMILY FOUNDATION ($66,550,090). 47 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $26M
- Funders on record
- 83
- Grants received
- $124M
- Net assets
- $185M
What Omaha Zoo Foundation does
Mission
Founded in 1984, the Omaha Zoo Foundation supports the mission, research and programs benefitting omaha's henry doorly zoo and aquarium. To ensure a growing, vibrant zoo for future generations, it is our priority to build a solid philanthropic foundation for omaha'scommunity treasure.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
The Omaha Zoo Foundation was incorporated as a non-profit corporation to solicit and receive contributions, gifts, grants, devises, and bequests, and to distribute and apply such assets and/or the income therefrom to and for the benefit of the omaha zoological society.
$21,355,230 spentof which $20,751,271 as grants100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $21,355,230.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2019, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2019, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2022 to 2023, from $145M to $176M (+22%).
How it's funded, over time
Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.
72% of OMAHA ZOO FOUNDATION’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (67% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 6 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Leadership and staff
The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.
Chief executive
Tina Cherica
President & CEO
Board chair
Mogens C Bay
Chairman
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base held at 21 funders, grant income rose $4.4M → $11M.
13 of 83 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 3% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
From the IRS filings of OMAHA ZOO FOUNDATION’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 83 funders by total. Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How concentrated its funding is
OMAHA ZOO FOUNDATION leans on a few funders — its largest provides 54% of grant income and the top three 72%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 90% · 2018 88% · 2019 83% · 2020 80% · 2021 35% · 2022 56% · 2023 45% — diversifying over time.
“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How long its funders stay
44% of OMAHA ZOO FOUNDATION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 57% give in more than one year at all.
Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.
Where its funders are
94% of OMAHA ZOO FOUNDATION's grant income comes from Nebraska funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $4.2M arriving through sponsors registered in 10 states is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Against its field
OMAHA ZOO FOUNDATION holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 235 animals nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 235 animals nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2024
Organizations like OMAHA ZOO FOUNDATION
Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In Nebraska
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
86% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
44%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Omaha Zoological Society · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for OMAHA ZOO FOUNDATION: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.
Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds OMAHA ZOO FOUNDATION?
- OMAHA ZOO FOUNDATION (Nebraska) receives grants from 83 organizations whose IRS filings report $124,319,549 to it, the largest being WALTER SCOTT FAMILY FOUNDATION ($66,550,090). 47 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does OMAHA ZOO FOUNDATION have?
- IRS filings report 83 organizations giving $124,319,549 in grants to OMAHA ZOO FOUNDATION, 47 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of OMAHA ZOO FOUNDATION?
- WALTER SCOTT FAMILY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $66,550,090 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like OMAHA ZOO FOUNDATION find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Nebraska. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2019–2024), and the filings of 83 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing