Washington · Nonprofit
POINT DEFIANCE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY
POINT DEFIANCE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY (Washington) receives grants from 38 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,259,198 to it, the largest being HELEN MULL FOUNDATION ($2,007,370). 24 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.7M
- Funders on record
- 38
- Grants received
- $4.3M
- Net assets
- $32M
What Point Defiance Zoological Society does
Mission
The point defiance zoo society (the zoo society) fosters the relationship between point defiance zoo & aquarium (pdza) and our community by raising funds and generating community support. The zoo society supports the mission of pdza by providing financial and in-kind resources for the zoo's recreation, education and conservation programs, its animal collections, and its permanent and temporary exhibitions.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
The zoo society provides monetary support through individual donations or bequests, events, campaigns and grants for operations, community and school access, youth leadership development, animal care and welfare, capital improvements, emergency funding and conservation initiatives both in collaboration and partnership with point defiance zoo & aquarium. In addition, conservation efforts on behalf of endangered species represented in the animal and horticulture collection are funded by donations and a portion of the contractual revenue provided by metro parks tacoma.
$1,440,367 spentof which $1,059,275 as grants100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $1,440,367.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 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 2021 to 2022, from $11M to $21M (+88%).
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.
Government-grant reliance: 2020 6% · 2021 7% · 2023 39% · 2024 21% · 2025 24%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
65% of POINT DEFIANCE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (74% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 9 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
Ruthann Howell
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 7 funders to 11 funders, grant income fell $625k → $532k.
9 of 38 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 18% 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 POINT DEFIANCE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 38 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
POINT DEFIANCE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY leans on a few funders — its largest provides 47% of grant income and the top three 64%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
27% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund POINT DEFIANCE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 46% · 2018 35% · 2019 29% · 2020 69% · 2021 48% · 2022 50% · 2023 76% — growing more concentrated.
“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
40% of POINT DEFIANCE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 63% 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
POINT DEFIANCE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY draws 64% of its grant income from funders outside Washington, across 12 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $750k arriving through sponsors registered in 7 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
POINT DEFIANCE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY is better cushioned than half of the 813 animals nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 813 animals nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding POINT DEFIANCE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $66k on record.
- Department of the Interior$66k
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like POINT DEFIANCE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY
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 Washington
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
78% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
74%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for POINT DEFIANCE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY: 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 POINT DEFIANCE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY?
- POINT DEFIANCE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY (Washington) receives grants from 38 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,259,198 to it, the largest being HELEN MULL FOUNDATION ($2,007,370). 24 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does POINT DEFIANCE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY have?
- IRS filings report 38 organizations giving $4,259,198 in grants to POINT DEFIANCE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY, 24 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of POINT DEFIANCE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY?
- HELEN MULL FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $2,007,370 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like POINT DEFIANCE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Washington. 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 FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 38 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