New York · Nonprofit
SENECA PARK ZOO SOCIETY
SENECA PARK ZOO SOCIETY (New York) receives grants from 39 organizations whose IRS filings report $6,865,607 to it, the largest being Greater Horizons ($2,510,000). 30 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 75% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $5.4M
- Funders on record
- 39
- Grants received
- $6.9M
- Net assets
- $5.9M
What Seneca Park Zoo Society does
Mission
Chartered as an educational institution by new york state in 1957, the society provides education and programming & conservation, fundraising, special events, public relations and marketing, and membership to monroe county's seneca park zoo. We also aid in the design and building of new exhibits and have, over the past 20 years, contributed more than $21 million to this effort.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Education and programming conservation action- education 9,427 participants learned to act for wildlife and wild places through 515 education programs including onsite school programs, zoocamps, scouts and kinderzoo. We also had 121 teen volunteers logging over 5900 hours with 44,970 guest interactions. Programming & conservation action delivered 651 programs for 41,980 participants. The programs include urban ecology, the nature cart, community cleanups, the zoomobile and the butterfly beltway project.
$1,253,309 spentof which $5,500 as grants$594,923 earned by the program56% of program spendingMembershipwe had the support of over 14,000 members in 2024 including 1,289 head of the herd households who have maintained their membership for 10 or more consecutive years. Member attendance was over 115,000 and 78% of members went digital with their member cards helping us dramatically reduce paper consumption and printing costs.
$849,963 spentof which $277,220 as grants$1,412,859 earned by the program38% of program spendingOther program services, not described on the e-filed return.
$134,479 spent6% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $2,237,751.
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 2023 to 2024, from $5.3M to $6.7M (+26%).
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: 2021 7% · 2022 26%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
52% of SENECA PARK ZOO 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. 1 of the last 8 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
Pamela Reed Sanchez
President & CEO
Board chair
Shelly Doran
Chair
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 8 funders to 21 funders, grant income rose $51k → $1.9M.
10 of 39 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 75% 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 SENECA PARK ZOO SOCIETY’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 39 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
SENECA PARK ZOO SOCIETY leans on a few funders — its largest provides 37% of grant income and the top three 72%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
76% 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 SENECA PARK ZOO SOCIETY.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 20% · 2018 89% · 2019 31% · 2020 26% · 2021 25% · 2022 36% · 2023 83% — 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
62% of SENECA PARK ZOO SOCIETY's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 77% 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
75% of SENECA PARK ZOO SOCIETY's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $1.7M that is directly attributable, 63% of it comes from New York funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $5.2M arriving through sponsors registered in 8 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
SENECA PARK ZOO SOCIETY runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 1,559 animals nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,559 animals nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Organizations like SENECA PARK ZOO 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 New York
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
50% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
98%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Seneca Park Zoo Society Development Fund · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for SENECA PARK ZOO 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 SENECA PARK ZOO SOCIETY?
- SENECA PARK ZOO SOCIETY (New York) receives grants from 39 organizations whose IRS filings report $6,865,607 to it, the largest being Greater Horizons ($2,510,000). 30 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 75% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does SENECA PARK ZOO SOCIETY have?
- IRS filings report 39 organizations giving $6,865,607 in grants to SENECA PARK ZOO SOCIETY, 30 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of SENECA PARK ZOO SOCIETY?
- Greater Horizons is the largest funder on record, with $2,510,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like SENECA PARK ZOO SOCIETY find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in New York. 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 2017–2024), and the filings of 39 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