South Dakota · Nonprofit
SIOUX FALLS ZOO & AQUARIUM
SIOUX FALLS ZOO & AQUARIUM (South Dakota) receives grants from 24 organizations whose IRS filings report $10,045,295 to it, the largest being SIOUX FALLS AREA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION INC ($4,370,441). 14 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $16M
- Funders on record
- 24
- Grants received
- $10M
- Net assets
- $35M
What Sioux Falls Zoo & Aquarium does
Mission
Creating connection and inspiring conservation of wild species and spaces
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
The Sioux Falls Zoo & Aquarium (sfza) is the governing authority for 2 destinations: great plains zoo and the butterfly house & aquarium. Welcoming over 350,000 visitors annually, we strive to connect people to our natural world through wildlife understanding and conservation actions to save wild species and spaces. Through our formal and informal education programs, we reach an additional 70,000 individuals with over 850 animals in our care, we work to provide the highest level of animal care for optimal animal wellbeing; all while offering an engaging visitor experience education and inspiring our visitors to care for animals and the natural world. The sfza manages and operates the zoo through a formal partnership with the city of sioux falls.
$10,584,631 spent$4,026,691 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $10,584,631.
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 $12M to $35M (+192%).
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: 2017 26% · 2018 17% · 2019 27% · 2020 56% · 2021 51% · 2022 5% · 2023 23% · 2024 16% · 2025 12%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
69% of SIOUX FALLS ZOO & AQUARIUM’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. 2 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.
Board chair
Tracy Dahl-Webb
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base held at 6 funders, grant income rose $263k → $561k.
7 of 24 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 47% 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 SIOUX FALLS ZOO & AQUARIUM’s funders (the co-funder graph). 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
SIOUX FALLS ZOO & AQUARIUM leans on a few funders — its largest provides 44% of grant income and the top three 76%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
66% 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 SIOUX FALLS ZOO & AQUARIUM.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 54% · 2018 46% · 2019 92% · 2020 41% · 2021 56% · 2022 66% · 2023 75% — 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
44% of SIOUX FALLS ZOO & AQUARIUM's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 58% 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
98% of SIOUX FALLS ZOO & AQUARIUM's grant income comes from South Dakota funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $4.8M arriving through sponsors registered in 5 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
SIOUX FALLS ZOO & AQUARIUM has grown faster than three-quarters of the 119 animals nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 119 animals nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Organizations like SIOUX FALLS ZOO & AQUARIUM
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 South Dakota
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
83% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
94%
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 SIOUX FALLS ZOO & AQUARIUM: 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 SIOUX FALLS ZOO & AQUARIUM?
- SIOUX FALLS ZOO & AQUARIUM (South Dakota) receives grants from 24 organizations whose IRS filings report $10,045,295 to it, the largest being SIOUX FALLS AREA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION INC ($4,370,441). 14 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does SIOUX FALLS ZOO & AQUARIUM have?
- IRS filings report 24 organizations giving $10,045,295 in grants to SIOUX FALLS ZOO & AQUARIUM, 14 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of SIOUX FALLS ZOO & AQUARIUM?
- SIOUX FALLS AREA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $4,370,441 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like SIOUX FALLS ZOO & AQUARIUM find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in South Dakota. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
Play a game about who funds Sioux Falls Zoo & Aquarium →
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 24 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 14, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing