New York · Nonprofit
ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF BUFFALO INC
ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF BUFFALO INC (New York) receives grants from 57 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,253,752 to it, the largest being THE MARGARET L WENDT FOUNDATION ($200,000). 39 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $13M
- Funders on record
- 57
- Grants received
- $1.3M
- Net assets
- $32M
What Zoological Society of Buffalo Inc does
Mission
Building community; creating connections; saving wildlife through a collaboration for change: the buffalo zoo will be a center of conservation excellence, providing leadership to secure a future where wildlife thrives. We embody our mission and vision through practices that exemplify our values of teamwork, welcoming, integrity, caring, and going above and beyond.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Animal care and horticulture maintenance and experience: as an aza (association of zoos and aquariums) accredited zoo, we strive to provide our animals with the best possible habitats, nutrition, enrichment and veterinary care to ensure conservation of animal species as well as the maintenance and expansion of horticulture throughout the zoo. The goal of zoos is not strictly to provide recreation but to provide an interesting educational experience to increase the awareness of conservation leading to a connection to animals and nature not otherwise possible for most people.
$8,683,417 spent$4,008,575 earned by the program82% of program spendingEducation - programs designed to stimulate an early interest in the life sciences, nature and conservation, beginning with toddlers through high school students.
$841,534 spent$372,360 earned by the program8% of program spendingGuest services - concessions, rides, gift shop and other ancillary services designed to provided the ultimate guest experience.
$1,059,325 spent$2,237,375 earned by the program10% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $10,584,276.
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 2019 to 2020, from $48M to $41M (−16%).
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 18% · 2018 23% · 2019 19% · 2020 41% · 2021 31% · 2022 24% · 2023 21% · 2024 29% · 2025 33%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
47% of ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF BUFFALO INC’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (67% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 7 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
Lisa Smith
President & CEO
Board chair
Eugene P Gramza Jr
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 18 funders to 19 funders, grant income fell $176k → $104k.
5 of 57 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 12% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $4.8M from 2 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Zoological Society of Buffalo Foundation Inc). These are real filings, and they are not money ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF BUFFALO INC raised.
From the IRS filings of ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF BUFFALO INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 57 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
ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF BUFFALO INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 16% of grant income, and it takes 5 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 5 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 ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF BUFFALO INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 17% · 2018 24% · 2019 70% · 2020 17% · 2021 50% · 2022 66% · 2023 49% — 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
38% of ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF BUFFALO INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 68% 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
84% of ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF BUFFALO INC's grant income comes from New York funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $150k 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
ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF BUFFALO INC's revenue grew 17% between 2017 and 2025.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 119 animals nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Organizations like ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF BUFFALO INC
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
77% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
99%
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
- Zoological Society of Buffalo Foundation Inc · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF BUFFALO INC: 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 ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF BUFFALO INC?
- ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF BUFFALO INC (New York) receives grants from 57 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,253,752 to it, the largest being THE MARGARET L WENDT FOUNDATION ($200,000). 39 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF BUFFALO INC have?
- IRS filings report 57 organizations giving $1,253,752 in grants to ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF BUFFALO INC, 39 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF BUFFALO INC?
- THE MARGARET L WENDT FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $200,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF BUFFALO INC 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.
Play a game about who funds Zoological Society of Buffalo →
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 57 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