Annual Impact Report 2024

View below to see how donors have made a difference for the Zoo and wildlife around the world in fiscal year 2024. You’ll read impact stories, hear from donors themselves, review our financials, and see where the Zoo is going in a letter from the Director and Board Chair.

You Help Champion the Zoo’s Success

Thanks to you, the Minnesota Zoo continues to be a critical asset to Minnesotans, the diverse ecosystems within our state, and wildlife around the world. Your support of the Minnesota Zoo Foundation has accelerated Zoo initiatives that elevate the health and well-being of humans, animals, and the planet.

This past year, animal care efforts have been particularly strong, and you’ve helped the Zoo continue to thrive and grow as a leader in this space. From raising orphaned sea otters to the breeding and births of critically endangered Amur tigers, our Animal Health and Care teams are instrumental to protecting the well-being of animals in our care. And their success is enabled by your generosity.

Moving forward, we’re strengthening our commitment to being an industry-leader in animal care with the design and construction of a new animal hospital. With donor support like yours, The Wildlife Hospital and Wellness Center will offer innovative equipment and treatments that allow us to best care for our nearly 5,000 animals and prepare us to care for even more as the Zoo continues to grow. It will also serve as a high-powered research center bringing together zoological veterinarians and scientists from around the country to work together to change the future for wildlife here and around the globe.

By investing in ground-breaking projects such as this, the Zoo continues its work as a leader in extraordinary animal care, research, and conservation as it works to connect people, animals, and the natural world to save wildlife.

We thank you for choosing the Minnesota Zoo Foundation and investing in our mission. We are truly grateful for your efforts and those of our board members, state representatives, volunteers, and employees who advocate tirelessly to ensure wildlife thrives in Minnesota and beyond. On behalf of the Minnesota Zoo Foundation and the Minnesota Zoo, we thank you.

John Frawley
Minnesota Zoo Director
Minnesota Zoo Foundation President

Blake Grams
Retired VP of Global Operations
The Toro Company

Director’s Circle Monthly Donors

Brian and Laura Plantenberg

We started donating to the Zoo before our son was born because we realized places like the Minnesota Zoo are important for families in Minnesota as well as for animals around the world. It has been a tremendous source of education and enjoyment for our family. We love all that the Zoo has to offer including special events like Farm Babies and the Jack-O-Lantern Spectacular, educational opportunities like Zoo Camp, and everyday visits enjoying things like the awesome Treetop Trail.

Our donations help ensure a place for future guests to learn about animals while enjoying everything the Zoo has to offer. And we try to teach our son that it is up to us to help maintain and support important organizations such as the Minnesota Zoo.

Ensuring Excellence

Taking Animal Care to a New Level

The reality of caring for animals at a zoo is that unexpected animal health issues will inevitably arise. That’s why the Minnesota Zoo has expert Animal Health and Care Teams who are ready to leap into action, making informed decisions and providing excellent medical treatment.

Last year, Zookeepers noticed something was amiss with Yana, an Amur tiger cub. She was experiencing cloudiness in her left eye and her vision was affected. Acting quickly, the Zoo’s care team diagnosed Yana with acute bullous keratopathy – a condition so rare for big cats that it was the first documented case in a tiger. The Zoo’s medical team decided to perform a surgery on Yana’s eyelid, ultimately saving her eye and helping her regain her vision.

This is just one example of the expertise and excellence of the Zoo’s Animal Health and Care Teams. They are caring for and helping animals behind the scenes at the Minnesota Zoo each day, and while their impact can be overlooked, it is evident in the everyday wellbeing of our animals at the Zoo.

To keep up with the constant demand of animal healthcare, our Animal Health and Care Teams rely on donor contributions. In fact, the Minnesota Zoo Foundation is currently raising funds to build a new, state-of-the-art Animal Wildlife Hospital and Wellness Center to give the Team more modern resources to make a larger impact. We envision the facility to include:

An ambulance bay for safe animal transport
Nutritional laboratory for diet analysis and preparation
Intensive Care Unit for small and large animals housed at the Zoo
Animal surgical suite and aseptic holding facilities for large animal species
Conference and education programmatic space for visiting veterinarians
And much more

Supporting our Animal Health and Care Teams in keeping the Zoo’s animals safe and healthy is one of the many ways your donations make a difference. Visit our donations page to donate and make an impact that will be felt for years to come.

Circle of Life Society Donors

Jeff Walker and Carey Becker

Supporting a place and keeping a place alive is important. If there’s a place that feels important, it’s important to us that that place stays relevant for people to continue to enjoy it.

Any amount that you can leave will be useful. Everybody at the Zoo is always so excited and so appreciative of anything you can do.

Amplifying Impact

Feeding Northern Sea Otters

We brought in new donors during our Zoo Lovers Giving Day, asking the community to help provide nutritious, personalized diets to Zoo animals, like new orphaned sea otters, Nuka and Denali.

Corporate Partner

Flint Hills Resources

Phil Gaarder, Executive Vice President, Operations

Flint Hills Resources is proud to partner with the Minnesota Zoo Foundation to support innovative programs and initiatives that benefit our shared community. Through the ZOOMS STEM Design Challenge, educational field trips, and exploration on the Treetop Trail, we are fostering interactive ways for youth to engage in STEM activities and to envision themselves in STEM careers. For more than 30 years, we’ve partnered with the Minnesota Zoo with the goal of inspiring the next generation of scientists, engineers, and innovators — and we know that together, we make a difference.

Redefining the Role of Zoos

Breeding Endangered Tiger Cubs

Donors to the Minnesota Zoo Foundation support critical conservation work in the field and allow the Zoo to contribute to a healthy, genetically diverse population of tiger cubs in human care. Watch the process of bringing Amur tiger cubs, Amaliya and Andrei, into the world, and learn how donors are critical to the field work and breeding efforts that are saving this endangered species.

Minnesota Zoo Foundation Financials

Statement of Revenue and Expenses for the Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 2024.

Note: The Minnesota Zoo Foundation is in the final stages of the Step Into Nature Capital Campaign, and the beginning of an Animal Hospital Campaign, and as such both Revenue and Expenses are significantly impacted by the variability of a multi-year capital campaign.