Zoo finance and legacies

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Those of us who are not very rich can only make one really substantial gift to a given organisation or cause. That is through our will.

But that’ s okay because we are all going to die!

To be serious, this is of course a sober, sensitive and sometimes difficult subject, but most zoos and aquaria across Europe really do not seem to place enough emphasis on pro-active legacy promotion.   Other mission led organisations ( note not only registered charities) however do so  and derive an enormous proportion of their income thereby.

In fact, let me let you into a secret. You know all those direct mail approaches from causes trying to get you to sign up to small regular giving through direct debit or similar systems? Well, they are not really most interested in  such immediate modest donations. They are actually after your house through an eventual ’residuary legacy’ and by starting a relationship with you now!  Most people don’t know the actual value of their house.

Here are some reasons why this a particularly appropriate funding technique for zoos:

• Lots of zoo sites were originally founded through the vision of specific individuals, who at some stage gifted the organisational assets to some form of ongoing body. Zoo history books often also reveal that major leaps forward were underpinned by the bequests of specific individuals. So we can legitimately say that the zoo that everyone enjoys today is intimately intertwined with legacy giving.
• Zoos, aquaria and natural history sites can often mean something quite profound to our millions of visitors, not only in terms of wildlife conservation or the zoo per se, but also the role it has played within their family history, perhaps over some decades. Many of our most devoted supporters are women, perhaps in their senior years, and perhaps without family, to whom the zoo and its animals has become an important part of their life.
• Our physical sites lend themselves to the (very carefully planned and controlled) memorialisation of those who have contributed to the zoo’s development
• We are already in communication on a daily basis with our hundreds of thousands of visitors

Okay, so what are some ways in which we might stimulate the thought to make a will and mention the zoo within it?

• We can constantly reference the opportunity in all our communications, not  as a separate matter, but in the context of the zoo’s growth and heritage.  The CEO or Chairman of the organisation should consider making or revising their will, adding a bequest  (this needn’t be very large - it is the example that matters) and talking about this quite openly and honestly in all the media available. We can research and present past instances of legacies that have given us today’s zoo.
• Together with a local solicitor, we can offer a free will clinic to take the mystery and emotion out of this perhaps off putting process ( this can at the same time be a free benefit to staff as well)
• Many supporters out there will have already made a bequest,  or have been thinking about it. But we don’t know who they are. We can create a modest ‘Legacy Pledge Club’ which ask people to just let us know they have referenced the zoo in a will, so we can thank them, and perhaps invite them to special events at the zoo once in while.

So, on surface of it , will making is not most the pleasent of areas to think about. But, actually,  once you get down to it, making your own will  ( as I finally did some 7 years ago) is quite liberating. Dying intestate of course means that more money will go to the Government than otherwise.

The money potentially available for the zoo’s projects can be very considerable indeed as new stories over the last few years have shown, even though clearly the process is hardly an exact science.

More emphasis ought to be placed on the opportunity. After all, none of us can take it with us.

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Filed under Sources of funding, funding techniques and attitudes