About the zoo funding forum

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This site pushes out all sorts of thoughts and information as to opportunities for zoos, botanic gardens and similar organisations  ( in the UK, Europe and the world) to be more fully recognised for the work our community does.  As well ( naturally) as receiving more resource so they can develop this role.

It will offer some thoughts as to the practicalities of ‘fundraising’, and we expect questions, comments, arguments and all kinds of other contributions. Please make all your colleagues with any kind of interest in the zoo world aware of the forum.

Originally this site also carried ruminations on the very nature of zoo organisations and how they can and should participate more widely in Society. We have now migrated this discussion to our sister site:   http://whatcouldzoosbe.wordpress.com/

I am John Regan. Together with my partner, Diane, we run John Regan Associates Limited (http://www.johnreganassociates.com/), a small concern that helps mission led zoos, aquaria, botanic gardens and nature sites across the UK and Europe attract  major ‘transformational’ funding.  We do this by assisting their positioning in respect of external funders, building important relationships and perhaps even suggesting new ways in which the organisation can see itself. We also work directly with them on a one-to-one basis to get them money!

We speak to Government ( UK and EU) and major funders on behalf of zoo organisations generically. We try to open doors for zoos to bid for new sources of funds, and to improve understanding of zoo work amongst people and institutions in a position to change matters.  So in the UK we worked with the  15 strong Consortium of Zoos, Wildlife & Nature Sites and Aquariums,  and in Europe with the EU Interest Group of EAZA Members. Naturally,  we liaise closely with both BIAZA and EAZA. We published the Manifesto for Zoos a while ago, which you can download for free as a PDF from our website. We are gradually adding new free resources on the website to help zoos attract external funding as well. Please help yourself.

On behalf of the EU Interest Group we developed a new document ” The European Union and Europe’s Progressive Zoos and Aquaria”. This  articulates all the public goods our community delivers in alignment with EU policy.

So I hope lots of you out there will comment on our posts, suggest new ideas for discussion and especially challenge our assumptions.

Please feel free to give us a ring with any queries or ideas. There is naturally no cost to this.

Best wishes

John

john@johnreganassociates.com

00 41 (0)161 434 1681