The holiday season had many of us cutting our Thanksgiving dinners short to beat the crowds and score some Black Friday deals. For others, yesterday was your day to shop online for as many Cyber Monday deals as you could find. Or for others, today on #GivingTuesday you pick out your charities of choice and make your donation.
No matter which of the above you enjoy the most, Zoos can fit into your holiday plans! Below is our guide for both gift giving and donations. Follow us on Twitter @Zoowithus as we’ll be retweeting a lot of information from zoos on how to donate or become involved with them this holiday season.
Ways to donate on #Giving Tuesday:
- Adopt an Animal – this is probably the most common way to donate to Zoos. Most zoos have a page where you can choose which animal you want to adopt – and they’ll send you a plush animal as a thank you. For other zoos, they might have a specific animal that needs extra care, and they’ll send you a postcard or something branded with that animal on it. This is a great way to donate as you know specifically what your money is going towards. Cincinnati Zoo is one example of this.
- Donate to a Zoo expansion project – this is another tangible way of seeing your dollars at work. Most zoo expansion projects are based on donations, which is why you’ll frequently see zoo exhibits named after donors. So if your zoo is currently working on an expansion, donating money to that cause can be a great way to see your money turn into something rather quickly. A few examples are San Antonio Zoo and Detroit Zoo.
- Donate to a Zoo fund for families that cannot afford Zoo admission – I’ve not personally done this one, but I’m seeing multiple zoos offer this option. Many zoos are near to low income areas, and these programs help children visit a zoo who otherwise wouldn’t be able to. The Great Plains Zoo’s Zoo for All program is one example.
- Donate to Zoo Research – outside of money donated to general zoo funds for upkeep, or money donated to specific animals for care, a donation to research can help zoos launch programs worldwide for continued discovery, or to help medical advancements that will assist animals currently under care. The Dickerson Park Zoo is looking for donations for their animal hospital, as an example.
Gift Guide
- Membership – Giving a membership to a zoo is an awesome gift! Most zoos offer free parking for members, so in most cases your gift isn’t costing the recipient any money – it gets them unlimited entry to the zoo to create memories! We’ve been gifted this in the past, and love doing this for others. Brookfield Zoo is one of many that has a “gift membership” option on their website.
- Ornaments – If you’re like us, you have a Christmas party you attend where you bring an ornament for an exchange. You can find these in any zoo gift shop, and they’re a bit more outside the box than typical ornaments. Chicago’s Lincoln Park Zoo has some cool ornaments available online.
- Zoo Experiences – This one might be the least fulfilling as there isn’t anything tangible to give…but giving dollars with the specific purpose of a Zoo experience can be a great idea. Our family has experienced things at zoos like Elephant training, Alligator feeding, Camel rides, and ostrich feeding just to name a few. Looking ahead to next year, a few things on our list include a penguin encounter, a bison feeding, and maybe even pelican feeding! While some zoo experiences are free, these specific ones come with a price. In the Spring we’ll provide a guide to animal encounter opportunities and where to find them, but stashing some cash away or sponsoring this type of opportunity can be a great gift. The Niabi Zoo in the Quad Cities held a sale this past weekend which included the opportunity to buy gift certificates for their animal encounters for 2019.
- Zoo or animal branded merchandise – So most people might not have a Zoo hoody on their wish list. However, you might be one of the thousands of people who followed along with Cinncinati Zoo as they introduced us to Fiona the Hippo. Animals with dramatic entrances into the world require a lot of expensive care, so they’ll often build apparel lines around these animals to raise support.
- Animal Artwork – I’ll admit that this idea still doesn’t make perfect sense to me…but maybe it does to you. Some zoos will let you buy paintings made by the animals. St. Louis Zoo does this – check it out and see for yourself if this is amazing art…or something your toddler could have created.
These are not exclusive lists – there’s opportunity to be creative! I’d also encourage you to visit some zoo lights this winter!
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