Kenton Fowler
Ronda Schwetz is ready to move on.
“2020 is about planning,” says the director of the Henry Vilas Zoo, sitting in her spacious office overlooking the 28-acre property. That includes a review of the zoo’s facilities, consideration of new capital projects, and a search for a new fundraising partner. “We always want to be proactive,” she says.
A top priority is making sure the zoo is ready for its 2023 AZA (Association of Zoos & Aquariums) accreditation inspection, which covers everything from animal welfare, to conservation efforts, to the treatment of volunteers. “We want to make sure we are setting us up for success in 2023 and years going forward,” adds Schwetz, who has been director since 2012. “It’s really important not to stall out.”
The zoo is emerging from perhaps one of the most contentious times in its 109-year-history. On Jan. 7, the Dane County Sheriff’s Office announced that it had found no “criminal conduct” on the part of the Henry Vilas Zoological Society — which had managed operations and fundraising at the zoo for 105 years — in how the nonprofit had raised and reported donations. County officials asked for the probe after finding what they said were discrepancies in the amount of money collected on the grounds of the zoo and what was reported by the Society.
The finding itself came less than three weeks after the two sides reached an agreement that called for the Society to transfer an endowment of more than $7 million to the Madison Community Foundation to be used to support the zoo. The deal concluded an acrimonious split between Dane County and the Society, which had also run concessions and events at the zoo. A simmering behind-the-scenes dispute first broke into public view in March, with the Dane County Board eventually voting against renewal of the Society’s long-standing contract to manage the zoo.
At that point, says Schwetz, 2019 became a “transition year.” The county quickly hired Centerplate, a contractor, to run the restaurant, gift shop, train and carousel, and staff to do marketing, outreach and events (Kristin Moala); manage general operations (Eddie Sherman); and coordinate volunteers (Lauren Salzmann). Salzmann is the first zoo employee to speak fluent Spanish and has helped add diversity at the zoo, notes Schwetz. “She has been able to recruit new volunteers.”
Narayan Mahon
Henry Vilas Zoo director Ronda Schwetz.
Schwetz says the crew successfully pulled off the zoo’s showcase events, including BOO! at the ZOO on Oct. 27, which attracted a (likely) record of 14,000, and Zoo Lights, which drew more than 30,000 people over four weeks.
The zoo also debuted its new conservation club membership. Like the zoo’s old membership program, people can join at different donation levels to receive various perks, including discounts at the restaurant and gift shops. But there is one big difference: All of the money collected is earmarked for animal care at the zoo and conservation efforts.
“It’s a new revenue stream for us,” says Schwetz. “So we decided to take 50 percent and have it for animals and animal welfare improvement and take the other 50 percent and give it to conservation partners we work with that have been vetted.”
The zoo has already donated $1,000 to Zoos Victoria, a conservation-based zoo group in Australia, to help support their work providing care for wildlife injured in the bushfires. “I think that is what I am most proud of right now — that we have really been able to shift our focus on conservation and animal welfare,” says Schwetz, who has long been active in orangutan conservation efforts. “We’ve always been focused on animal welfare, but conservation is a passion of everyone here at the zoo.”
For those visitors who would rather see their entire donation stay with the zoo, Schwetz recommends they use the donor boxes on the grounds. “One hundred percent stays here.”
The search for a new, permanent fundraising partner remains in the early stages. Schwetz says she and others are looking at fundraising models used by zoos and aquariums around the country and thinking about what the county’s request for proposals would look like. The goal is to put out an RFP this year and “find a fundraising partner who fits our mission and vision perfectly.”
Meanwhile, with the help of a county staffer who has fundraising expertise, zoo officials are reaching out to people they know who have donated in the past. According to the agreement signed in December, the Society agreed to hand over its membership list but not its donor list. The Society’s Thomas Hanson confirms the membership information was provided to the zoo.
Schwetz acknowledges that one of the challenges of fundraising is knowing and having access to people with deep pockets, but she believes that highlighting the mission of the zoo will work to set up the “ask.”
“We really want to be about animal welfare and animal conservation,” she says. “You have to be very clear about what you stand for, and where you’re going, and then ask the people who are interested and believe in it the same way as you do to help with that.”
Donations have continued to come in, despite the hard feelings created by the split with the Society. According to county controller Chuck Hicklin, between April 1 and the end of 2019, $210,737 was donated to the zoo, outside of memberships and donor tube collections.
Some people have certainly slipped through the cracks. Jason Allen was a generous donor to the Society, giving money for at least two of the zoo’s newer exhibits, and was an “Ambassador” member under the zoo’s old membership structure. He was not happy with the county’s decision to split with the Society and wrote a critical letter to the Dane County Board asking for the county to maintain its relationship with the nonprofit.
In a phone conversation he admits being “pretty disappointed in the direction the conflict took” and hasn’t donated to the zoo since the split. But he says he is open to hearing more. “Honestly I haven’t even been contacted by them,” he says, referencing zoo fundraisers. If the Society were still in charge, he says he would likely have gotten a phone call by now, updating him on the latest news at the zoo and asking for help. The Society also used to do a quarterly get-together for larger donors, he adds. “That stuff is not happening anymore,” he says.
Schwetz says the zoo would love to hear from all former donors as they continue to contact anyone they know of. Get ready for a call, Jason Allen.
