Interview 4973 – Caption Index: 431
Do you ever have any surprise donations?… Read More
Do you ever have any surprise donations?… Read More
Anybody bowl you over?… Read More
Yes, we had a two and a half- Gave us two and a half million dollars for a new children’s zoo. That was a windfall that came from Spalding’s. They were lighting manufacturer, husband died. She liked the zoo. She liked the number of board members and she wrote Spalding… Read More
What would happen if you don’t get the levy passed?… Read More
I says, well, get rid of the elephants, which was, I had to, I had a pregnant animal in an area- I had three elephants living in an area for one. Well, four elephants, that would’ve made the fifth. It would’ve been impossible. Well, they took that and they ran… Read More
Lessons learned were?… Read More
Once. We got into a situation with the elephants. It was blamed on my- Well, we attended a newspaper briefing, you know, where the staff were, were sitting down to deal with the news of the day, and we were asked to appear and present. We were gonna go for… Read More
Well, in a time when the public was, they had just funded a new stadium and they found that they had to pay additional sales tax, it was a tax-resistant period in time. Well, at any rate, I had gone into the meeting with the press and one of the… Read More
Were you able to use the political process to get money?… Read More
You’ve mentioned tax levies. We were in a quandary for a long time on moving the zoo forward. And the only way I saw out of this dilemma was that we had to go after tax dollars. Now my board then was composed of many conservatives, and conservatives don’t like… Read More
Did the voters ever turn you down?… Read More
How has fundraising changed in the director’s involvement today as to when you started?… Read More
Fundraising is more difficult today than it was when I started, and I started this aspect of my career or my zoo professional job. It’s difficult because you’re competing now because of the problems in municipalities, the demand for dollars for all the non-profits, you’re competing with the arts, you’re… Read More
And, you know, in fact, at times we were running into the situation are you back here again?… Read More
You know, it’s that kind of, ’cause they’re getting the corporations and donors are getting hit from so many different sides. So it’s more difficult. It takes a more organized plan, and that’s why I again emphasize outside professional help. An organization cannot or should not attempt this just with… Read More
How did you adjust to fundraising hat?… Read More
One of the things I really enjoyed and not many zoo directors do, but I really enjoyed fundraising. I love to ask for money. That was a fun part of my job. Really, when you think about it, most of them are flattered. You know, all they can do is… Read More
And I found that over a period of years that you’re not gonna make any enemies. In fact, you’re probably, even if they don’t give you anything, they still think it was nice of you to ask them. Read More
The most difficult areas to get the public to respond to, of course, were sewer renovation and underground repairs and the nuts and bolts of the zoo operation. Our zoo had been so neglected. We still had, if you can believe this, and probably we should have preserved them, we… Read More
And if we didn’t address them, who would?… Read More