Delaware Zoological Society

Conservation grants to support the brandywine zoo's mission to protect species and their habitats in Delaware and around the world.

The brandywine zoo's vision is to inspire awe and action for wildlife and our education department's programming is central to that vision. 2022 saw a return to traditional in-person programming- both "on-grounds and "visiting". Our traveling zoo was once again a very popular offering (82 programs- 2,819 guests). Summer camps were close to pre-covid numbers (19 programs with 219 campers). A new early childhood "on--grounds" program (little nature explorers) was introduced in 2022. The program quickly sold-out. In fact, the education department exceeded their budgetary revenue total for the rear.

Visitor services, including admissions to the zoo, gift shop and food concession exceeded budget revenue projections. 2022 was another strong year in attendance for the brandywine zoo. We greeted a total of 50,582 guests. Zoo attendance has been rebounding as our community moves forward out of the past several years of pandemic-related challenges. In the nearly three years following our temporary shutdown and reopening in june 2020, we have seen an 18% increase in zoo visitors over 2019, and a 19% increase over the pre-covid five-year average. Our recently introduced evening series (sip and stroll) welcomed more visitors in 2022 than we saw in 2021 (the initial year of the event). Our annual giving reached record numbers in 2022. We moved our popular fall fund-raising event (brew at the zoo) from september to june this past year. The event sold-out. Our major children's events (boo at the zoo and pictures with santa) also reached the highest attendance totals in years. We introduced a new fall fund-raising event (spirits at the zoo) which was very popular. We intend to continue that event in 2023. Gift shop and concession sales also exceeded projections. A new membership offer introduced in late 2021 (4 free guest passes to the Delaware children's museum with a new or renewing household membership) helped take us to the highest memberships total we've seen since 2015.