The Society and the Self-Supporting Model

1966 — the present

The society: In 1966, the year after the opening, the Fort Wayne Zoological Society was formed — the parks chronology carries the line in a single entry. The society, a nonprofit, became the zoo's operator: it runs the Fort Wayne Zoo under a cooperative agreement with the Fort Wayne Parks and Recreation Department, which owns the ground. The society's civic structure — its establishment, its board, its place in the city's charitable landscape — is told in the Charities section of this record; what belongs here is the operating model the society runs, because the model is the zoo's defining institutional fact.

No tax dollars: The Fort Wayne Zoo receives no tax funding for operations. It operates solely on earned revenue and donations — admissions, memberships, rides, concessions and gifts. The zoo's own releases repeat the point in nearly every boilerplate: "As a self-supporting facility, the Fort Wayne Children's Zoo receives no tax dollars for operations," and its 2008 release called it "one of only a handful of zoos in the nation that receive no tax dollars for operations." Capital builds run on the same fuel: the Australian Adventure, the zoo's release notes, "was built entirely with donations from foundations, businesses, and individuals." Executive Director Rick Schuiteman, at the sixtieth season's opening in 2025, put it plainly: "Most don't realize that we are a self-supporting private nonprofit. We do not receive governmental funds, like most zoos, so admission, sponsorships, and donations are critical to our success."

Three directors: The institution has had three executive directors in sixty-one years. Earl Wells, the founding director, served from 1965 to 1994. Jim Anderson — who spent four decades at the zoo in all — succeeded Wells in 1994 and served until his retirement at the end of the 2020 season, announced on 3 March 2020. Rick Schuiteman, hired from SeaWorld San Diego and announced on 1 September 2020, is the third; the board's announcement at the time noted he was only the third executive director in the zoo's history. A plaque honoring Anderson's legacy stands permanently on the zoo grounds.

Sources:

1. Fort Wayne Parks & Recreation Department, chronological history, 1951–1970 (1966: "Fort Wayne Zoological Society formed"), cityoffortwayne.in.gov.
2. Fort Wayne Zoo / Fort Wayne Zoological Society, institutional descriptions (operation under cooperative agreement with the Parks Department; no tax funding; earned revenue and donations), fwzoo.com and the zoo's published record.
3. Fort Wayne Children's Zoo news release, via The Post & Mail, 2008 (the Australian Adventure "built entirely with donations"; "one of only a handful of zoos in the nation that receive no tax dollars for operations").
4. Fort Wayne Zoo, "Name is not only change you'll see at zoo," Whatzup, March 2025 (Schuiteman on the self-supporting model).
5. Fort Wayne Children's Zoo announcements of 3 March 2020 (Anderson's retirement) and 1 September 2020 (Schuiteman's appointment as third executive director), zoo releases; Greater Fort Wayne Business Weekly, 22 September 2020.
6. Fort Wayne Children's Zoo, "Anderson Legacy Honored," zoo release (the permanent plaque), kidszoo.org.