Kansas City Zoo & Aquarium

Overview

Mission

The Kansas City Zoo & Aquarium connects all people to each other and the natural world to promote understanding, appreciation, and conservation. Friends of the Zoo, a volunteer Board of Directors, oversee operations of the Zoo. The Zoological District Commissioners administer and manage the funds collected through the district that support the Zoo. History In 1907, a dream began. City activists declared “An idea to create the largest zoological garden in the United States. There will be nothing better in the world. Swope Park is an admirable site for this purpose…” An affluent real estate speculator, Thomas Swope, donated land to Kansas City in 1896 for the park. Barron Fradenburg, a wealthy businessman and leading member of the Chamber of Commerce, made a plea that “Kansas City cannot be a metropolitan without a zoological garden.”.

Operating model

Revenue model

Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.

Distribution model

Direct operator. The filing allocates 99% of reported program-service expenses outside its grant, affiliate-payment, and member-benefit lines. This expense classification does not rule out separately announced grant awards.

The verdict

STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. The filing does not identify recipients for some grant dollars and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

• Financial Efficiency: 91
• Transparency & Controls: 69
• Accountability: 91
• Sustainability: 43
• Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Details

• What they do: Mission, programs, and operating context captured from the official website.
• Where the money goes: 95.1% of revenue deployed · 93% of spending went to programs
• Governance: 20 of 20 board members independent · 7 of 9 filing controls reported
• Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $47.9M in reported program spending
• Leadership: top reported pay $378K · 36 people listed · 4 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
• Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $4.4M reported
• Consistency: 41 of 43 current checks pass · 2 findings to review
• Schedules: 9 filed schedules · includes major donors, foreign activity, grants, and executive pay
• Filing history: 15 filing years from 2010 to 2024
• Contacts: How to reach this organization
• Money network: 16 filed money-flow records
• Related organizations: 7 filed related-organization links
• Grant readiness: Federal tax and exclusion status, award history, and grant-maker relationships.
• People: Everyone the filings name, and which of them the filings identify by more than a name.
• Staff and benefit plans: Retirement and health plans the organization files with the Department of Labor, and the people in them.

Key Signals

Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.

• Review — Transparency & Controls: Grant itemization coverage scored 58/100.
• Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 9 not reported.
• Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 52/100.
• High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 28/100.
• High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 26/100.
• Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.
• Review — Transparency & Controls: Foreign grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.