Zoo Miami & Zoo Miami Foundation - 2023 - 2028 Strategic Plan

2023-2028 STRATEGIC PLAN

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Zoo Miami & Zoo Miami Foundation - Strategic Plan | Table of Contents INTRODUCTION Overview Joint Message from Director & CEO

GUIDING PRINCIPLES Our Vision & Missions Our Values Key Commitments

KEY COMMITMENTS & OBJECTIVES Our Guests Our Community Our Animals Our Team

CONCLUSION What Comes Next Acknowledgements

APPENDIX

Zoo Miami & Zoo Miami Foundation - Strategic Plan | Introduction The strategic plan provides a unified direction for how the Zoo and Foundation tackle the next 5 years together, laying the groundwork for a reimagining of our organizations and our site.

We have the opportunity before us to recommit to conservation, our team, our animals, our guests, and our community.

Zoo Miami and the Zoo Miami Foundation have recently passed through a period of transition, entering a new era of leadership and renewed collaboration. It was in this spirit of collaboration and new thinking that the two organizations entered the integrated planning process, beginning with strategic planning to define a shared new vision for the future. This acts as the foundation for master planning, business planning, and ultimately a capital campaign.

Strategic Plan

Master Plan

Business Plan

Capital Campaign

Zoo Miami & Zoo Miami Foundation | Looking into the Future Dear Friends, Together, we are writing to express our full support for Zoo Miami’s and Zoo Miami Foundation’s joint strategic plan.

As a leading institution in the field of conservation and wildlife education, Zoo Miami has a crucial role to play in ensuring the future of our planet's biodiversity.

Reviewing the strategic plan, we are impressed by its comprehensive approach to addressing the complex challenges facing our natural world. The plan's focus on education, conservation, research, and collaboration with other institutions and stakeholders is particularly noteworthy.

We are committed to educating the public on the importance of wildlife conservation. By promoting awareness and understanding of the interconnectedness of all living things, the Zoo and Foundation are laying the groundwork for a sustainable future. Moreover, the plan's emphasis on conservation research underscores our responsibility to evidence-based solutions that can have a real impact on preserving the natural world.

We are truly proud of the collaborative approach to conservation the Zoo and Foundation have taken. Our partnerships with other institutions, businesses, and communities will undoubtedly lead to greater impact and a more cohesive effort in addressing conservation issues.

Overall, we believe that Zoo Miami’s and Zoo Miami Foundation's strategic plan is a thoughtful and well-designed framework for advancing the mission of wildlife conservation and education. We are confident that the plan will guide us in achieving our ambitious goals and will result in a better future for all of us.

Sincerely,

Will Elgar - Director Zoo Miami

President & CEO Zoo Miami Foundation

Guiding Principles OUR VISION OUR MISSION OUR VALUES OUR KEY COMMITMENTS

OUR VISION

Uniting everyone with nature to protect and restore wildlife.

To encourage Zoo Miami in fulfilling its mission and motivate others through community engagement, fundraising, and meaningful relationships.

ZOO MIAMI FOUNDATION

OUR MISSION

ZOO MIAMI To inspire people through engaging experiences to preserve nature in South Florida and across the globe.

OUR VALUES

CORE VALUES

DEDICATED

CARING

FUN

WELCOMING

COLLABORATIVE

Our team is driven to lead through action, learning, and sharing our knowledge with others.

Our team cares deeply for our animals, our guests, each other, and our planet.

Through joy, engagement, and storytelling, we bring people closer to conservation.

Our team’s strength is in our diversity. We create an environment where everyone feels included and heard.

We depend on each other to succeed.

We respect and support one another.

OUR

KEY

COM

MIT

MEN

TS

We create exceptional environments and programs that support physical, mental, and emotional well-being for the animals in our care.

OUR TEAM

We accomplish our goals together, through collaboration, individual OUR ANIMALS development, and care for the well-being of our team CONSERVATION members.

Conservation is our purpose.

It's at the center of all we do and present in objectives We deliver fun, throughout each of our key accessible, commitments and engaging experiences that inspire everyone to care for wildlife.

OUR COMMUNITY

OUR GUESTS

We cultivate support for our mission through authentic, service-oriented relationships, connections, and partnerships with all our communities.

Key Commitments and Objectives Our key commitments represent our highest priorities.

These focus areas will receive our concerted resources, time, and talent in this strategic plan. Under each key commitment, we describe what success will look like and how we will achieve it through specific, measurable objectives. Each objective is then supported by an action plan, providing a roadmap for the next five years and accountability for getting there.

Conservation is our central tenant and present in objectives throughout each key commitment.

OUR GUESTS OUR COMMUNITY OUR ANIMALS OUR TEAM

OUR GUESTS We deliver engaging, accessible, and educational experiences that inspire everyone to care for wildlife.

Consistently provide hands on conservation programming to guests, both on site and in the field, that educate, empower action, and enhance the community.

Be leaders in inclusive and accessible experiences for all.

Deliver up-close, impactful experiences with animals that delight and inform guests, with the goal of building empathy, positively influencing conservation attitudes, and converting guests to wildlife advocates.

Increase guest attendance, comfort, and satisfaction.

Cultivate future financial support through guest engagement.

OUR COMMUNITY

Collaborate with global communities from each biome represented and create global educational connections for local communities.

Collaborate with our immediate neighborhood and other local underserved communities to better serve their needs and create meaningful, participatory conservation opportunities.

Within our region, be the best respected expert on wildlife and advocate for ecosystems.

Foster financial support through the development of meaningful community relationships.

Become a prestigious partner for iconic events and programs.

Provide support to the community through partnerships, grants, sponsorships, and scholarships.

We cultivate support for our mission through authentic, service-oriented relationships, connections, and partnerships with all our communities.

OU

RA

NIM

ALS

We create exceptional environments and programs that support physical, mental, and emotional well-being for the animals in our care.

Be recognized for state-of-the-art animal health and wellbeing practices and infrastructure that attracts stakeholders from our local community and around the world to collaborate, participate, and learn.

Connect guests to our conservation partnerships through large, immersive, and complex multispecies habitats.

Pursue expansion, whether on- or off-site, that allows for animal retirement, more robust breeding programs, and VIP experiences.

We accomplish our goals together, through collaboration, individual development, and care for the wellbeing of our team members.

OUR TEAM Develop a team culture that prioritizes mental and physical wellbeing in its practices and facilities.

Increase internal communication across departments and between the Zoo and Foundation.

Engage and retain staff and volunteers through career development opportunities and crosstraining programs throughout the Zoo and Foundation and with our AZA partners and other colleagues.

Provide hands-on conservation experiences to staff through fieldwork and rehabilitation and release programs.

Intentionally grow and develop the Zoo and Foundation team and supporting infrastructure to tackle this shared strategy.

What Comes Next?

Strategic Plan

Master Plan

Business Plan

Capital Campaign

Beyond the strategic plan, the master plan and its supporting capital campaign are on the horizon. The direction established here will help our organizations stay true to the same North Star as we begin to build our shared future.

Working together, we can make a meaningful difference for wildlife and the natural world.

Acknowledgements Thank you to the staff and volunteers of Zoo Miami and the Zoo Miami Foundation whose hard work and dedication are the soul of this organization. Your commitment has made this project possible and will make the aspirations in this plan a reality.

Canopy Strategic Partners was honored to facilitate this process for the Zoo Miami & Zoo Miami Foundation team.

2023-2028 STRATEGIC PLAN

Appendix

Process & Findings Spanning from April 2022 - May 2023, the strategic planning process was a major effort and investment of resources and time. The integrated planning team of Zoo and Foundation staff was dedicated to creating an open, inclusive process that included as many voices as possible. The team was also invested in collecting meaningful data to guide our decisions. The work was accomplished over four distinct phases, each building on the work and findings of the previous phase.

OUR PROCESS MARKET DATA STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT

OUR PROCESS

DISCOVERY

OPPORTUNITIES

REALITY

ACTION

Where are we?

Where can we go?

What will we do?

How will we do it?

In this learning phase, we dug deep into the organization, looking at internal and external data to help us understand the zoo quantitatively and qualitatively. This learning process included a staff survey, external stakeholder interviews, and market and audience analysis.

Based on our findings, we started to dream big. First, we worked to define the Zoo's identity through updated mission, vision, and values. We then identified key themes we wanted to tackle in the strategic plan and began brainstorming specific initiatives to address them.

Using our brainstorming work and data as the basis and our mission, vision, and values as a decision-making filter, we drafted our priorities (key commitments) and determined what specifically we can and want to accomplish (objectives).

Finally, the team turned our objectives into detailed action plans, identifying the tasks, timelines, resources, and people needed to reach our ambitious goals. These will become our roadmap for the next five years.

Market Data | Audience Origins Visitors come largely from the 0-30 minute drivetime radial and the 60-90 minute drivetime radial (green and yellow). The 60-90 minute drivetime has a significant population, but draws far fewer visitors.

As Miami shrinks, the radials beyond 30 minutes may become increasingly more important to Zoo Miami's bottom line and mission. Focusing on how to reach these audiences is an opportunity for growth. Events may play a role, as large-scale events can draw a crowd from much further out. Alternatively, pricing, discounts, or other incentives could be used to bring these audiences to the zoo.

Key: 90-minute drivetime radial 60-minute drivetime radial 30-minute drivetime radial

STRATEGIC IMPACT: Multiple opportunities exist for Zoo Miami to tap into visitors from more distant markets, and pushing forward on these opportunities is necessary for Zoo Miami to maintain attendance.

Market Data | Population Growth While parts of Southern Florida are growing, Miami itself has shrunk slightly since 2020. The growth in Zoo Miami's market is toward the outer radials.

As population shrinks, it may become harder to keep attendance totals up. Expanding marketing efforts into further drivetimes and tapping into the long-distance tourist market can both help offset the decline in and around Miami.

Key: 90-minute drivetime radial 60-minute drivetime radial 30-minute drivetime radial

STRATEGIC IMPACT: Decline in your home market can lead to stagnating attendance.

Strategies must be implemented to expand into new markets, communities, and demographics.

Greater market penetration will be needed as the population declines.

Market Data | Monorail: Length of Stay and Site Use Cellphone location data shows that the loss of the Monorail likely encouraged visitors to use more of the site, as seen by the large increase in yellow hexagons along different loops on the maps below, while the "hotspots" remained very similar. However, the length of stay appears to have decreased since the Monorail was decommissioned.

STRATEGIC IMPACT:

The maps also suggest that visitors spend a lot of time very near the front entrance, and around Oasis Grill. Other high-traffic areas include Amazon and Beyond, Giraffe Feeding Station and the Wings of Asia Aviary.

Loss of the Monorail was doublesided. Visitors tended to use more of loops and explore more of the Zoo, but they stayed for shorter times.

Addressing these challenges was a major focus of Master Planning efforts.

Market Data | Household Income and Ethnicity STRATEGIC IMPACT: Zoo Miami's market requires a focus on low-income and Hispanic households. Accessibility programs that address language and income will help Zoo Miami keep attendance levels high. With such a high Spanishspeaking population, Zoo Miami can also lead the AZA in Spanish accessibility and programming.

Zoo Miami sits within a set of communities that is majority Hispanic, and about 50% of residents live on a household income of less than $60,000 per year. This makes the Zoo Miami audience very unique.

Spanish-language programming and low-income access programs can help drive visitation from these communities. With such a high portion of low-income residents, keeping the Zoo affordable and accessible for all will help drive the mission forward, but will also keep attendance levels high and the local community engaged with the Zoo.

Stakeholder Engagement | External External stakeholders were invited to share their voices with the planning team through one-on-one interviews.

Collectively, their assessment was: STRENGTHS Local popularity, reputation, and trust Minimal competition for a family day out Continue to grow collaboration between Zoo and Foundation Desire to lead and potential for global impact

WEAKNESSES Communicating the conservation mission Need to keep the Zoo refreshed and changing to maintain that support and influence Could be marketing more aggressively Could collaborate more often, especially locally

OPPORTUNITIES Build generational relationships with the community Relationships could be built to promote the Zoo and mission at Miami's many events With changes in leadership at both organizations, this is a key moment to shift priorities and philosophy Biotech high school and zoology magnet program could be a conservation pipeline

THREATS The public is largely unaware of the Zoo as a conservation organization The impact of Miami Wilds waterpark is uncertain Lack of succession planning for key roles within the Zoo and Foundation can lead to gaps in institutional knowledge

Stakeholder Engagement | Internal Staff were asked to share their perspectives via an online survey and 121 individuals responded.

The big takeaways were:

EXISTING STRENGTHS Animal care and wellbeing Conservation Guest experience

AREAS TO IMPROVE Exhibits Conservation commitment Continuing to improve animal care Build an internal culture of passion, expertise, accountability, and collaboration

OUR PRIORITIES Lead in wildlife conservation and animal care and welfare Increase public awareness of wildlife conservation issues Provide exceptional guest experiences that "wow" and build connections "I hope our mission reflects a stewardship ethic that empowers and challenges all individuals to use their own abilities, decisions and resources to contribute to the conservation and care of animals and wild places."

- Staff Survey Respondent