The Philadelphia Zoo
Measuring a zoo's ability to influence visitor attitudes and behavior
While the Philadelphia Zoo ranks among the city's most popular tourist attractions and family outing venues, there is more to its agenda than entertainment and fun. The Zoo's mission, "to advance discovery, understanding and stewardship of the natural world through compelling exhibition and interpretation of living animals and plants" is evident in its exhibits and programs. Yet, until recently, the Zoo had never formally gauged its success in shaping public attitudes toward conservation and influencing behavior.
Building a logic model
With a grant from the Philadelphia Cultural Management Initiative, a program funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts, the Zoo engaged TCC Group in 2004 to perform an evaluation study that would help assess the extent to which the Zoo was accomplishing its mission. As a first step, TCC created a "logic model" - a roadmap that outlined strategies and desired outcomes and provided the basis for surveys and other measurement tools covering three groups: casual visitors, members and volunteers.
"Basically, we were looking to answer two questions," says Kathleen Wagner, senior vice president for conservation and education at the Zoo. "First, how effective are we in influencing visitors' conservation behavior? And second, how do our programs, exhibits, and outreach efforts encourage people to care more about the environment and take action on its behalf?"
Connecting with animals
The Zoo subsequently completed its first round of surveys, which generated a large body of data about how people experience the Zoo. "We learned that visitors placed great value on their interaction with staff, so we've increased our investment in staff training," says Wagner.
A desire voiced by many visitors, to connect more closely with animals has been addressed in the Zoo's newest exhibit "Bank of America Big Cat Falls," designed to promote a commitment to conservation and environmental protection, with opportunities for visitors to support Zoo conservation projects in Africa and Mexico on the spot. And, planning for the future renovation of the Zoo's bird house incorporates the lessons learned from this initiative. In addition, the Zoo has applied for grants for nationwide replication and dissemination of the evaluation project, creating a suite of customized instruments for use in other zoos and aquariums and developing a national database to aid institutions in their planning and programming.
"We've always believed passionately that the essential function of zoos is to preserve wild animals and wild places, primarily through public education," says Wagner. "The TCC consultants who worked with us understood this viewpoint intuitively. Their work has enabled us to achieve tangible gains in the Zoo's impact and relevance."
