Important News About Lindsay Wildlife Experience

On March 13, 2020, Lindsay Wildlife Experience made the difficult but necessary decision to temporarily close its doors to the public in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Like so many other nonprofit cultural and educational institutions across the Bay Area, we took this extraordinary step to help protect the public from an emerging health threat, and to keep our staff, volunteers, wildlife patients and beloved animal ambassadors safe. 

During the past ten months, we have made every possible effort to continue our mission of connecting people with wildlife. We maintained the expert care of our wildlife hospital patients and animal ambassadors, and continue to deliver our educational programs to children and families through innovative online classes, educational workshops and events, and entertaining outdoor programs, when possible. There have been some setbacks and challenges, but we remain fully committed to our mission and to continuing vital public education programs.

As the pandemic continues, we have no way to predict how long we will need to keep our doors temporarily closed to the public. As a nonprofit organization, we already faced funding challenges before our temporary closure. With the continued loss of $150,000 in operating revenue each month of our closure, it has become more challenging to maintain the current level of operations at Lindsay. 

Over the past ten months, we have done everything we can to maintain all of our staff and continue our mission. We have also been overwhelmed by the outpouring of support from both fundraising drives of our Love for Lindsay Wildlife Campaign, which has helped us continue to care for our wildlife hospital patients and animal ambassadors, deliver our education programs, and work to launch new ones. Without that united show of support from our community, Lindsay would not have fared so well during this crisis, and we will continue to need your help as we launch our annual fundraising campaign for 2021. However, due to the $1.5 million loss of operating revenue resulting from the closure, we have had to make difficult decisions no company wants or should have to make. It pains us to furlough some of our employees, however temporarily, and we are doing everything we can to make this transition as smooth as possible. We are who we are because of the incredibly talented staff and the volunteers who dedicate their time to Lindsay, and we look forward to their full and enthusiastic return to work soon.

Responding to the COVID-19 pandemic has challenged us all in so many ways. Here at Lindsay, we believe we will emerge from the pandemic transformed but stronger. We invite our community to continue to hold together, stay strong, and to reimagine what Lindsay’s next phase will look like. We can’t do this without you.