Supporting a Community: Species360 membership fees accommodate large and small institutions in over 100 countries

Species360 supports over 1,200 members in 100 countries in a complex and varied global environment. In an effort to balance fairness with inclusivity across this growing membership, a sliding scale membership pricing model is used based on the size of the institution. This ensures that smaller members pay a lower fee than our larger facilities, as long as they can meet the minimum annual fee. Determining the ‘size’ of the member incorporates various characteristics – including annual expense budget, visitor numbers, number of animal care staff, number of animals and species, and number of enclosures.

Starting in 2017,

Starting in 2017, the Species360 Board of Trustees decided not to annually recalculate member renewal fees based on the above characteristics due to member difficulties in budget planning and the heavy administrative burden. Instead, once an initial membership fee is agreed to, the renewal fee is simply increased by a fixed annual inflation adjustment on the previous year’s fee. This new fee structure made it simpler for members to calculate and budget, and also provided a lower renewal fee for many members.

Additionally, due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on members’ financial position, the trustees approved in 2020 a temporary suspension of this inflation adjustment on membership renewals.