In January 2021, the news emerged that Friends of the National Zoo — affectionately known as FONZ — would dissolve its partnership with the Smithsonian Institution’s National Zoo after 63 years. With the zoo shuttered for much of the year due to Covid-19, there was no revenue to support the organization, which had staffed daily guest relations positions, in addition to running major events like Brew at the Zoo.
The move meant job losses for more than 95% of FONZ staff. And it’s those losses that hit FONZ Executive Director Lynn Mento the hardest. “You have to find a way, as a team, to mourn,” Mento said. “But then we have to row to sunnier shores. And that’s what we did.”
Tapping into a grant initiative set up within FONZ in 2016, the organization has reimagined itself as Conservation Nation. With a staff of seven, Mento is leading the organization in support of a new mission to provide conservation programming to local schools and provide grants to conservationists…
Read the full story from the Washington Business Journal.
