Texas State Aquarium

The dolphin shows and jellyfish exhibits at the Texas State Aquarium? They’ve got nothing on the enormous rescue efforts going on behind the scenes. Their Wildlife Rescue program is the real star of the show. (They just saved 1000 turtles from our unprecedented snowstorm in February!) To further expand this program, the aquarium called on me to work closely with the director of development on their $25M capital campaign for a new state-of-the-art rehab center. I crafted their fundraising letters for both individuals and corporations, educating them on this crucial part of their program. (ExxonMobil donated $2M and called the director to ask who created the development piece they received!) I also edit their annual reports.
For this upcoming season, the aquarium is having to raise prices yet again on tickets to more than $40. That’s tough by any standard. Visitor interviews are showing that people are less comfortable with the idea of aquariums and zoos, but highly supportive of rescue efforts. For this reason, I suggested the spring ads focus on the role that admission tickets play in saving area wildlife, as in these concepts here and here.