ABSTRACT
In 2020, battling closure due to COVID-19, Chester Zoo raised £3.3 million in just two months, rising to a total of £3.6 million in donations and £1.2million in adoptions by the end of 2020, putting its COVID emergency campaign achievement above many giants of the UK charity sector. The ‘Save Our Zoo’ campaign saw this relatively small charity outperforming Action Aid (£1.8 million), Tearfund (£1.7 million) and Save the Children (£1.4 million) and coming in only just behind the British Red Cross (£4.5 million). And in June 2020, ‘Save Our Zoo’ cut through the crowded news agenda of the pandemic, grabbed the attention of the world's media and became a viral sensation on social media. ‘Save Our Zoo’ argued that zoos, not just Chester, must reopen for the good of all, just when the government had decreed they must remain shut. Just a week after ‘Save Our Zoo’ launched, the government reversed its position. This study examines the foundations of the campaign and its execution and looks at where Chester Zoo has taken its sector-topping approach since the launch of the campaign.
