A generous lead gift means the Georgia Aquarium need not rely too heavily on fundraising

By Abny Santicola

The space itself has two wonderful viewing windows, and we expected the first year to have about 200 events. We’ve had about 800 events, and so it’s been very good for us financially. Having that in place will allow us to not need to be reliant on fundraising for special projects.

We have a partnership with the University of Georgia. It’s a first-ever partnership where students in the vet program at UGA, which is recognized as one of the best — if not the best — vet schools in the country, can come here and do their residency on site. We have a perfect laboratory atmosphere. We have over 500 species in the aquarium, so having this partnership will allow us to really focus on our mission-driven activities. And we are fundraising for that.