ZAA Educational Award of Excellence - 2026

Learning more about wildlife and encouraging others to explore their love of nature and the splendors that it holds are vital to the success of any Zoo or Aquarium institution. Creating opportunities for visitors of all ages and backgrounds to have meaningful experiences, feel connected, committed and curious in our wild classrooms is a commitment of the ZAA. The Educational Award of Excellence recognizes outstanding achievement and innovation in education program design and implementation.

COMPLETION GUIDELINES

Be as complete and descriptive as possible to improve chances for committee approval!

Eligibility: Must be a ZAA member.

Deadline: Applications must be received at the ZAA office no later than June 30, 2026.

General information:

By submitting an application for this award, it is understood that ZAA has been given permission to reprint information for ZAA-related publications.
Multiple programs can be submitted for consideration; however, each must be submitted as a separate entry.
If you are using a pre-written (published) description of your project summary, it must be limited to one page and include the same information that is requested in the application, or attach any missing information to the application.

How to submit:

Complete the form in it's entirety.

If you have any questions, please contact [email protected]

Are you a ZAA Member? If not, you don't qualify to submit an awards application. Contact [email protected] for more information! *

Yes

Facility Name *

Facility size *

Small/Medium (1-19 Full Time Employees)

Large/Macro (20+ Full-Time Employees)

Name and Title of the Preparer *

Email of the preparer *

(This individual will be the contact person for communication regarding the application, any additional information needed, and the award notice if you are chosen as the winner of the award. This person has express permission to act as the point of contact for the institution.)

Phone of the preparer *

Educational program title: (Include title of the program as used for any media purposes.) *

Species or ecotype of focus in the program: (Include the focal species or animal type. Use “general” for all wildlife species.) *

Status of focal species: (Include IUCN status of the species of focus, endangered or common. Use various status if covering all wildlife species.) *

Conservation area of the program: (Include the biome, habitat, or other conservation area of focus for your program) *

SUMMARY: Be as complete and descriptive as possible to improve chances for committee approval!

Write a brief, one-page summary of the program that includes the following. (You may submit a prewritten article that may be reprinted.)

When your program was launched.
How the program effectively promotes conservation knowledge.
How volunteers, if any, are utilized.
Any innovative aspects of the program that are significantly different from previous methods.
How the public has been made aware of your program.
How you have advertised your program to your ZAA peers (For example: ZAA Journal article, ZAA community forum, blog etc.)
Your target audience.

Insert summary below *

Describe how you measure the success of your program. (Example: public or in-house survey, measurable improvements in behavioral enrichment details, measureable animal welfare improvements, measurable visitation change, measurable change to fundraising.) *

Attachments: IMPORTANT

*REQUIRED: At least four photographs (.jpg, .PNG, or .pdf format) of the program. Make sure your pictures support a complete visual representation of your program and support your statements made in the program summary.
*REQUIRED: Copy of your logo ( .jpg, .PNG or .pdf format) for use in conference award presentation.
Picture submissions should include at least one of the program in operation.
Pictures of materials used in the operation of the program are suggested.
OPTIONAL: Up to two support documents

Photograph *

PDF, PNG, JPEG or JPG ( max 15 Files )

Facility Logo ( .PNG .pdf, or ,jpg) for use in award presentation *

PDF, PNG, JPEG or JPG ( max 5 Files )

Optional: Support Document

PDF, DOC/DOCX, XLS/CSV, JPG/JPEG, PNG, GIF ( max 10 Files )