In Our Community

We are deeply involved in our local community, offering free and discounted education programs to schools, supporting other non-profits, hosting holiday parties for local charities, and offering free and discounted admission to underserved community members.

Here are more details about our community programs:

Oakland Zoo is proud to offer Bay to Zoo Tickets, a program that provides deeply discounted admission tickets to low-income Bay Area residents. Learn more about our Bay to Zoo program.

Oakland Zoo provides free and discounted science education programs for underserved students attending Title 1 schools in the Oakland Unified School District. We give 5,500 vouchers every year to schools and community organizations as part of this program. We reach an average of 3,000+ students and 1,000+ adults with our Zoo-To-Community programs during the school year.

In honor of their service, Oakland Zoo is pleased to offer teachers of grades TK-12 a year-round discount on daytime admission. Teachers from any U.S. region are eligible and tickets must be reserved online, in advance through our website.

We provide 1,000+ Family day passes to local nonprofits to use in local auctions and fundraising (equivalent monetary value = $100,000).

We host and sponsor this annual event every September in partnership with the City of Oakland. It has become the largest older adult-focused health-related event in Alameda County. The event draws an average of more than 2200 participants each year.

One day each Spring, Oakland Zoo offers free admission to 500 pre-K and TK students from underserved Oakland communities and their families through this program in cooperation with Oakland Rotary Club. The day educational opportunities, as docents set up special stations throughout the Zoo.