Dear Anonymous,

Let me first thank you for your question and welcome you to the discussion.

You have a great question and my answer is simple…GREAT CONTENT!

Now, you might be thinking “sure, that’s a simple answer but how do I do that?” There is a blogging principle of  the 3 C’s.  Comments, Conversation and Community.   These 3 C’s are huge with social outlets such as Facebook and the good news is that Facebook helps make the process easy.

via Let’s Talk Camp

Sound off in the comments.

The Challenge

During the summer children experience “summer learning loss” when they are not involved in high quality programs with opportunities for skill building. As a result, young people can forget up to 2 months of academic instruction, particularly in the areas of reading and math when they are not in school.

[From Explore 30 Camp Reading Program]

I have seen a variety of articles over the years that address many of these things but I wanted to share one I ran into today. This article gives you a great breakdown on what parents should do once they have decided their child is going to camp for the first time. This article is not necessarily for the first time camper but more for the first time parent. I encourage you all to read “A Survival Guide For 1st Time Summer Camp Parents” and share this with your families. If you haven’t shared this type of information with your families, please do so. Parents love it when you step up and help them make the decision. Many parents want to send their children to camp but they are just a little scared. Help them make the right decisions and put some of their fears at ease.

I wish you all a successful recruiting season.

Cris

As we all know camp is more than s’mores and camp fire, it’s an opportunity for kids to get away from the struggles of everyday life and experience a new appreciation for nature among many other things.

I believe there’s no better way to encourage the appreciation of camp than to by encouraging an appreciation for the outdoors and all the many things children need but are not getting during the rest of the year.

I ran into this little preview for a film titled “PLAY AGAIN” and it follows 5 average teenagers on their first real outdoor experience. I only had the opportunity to see a short preview but it was interesting enough to spark some ideas.

Why aren’t camps joining forces with more causes like this to spread the word about camp and the benefits of camp. Hey maybe we should put on a screening of one of this film.

There’s my two cents and here’s the preview.

Check this article out, and lets hope educate our staff – http://jeffbullas.com/2010/03/21/30-things-you-should-not-share-on-social-media/

I quickly searched online for some fundraising ideas and came up with three that seemed promising. Let me quickly share those with you and see what you think.

1. Year Round Events – Meet up with former camp families for a special event and either ask for donations for special camp projects or charge a fee to attend. These events don’t have to be at camp and depending on the time of year that may be ideal. Be sure to provide some sort of incentive for families to attend if you expect to charge. Most families would love to see their old camp friends but we all have busy lives during the year, spring break or other holiday weekends may be appropriate. Bowling Nights, Movie Nights, Dinner, or other special events. Check with former staff to see if they are available to donate some of their time. This is also a great way to excite families about camp.

2. Alumni Donations – This is an old tried and true fundraising idea. Tap into your former campers and staff that have grown up and would love to share their camp experiences with the next generation. Set up a phone drive and call alumni for donations, ask them in letters or newsletters. Maybe even asked for item donations that you can later sell on eBay or through a “camp garage sale” in the community. Keep in mind that these are your camp ambassadors they still remember camp and love it so don’t burden them too much with requests for donations. A couple of times a year may be enough, three or four times may get a bit pushy, and any more than that would be damaging your relationship with your Alumni.

3. Local Business Sponsorships – Reach out to the community and offer camp sponsorships to local businesses. A local business will sponsor child to go to camp. Offer this business an opportunity for great PR in the community and beyond. Spread the word of this business good will on your website, newsletter, email, facebook, twitter, and everywhere you can. Local businesses may have a smaller budget to give but they will benefit from these service more than bigger and better known businesses with deeper pockets.

As private/independent camps it’s not always easy to find the time to fundraise for special projects as it might be for Non-profit camps. Non-Profits rely on their fundraising and grants (a discussion for another post) very heavily to stay in business, it’s an integral part of their day to day. However, as a private camp if the mission and goals you are trying to achieve through fundraising are clear and you make those clear the public it can be a very worthwhile effort.

So my question to all of you is, have you tried any of these ideas? Do they work? Do you have other ideas to share? Should we even bother with fundraising? Use the comments or drop me an email – cris [at] campfriendship [dot] com.

Fundraising Resources – Not specific to camps but good ideas nevertheless.

http://www.ymcarockies.org/home/what-we-offer/conferences-groups/churchgroups/FUNdraisingIdeas

http://www.familyeducation.com/whatworks/item/nogroup-index/0,3002,1-11059,00.html?detoured=1

Happy New Year! I hope everyone is starting the year off with a bang. I wanted to quickly share a little discovery one of my interns made this past summer. The Summer Camp Handbook, we found it underneath one of our cabins this summer…just kidding. I’m sure many of you have already heard or even read the website updated and written by Christopher Thurber and Jon Malinowski. It’s a fabulous resource for parents interested in sending their kids to camp or those who already are sending them to camp.

Anyway let me not drag on too long. This is a great resource that we can all share with our camp families and even gather some ideas on how to better explain our camp policies. Essentially the why’s and how’s of summer camp. The Summer Camp Handbook is a great resource, so check it out!

It’s apparent that not all camps have taken the plunge into social media and that’s your prerogative but whether or not your camp is on Facebook or not you can bet that your campers and staff most certainly are. The implementation and enforcement of a social media policy is the best first step into social media for camps. A social media policy will help protect your staff, campers, and your camp. Whatever way you lean on the issue of social media and camps, I strongly recommend looking into having a social media policy for your camp.

Camp Friendship has had a rather successful foray into social media, and we slowly explore those options everyday.  I usually hear very positive stories from other camp directors on social media but there’s always that one horror story that scares off the unconverted. Well just like Jennifer mentions in her blog, we’d be happy to share our Social Media Policy with any camps who are looking to get started (just drop me an email) or you can visit Jennifer’s blog for links to other samples.

Cris

I’d suggest anyone who has had any worthwhile experience in camping to go check it out, specially the storyboard page. It’s nice to hear from people who still remember their time at camp, years later. I believe I read a little something from Camp Horizons, a very loyal former camper and current staff member shared some thoughts.

The combined knowledge of 100 years and the many camps that contribute to that knowledge and experience prove that camps have and continue to make a difference in many children’s lives. I’d encourage you to share this link with your camp families and maybe they will share their life changing stories about your camp with everyone.

I will be sending my little story over right now. – History@ACAcamps.org

UPDATE: I told you I’d share – http://www.acacamps.org/anniversary/storyboard/matoaka.html