Does your camp make it easy for your campers and other constituents to ask for gifts in honor of special celebrations?
The Cohen Camps have responded to camper wishes by formalizing the process for campers to ask for gifts to camp in honor of their bar/bat mitzvah. They make it easy for camp families to ask their guests to give directly to camp in lieu of gifts to the honored.
And, because they’ve promoted this option to the Cohen Camps community, families know they can support camp in a way that works for them and their guests. For example, a camper named Avery and his family decided to simply donate a percentage of all monetary gifts received at his bar mitzvah to camp themselves.
Do you articulate the values and priorities of your camp in a way that a family could easily insert your scholarship fund (or other campaign) into their bar/bat mitzvah plans, too? If so, be sure you are getting the word out about this opportunity!
P.S. Birthdays, weddings, memorials, and birth announcements work, too. :)
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Written by Aron Goldman. Aron is a Mentor with JCamp 180. Aron’s focus areas at JCamp 180 include camper enrollment, recruitment, and retention. He also directs our year-long Enrollment Program. Aron also has experience working as a consultant with grassroots, regional, national, and international organizations in the areas of capacity-building, strategy, and systemic change.
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Who we are: JCamp 180 is a program of the Harold Grinspoon Foundation (HGF). Our goal is to significantly enhance the long-term effectiveness of nonprofit Jewish camps in North America. To meet this goal, we provide affiliated Jewish camps with consulting services, annual conferences, shared resources, professional development, and matching grant opportunities. Find more at www.jcamp180.org