Please join us in congratulating Natasha Dresner and Dan Kirsch for their recent promotions to senior consultants at JCamp 180! We asked them to share insights from their long tenure – nearly 40 years in total – in Jewish camping.
Q: You've been in the role of an organizational development consultant to Jewish camps a long time and seen different types of camps face many challenges and opportunities. Can you tell us something you've learned during your tenure at JCamp 180 that may be helpful to camp staff and lay leaders?
Natasha Dresner (ND): Well, there is so much I learned from the camps and their leaders in my 20 years on the job, so I’m going to trust what’s naturally bubbling to the top:
- Listen first
- Don’t be afraid to ask questions
- Trust your gut
Q: What are some of the top strategies you’ve seen for camps to help them meet their fundraising goals?
Dan Kirsch (DK): Setting your development plan up to allow you to spend more time with your most generous donors and prospective donors. Often in fundraising we lapse into a situation where there’s an inverse relationship between the amount of time and effort required for the task and the likely outcome. The best ROI in fundraising comes from personal time spent with passionate fans of camp, hearing what matters to them, and offering them an opportunity that aligns their interest and values with camp’s vision and needs.
ND: Haha, don’t we all want a few strategies for our fundraising to skyrocket?! So, listen closely:
- There is no magic bullet... sorry 😊
- Not to oversimplify it, but it REALLY is all about relationships and seeing people for who they are and what matters to them
- Focusing on building a healthy, kind, and generous culture before worrying about tactics and strategies
Q: What are the characteristics of the best boards that you wish for all camps?
ND: Each board, camp, community is different, of course, but there are some things that break across denominations, structures, and other unique qualifications:
- Passion for the camp and its community
- Clarity about their role as a lay leader (fiduciary or non-fiduciary), regardless of their prior camp connections and history
- Visionary mindset: having a big picture, forward thinking, future-oriented leader who is creative and innovative; one who always sees a possibility first (glass half-full vs. half-empty)
Q: What is a project or effort you are most proud of (or that made a huge difference)?
DK: There’s a camp that’s been around for 80 plus years but only joined JCamp 180 about five years ago. They’d had turnover challenges with their top camp professional and needed to turn over a legacy board dominated by family members. They chose to step up and do the hard work with a bunch of us at JCamp 180. Their first strategic plan. A board development overhaul. Seeking philanthropic support for the first time in their history. Now they’re in the middle of a multi-million dollar capital campaign. It’s a beautiful thing to see professionals and lay leaders working together to get unstuck, set a vision, and do the work to secure the future of a place that means so much to all of them and so many others.
Q: What work still excites you the most or is most gratifying to you today?
ND: I feel so lucky! Truly! Because everything we do excites me just as much today as it did 20 years ago. It helps support a heathy and vibrant Jewish community in an informal camp setting, which is what matters to me –
a Jew who had to hide her identity growing up in the Former Soviet Union – a great deal. From the day Harold Grinspoon hired me in September of 2005, it’s been a labor of love!
DK: I get jazzed by seeing groups of passionate people figure out what’s been holding them back and how to get unstuck. When professionals and lay leaders who had been avoidant of fundraising realize that they don’t have to be slick salespeople. They can be the authentic advocates for camp that they already are. That’s when things really shift. People who had told me re: fundraising, “I’ll do anything for camp but I won’t do that. . .”, discover that they actually get energized by having conversations with fellow camp fans. Then they can’t wait to do it again. I’ve seen it happen over and over again with professionals and volunteers. That’s the best.
Q: What is your best advice for a new staff or lay leaders starting at a nonprofit Jewish camp today?
DK: Keep learning all the time. Keep asking questions. Pursue professional – or volunteer – learning and development opportunities. Find a mentor. We need great new professionals and volunteers to lead this field through turbulent, challenging times. Ask for what you need to stick with it.
ND: Being new has unique privilege/status that should be taken advantage of (in a good way):
- Lead with unabashed curiosity. Yes, listen, but also ask any (relevant) questions that come to your mind. Take careful notes. Remember, you are only new – at this camp – once.
- Focus most of your time on meeting people and building connections (getting to know people and letting them to get to know you – telling your story as well as finding out theirs).
- Trust your gut, observations, and share/offer them in 1-on-1 sit-downs.
Q: What is a helpful piece of advice you were given at some point in your career that you could share with the field?
DK: Eric Hoffer wrote, “In times of change, the learners inherit the earth while the learned find themselves beautifully prepared for a world that no longer exists.” We are always in times of change. People don’t fear change. They fear irrelevance. If you can help them see how they can make a meaningful contribution in the new model, they will want to be a part of it, and they will want to invest in it.
Q: What is something you've learned recently that you are excited about?
ND: As I recently turned 50, I learned that most of what my parents told me at different stages of my life is true. I just couldn’t see it until I experienced it firsthand. I don’t know if it’s just me or if it’s a human condition that we truly only learn when we ourselves touch the proverbial hot stove. I’m trying to listen and learn from the experience of others more than ever before.
Q: What is something that gives you hope for the long-term future of Jewish camp?
DK: I’m super excited about the transformational gifts that we’re seeing devoted to the future of Jewish camp. Farash Foundation’s commitment to Rochester is a great model. Other communities are stepping up in their own way. Chicago, Cleveland, Cherry Hill. We don’t lack resources in the Jewish philanthropic world. What’s required is boldness and the will to match the investment to camp’s impact as the epicenter of Jewish identity formation and continuity. I have to think this is bigger than Harold envisioned in his wildest dreams when he originally called us the Grinspoon Institute for Jewish Philanthropy. I can’t wait to see what’s next.
Q: What’s your favorite camp meal and what made it special?
ND: That is the trickiest question that will get me in trouble with all my camps! 😊 So, I plead the fifth on this one!
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Who we are: JCamp 180 is a program of the Harold Grinspoon Foundation (HGF). JCamp 180 invests in the long-term organizational effectiveness of nonprofit Jewish camps to ensure our community’s future and connection to Judaism. We partner with professional staff, lay leadership, movements, and allied organizations to inspire a culture that promotes philanthropic support by focusing on strategic planning, governance, and fundraising, and providing matching grants, consulting services, professional development, and research. Find more at www.jcamp180.org