Fundraising

The phrase “Annual Campaign” can feel empty and uninspiring. If you want to encourage giving, you should instead talk about how donations given now will go to work right away to make this summer awesome. 
 
Here’s some examples of how to frame a conversation: “Your donation this year will help with scholarships, allowing a child to attend camp whose family is struggling to make ends meet. Your gift given now will allow construction to start on a humongous climbing wall with a zip line. With your help we can invite six young Jewish campers from Israel, France, and even China to join your child for the best summer ever.”
 
Annual fundraising follows a cycle that you can plan for each year. The goal is to raise more each year from a growing number of people and to retain your donors from year to year.
 
The process for doing so follows the same path every time: Ask, thank, report, and then repeat.
 
Each year you should plan out your asks in the following categories:

1. Personal Major Donor Asks: A small set of personal asks, face-to-face for major gifts identified in advance
2. Appeal Letters: Spring, fall and end-of-year annual appeal letter with return envelope
3. Quick Thank-Yous: Quick and correct personalized thank you letters from the camp within a week of donating
4. Personal Thank-Yous: A personal handwritten card from a board member or senior staff member for donations over $400
5. Impact Report: An end of summer impact report (Note that it’s not an “Annual Report”.)that defines how the donations where used and the impact they had
6. Visits to Camp: Invitations to current and possible future donors to come visit camp during the summer while camp is in session
7. On-Line Giving: Improve your on-line giving processes  

Notice what’s missing? There are no events, galas, dinner/dances, raffles, golf outings, or silent auctions on the list. ARRGG!  Event fundraising is costly, sucks up staff and volunteer time, and doesn’t lead to repeat donations or loyal donors. Your time is best focused on building relationships with major donors and asking, thanking, and reporting.

JCamp 180 is committed to helping your organization apply best practices to your camp’s development efforts. We’ve hand-picked the resources below to get you started. For our full set of resources on this topic, click the “More Fundraising Resources” button at the bottom of the page to go to the main Knowledge Center page. You can either further refine your search using keywords or scroll through all the resources.

From time to time, there are projects that need more funding than can be raised in a single year. Capital campaigns require major gifts and pledges to be successful and are typically used for construction of buildings or to purchase a camp’s property. These donations are expected to have lasting impact on the camp and campers for generations to come.
 
If your camp is thinking about a capital campaign, or is in the middle of one, JCamp 180 has many resources in our Knowledge Center you might find helpful.
 
Successful capital campaigns typically have a lot of planning to support them, including:

• Strong Governance
• A board-approved strategic plan
• A long-range master site and facilities plan,
• Clarity about the campaign’s goals that is compelling  
• A robust list of current and potential major donors
• An up-to-date database
• Staff leadership and the goodwill of volunteers who are ready and eager to work on the campaign
• A written capital campaign plan, with prospects, tactics, tasks, time-line, and budget

JCamp 180 is committed to helping your organization apply best practices to your camp’s development efforts. We’ve hand-picked the resources below to get you started. For our full set of resources on this topic, click the “More Fundraising Resources” button at the bottom of the page to go to the main Knowledge Center page. You can either further refine your search using keywords or scroll through all the resources.

You can learn a lot from other Jewish camps, and there are many more resources, tips, and tools from other camps on our Knowledge Center. If you don’t see that you are looking for here, please try using the search function in the Knowledge Center where many, many more resources are housed. 
 
These samples from other camps are among the most popular samples on fundraising in our Knowledge Center. If you can’t find what you are looking for, please try the Knowledge Center or contact us.

JCamp 180 is committed to helping your organization apply best practices to your camp’s development efforts. We’ve hand-picked the resources below to get you started. For our full set of resources on this topic, click the “More Fundraising Resources” button at the bottom of the page to go to the main Knowledge Center page. You can either further refine your search using keywords or scroll through all the resources.