How can our camp generate income now when we don’t know what summer is going to look like yet?

Oct 7

AHHHHHHHHHHH!

“WHAT IS HAPPENING!? WHAT DO I PLAN FOR? WILL WE EVER RUN CAMP AGAIN!? IS CAMP DEAD!?

Ok ok ok Jack, settle down.“

This is just about how I go to sleep and wake up every day. I imagine many of us have had similar feelings throughout the last 6 months.

I don’t have any answers for the above questions, but I do know the first rule of entrepreneurship, which is don’t run out of money. The second rule of entrepreneurship is also don’t run out of money. And if we keep spending money without running sleepaway camp, Stomping Ground will run out of money.

That means I need to change my yelling-scared-little-panic brain into something productive.

But how can we generate some revenue?

Our biggest constraint is that we don’t know if we are going to (legally) be able to run our typical version of sleepaway camp in New York State in 2021. It was not allowed in 2020. If that is the case, it could mean we choose to do some kind of alternative program: family camp, day camp, virtual camp, or a very modified sleepaway program. (Side note, we ran virtual camp this summer and it was awesome. I don’t think we will run it again next year, which I suppose is a different blog piece altogether.)

Given that we don’t know what next summer will look like, our goal is to push off a decision for our offerings as long as possible. Tentatively, our plan is to reassess summer plans in January, my guess is we will decide we don’t have enough information in January and delay longer. We are delaying our decision to gather as much information as possible and make the best choice for this summer. The reality is we have no idea what the world will look like in 2021 and neither do our families. For us that means we might run any number of different programs and want to have the flexibility to offer the best options.

With that in mind, how can we generate income now? The issue is that we need to avoid initiatives that would hold us to specific decisions for this summer, since things are so in flux. So, rather than collecting registration fees, we’re thinking creatively about fundraising and alternative services that we can provide to keep up our cash flow in the meantime.

Some ideas we’re trying

Flying Squirrels

Last week we soft-launched a monthly giving club for young-ish donors. You can see more about it here. So far we have had more than 15 people join and have over $8,000 pledged. This is our first step into monthly giving and we are learning a lot along the way.

Restorative Practices Workshops

Laura and Klee are launching a 4-week course training folks on something we spend a lot of time on: restorative practices. What does your camp do really well that you could teach to other camps? To other leaders? To parents? More details on this soon, but if you want more info email Klee, klee@campstompingground.org

Art Showcase

During the month of July, we ran four Facebook Live events where campers, staff, and alumni played music, sang songs, or read poetry. It was easy to put together and raised just under $2,000. We simply asked for donations like a benefit show, but the show was online. Check out Shani’s poetry session.

BeKind Online

With this, we relaunched an in-person event as a video podcast with local non-profits. We interview leaders of change organizations and share the feed on the Facebook page of our favorite local brewery. They have been big supporters of camp in the past and have a larger, different social media reach than our camp. Over 20,000 people viewed our last series and we have secured $2,500 in sponsorships from local businesses for the series. Plus it earns us great goodwill and builds our network in the community and with our partner organizations.

Learn more about the orgins of Be Kind here or check out our first virtual show here.

Popup Merch Sale

This is coming next month. One day in November we will send old merch to anyone that donates any amount that day. Last November we raised $1,200 with this event and got to get more of our merch (free advertising) into the world and off of our shelves.

Asking Donors Directly

This has been the most lucrative by far. The reality is so much of what I described above is building awareness of what we are doing, staying top of mind, and proving that we are still active in our community. Since March with direct asks we have raised over $200,000, dramatically more than we raised in the same timeframe last year. I hate the direct ask, but it is much easier when donors are excited about the content we have shared and they feel like they are in the loop.

Steal, Share, Help

These are some of the ways we have started to generate some revenue to help us get through this bizarre year. What has worked for you? Please steal any or all ideas, repurpose them and make them better. My only request is, when you make them better please share your better ideas so we can all keep our camps going! For all of us to make it through the next year we are going to need to help lift each other up and share the best from each other’s perspectives.

With that in mind as we prepare for next year check out the latest Camp Owners podcast. They had an awesome discussion about what it was like to run camp in 2020 and lessons learned for 2021.