To offer your campers unforgettable summer experiences, your camp needs to invest in new fundraising approaches and refine your old strategies over time. While registration fees provide a percentage of your revenue, there’s more you can do to vary your revenue streams and create a more sustainable fundraising base. 

To help your camp get started building out new fundraising ideas while refining the classics, this article will explore three camp-specific fundraising approaches, including: 

• Branded Merchandise Sales

• Volunteer Grants

• Direct Donation Appeals

These fundraising strategies are built so each method supports your other outreach efforts. Plus, it’s easy to get started with each of these methods, even if your team is new to fundraising campaigns. Let’s explore how to raise more for your summer camp season by getting your volunteers, parents, and even campers involved. 

1. Branded Merchandise Sales

Part of the fun of attending a camp is joining life-long communities united around their experiences at your camp. Selling t-shirts, mugs, water bottles, and other merchandise branded with your camp’s logo appeals to campers who want to show off the fun times they had at your camp in their communities. 

However, selling merchandise isn’t as simple as just setting up an online store. You can maximize the potential of each sale by:

• Encouraging buyers to share pictures on social media. Selling branded merchandise not only helps raise funds but can also spread awareness about your camp. Create a hashtag for your camp and ask customers to take pictures with their merchandise for their social media profiles. For example, you might encourage parents buying t-shirts to take a “first day of camp” photo before dropping off their child. 

• Advertising merchandise after visitors pay registration fees. Convenience leads to more sales, and something as simple as letting customers make a purchase without re-entering their credit card information can make all the difference. Some eCommerce platforms can be set up to show merchandise after entering registration information but before making a payment, so everything can be bought at once. 

• Creating a streamlined checkout process. Make sure nothing stands in the way of customers who have decided they want to buy your merchandise. Cart abandonment is a common problem caused by long forms, limited payment options, and payment forms that navigate away from your website. Either embed your payment form into your website or brand your payment tool with your camp’s logo so customers know where their money is going. 

Merchandise sales rely on customers enjoying and wanting to support your camp, so make sure you give them positive experiences to justify each sale. But remember, your campers aren’t the ones with credit cards, meaning parent satisfaction is key to earning both registration fees and merchandise sales. 

2. Volunteer Grants

Your camp likely relies on volunteers to achieve many essential tasks. Along with helping kepe your camp running, you can earn revenue through your volunteers with volunteer grants. Volunteer grants are donations made by corporations when their employees volunteer a certain amount of hours. 

Double the Donation’s guide to volunteer grants explains how to start collecting volunteer grants with these steps: 

• Record your volunteers’ hours. Most volunteer grants require participants to have volunteered a certain number of hours. Tracking volunteer hours ensures your camp has a record of a volunteer’s attendance at your camp, which might be required based on different volunteers’ employers. You can also use volunteers hitting a certain number of hours at your camp as an opportunity to express your gratitude for all their hard work.

• Check your volunteers’ eligibility. Different employers have different requirements for volunteer grants. Some just need to see proof that a certain amount of hours was volunteered at any nonprofit, while others only support programs with a certain focus. You can use grant databases and matching gift software to provide volunteers with the information they need to quickly and accurately complete their volunteer grant application forms. 

• Help your volunteers submit their applications. Corporations will require documents showing hours volunteered and proof that your organization is eligible for the grant by a certain deadline. Help your volunteers gather and submit all necessary forms to qualify for a grant. You might do this by sending emails with the essential documents or hosting a Q&A meeting to guide them.

Remember to thank your volunteers for all their hard work and for going through the process of submitting a volunteer grant. Outside of just volunteer grants, volunteers help keep your camp running smoothly, so throw appreciation events or give them extra merchandise as a token of your gratitude. 

3. Direct Fundraising Appeals

The most straightforward way to raise funds is to ask directly. You’ll likely find that many people are happy to contribute to a cause that enriches your campers’ childhoods. 

Figuring out the most effective way to ask for donations for your camp can require some trial and error. Of course, there are still certain strategies you should always use while soliciting donations. Here are some tips for structuring your giving cadence:

• Communicate impact. Show your donors the difference they’re making with photos of activities, your counselors at work, and your campers enjoying themselves. Furthermore, collect and provide specific impact metrics based on the size of the gift—such as the number of meals provided to campers—and share them with prospects to give them an idea of what their donations will do for your camp. 

• Encourage recurring donations. Recurring donations are gifts that are given automatically every year, month, or even week. Make sure your payment processor can handle recurring payments. Then, add a recurring donation option to your page, letting donors choose how they want to give. Remember to include an impact metric highlighting how a monthly gift will help your camp.

• Thank donors. Letting donors know they’re appreciated can go a long way toward building a loyal support base. Set up your donation form so a thank you message is automatically sent to each donor after their gift is processed. Remember to offer exclusive perks to donors, such as free branded merchandise or invites to an appreciation dinner.

Many of your donors will likely be parents, but you can also ask former counselors and campers once they’re old enough to give as well. According to ABC Fundraising, you can even get local businesses involved by offering a discount card fundraiser. Your product fundraising partner will negotiate discounts with local businesses and create a discount card for you to sell to donors. The discounts will pay for the card itself in no time!

Another way to inspire giving is to try a food product fundraiser, such as a cookie dough sale. Your parents can support your camp while getting sweet treats that their kids will love! 

Even if your camp is able to cover its expenses with just registration fees, expanding your revenue sources gives your camp more varied income, which provides sustainable funding. Ultimately, the best fundraising strategy is to host an excellent camp experience, creating something that people will naturally want to support and see grow. You just need to offer the means for them to give, and you’ll be able to create many more memorable summers for your campers.

Guest Author: Debbie Salat 

Debbie Salat is the director of fundraising activities and product development at ABC Fundraising(r) - Debbie joined ABC Fundraising(r) in 2010 and is responsible for launching over 6500 fundraising campaigns for schools, churches, youth sports teams and non-profit organizations all across the USA. With over 20 years of fundraising experience, Debbie knows the path to success for fundraisers which she shares with groups on a daily basis so they can achieve their fundraising goals.