One of the biggest parts of camp that your staff don’t get to see.

Finance, capital planning, budgeting, donor relations, business strategy – and remember, we’re not on the 123rd floor on Wall St! This is camp!

All of the things that we know and love about camp – campfires, singing songs, high-ropes, canoeing on a lake are all incredible, but they all won’t exist in a camp that is mismanaged from a business standpoint. For most full-time Camp Directors, this big-picture thinking about camp as a business is absolutely critical to create a sustainable and thriving place that will be around for future generations of campers.

As you may have heard Travis say, “Money moves the mission”.

We’re all here for the campers. It’s why we do what we do, but being a business-minded director doesn’t mean that you aren’t any less camper-minded. Being business-minded, at least some of the time, means that you are taking on the responsibility of ensuring that camp is just as awesome, if not even more awesome for many years to come.

On this episode of the CampHacker Podcast, Travis and Joe are joined by Johnathon Lee, Co-Executive Director of Camp Kintail, and Sarah Kurtz McKinnon, Camp Consultant and Go Camp Pro partner. Tune in to hear these four camp pros share some of their best business practices and philosophies that allow their camps to thrive and will surely spark some new ideas for this upcoming year.

Want to get stared? Joe recommends the book Basic Camp Management for some fall professional development.

Welcome back to the CampHacker Podcast! We can't wait for another great season.