17 Jun S.D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation Awards $2,500,000 Grant to Campfire

Camp Fire was recently awarded a $2,500,000 grant from the S.D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation to support the implementation of its five-year Business Plan, “Strengthening the System.”

Funds from the S.D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation support the implementation of its five-year Business Plan, “Strengthening the System,” specifically funding the support of the NHQ and council leadership as the staff and national board begin addressing the Plan’s four goals:

1. Increase Camp Fire’s brand visibility and awareness;
2. Continue to strengthen the council system;
3. Ensure NHQ’s long-term health and sustainability; and
4. Continue to increase the effectiveness of the National Board of Trustees.

As Camp Fire’s leadership looks to the next five years, it is clear the organization is at a critical point. Although there are indications that efforts to stabilize the system are paying off, Camp Fire remains vulnerable. Just as it took bold action to stabilize, NHQ must now implement steps to strengthen the system, support council growth where councils have implemented strategies to increase participation and revenue, create a platform for system-wide growth, and build collaborative and distributed leadership across the system. Successful implementation of this plan depends on shared responsibility among NHQ staff, the national board, and councils. Council leaders have indicated support for the strategic direction NHQ defined in this plan, and many council CEOs are prepared to step up and actively participate in the implementation process.  Currently, NHQ does not have sufficient staff capacity to build revenue for its own operation, to sustain the needed improvements to the system introduced over the past five years, or to selectively extend and build on that work to strengthen the system.

The long-term goal of Camp Fire is to help youth achieve their full potential through (1) identifying and developing their sparks. Sparks refer to a young person’s interests, skills, and unique personality attributes; (2) cultivating a growth mindset to prepare them to deal with challenges directly, positively, and with the understanding that from struggle, comes growth; (3) being able to reflect about oneself in order to learn, understand, and incorporate developmental self-awareness; and (4) building goal management skills.  In order to accomplish this, we must (1) remain a strong advocate for youth development; (2) regain solid national recognition as the go-to, evidence-based, education and nature-based youth organization; and (3) build strong foundational planning mechanisms and put them into place to ensure long-term organizational effectiveness, sustainability, and the ability to scale impact over time.