Generous Donors

I often get the question, how does camp get the funding to offer the programs it does? Do you have a grant write on your staff? Where does the money come from?

It's called amazing, generous donors. They help provide funding for camperships (scholarships) for campers to come to camp. They help provide funding for renovations of our buildings. They in a sense 'underwrite' a certain percentage of our operations.

I asked Ellie Orbison, our Director of Development and Alumni Relations to explain. Here's what I learned.

In 2008:

• Over $180,00 was awarded to families for campership (financial assistance) for Summer Camp, Outpost, Leadership and Family Camp programs. This included donations from the Annual Fund Drive as well as endowment distributions.
  
• Over $ 434,000 was given to support the 2008 operations through the Annual Fund Drive. Our goal for 2009 is to raise $400,000 for our Annual Fund Drive. This supports a good percentage of our operating budget.
  
• Over $72,000 was distributed to Camp's budget from our Endowment Fund. (An endowment fund is an account that is invested to earn a return of income and growth of which a percentage of the account value is used each year for a specified charitable purpose.)
  
• Almost 1,200 folks made a contribution to Camp – over $1.1 million in total donations!

Ellie also pointed out, that on top of people donating money to Camp, they also donate their time.

"You’ve seen the volunteers on opening days helping us welcome campers and their families. There are also over 100 volunteers who make calls to ask people for donations to the Annual Fund Drive, over 200 volunteers who help clean up Camp over Memorial Day Work weekend, and many more who help in countless ways throughout the year writing birthday cards, stuffing envelopes and other odd jobs, and/or telling their local communities about Manito-wish."

We wouldn’t be the Manito-wish we are today without the support of the thousands of people who have given their work, wealth and wisdom through the years.

Ellie also said that a few years ago after Anne Derber had finished signing a bunch of thank you letters to our donors, she wrote a note that said, “Good golly, Manito-wish people are generous!” And she is right!!


Thanks to Ellie for writing up all of this information, and thanks to all of our donors who help support us and make this place what it is today!