How This Summer Camp Grew Fundraising Almost 50% in 2 Years

Back in 2017, Tristan Starbird was an eager Executive Director of Fair Haven Camps in Maine, a non-profit that provides enriching summer camp programs for children in New England. Tristan was dedicated and incredibly passionate about his nonprofit. But when it came to growing and scaling his organization so they could impact even more children’s lives, he was at a loss at where to start.

That year, Tristan attended the 7-Figure Fundraising workshop and was one of the earliest adopters of the 7-Figure Fundraising model, which he used to grow Fair Haven Camp’s budget almost 50% in less than two years.

Learning how to pitch major donors with a clear and compelling vision was an eye opening and transformative experience for Tristan. Like many of us in the nonprofit world, Tristan had been walking into most donor meetings with just a few general bullets to drive the conversation. He’d often get into the weeds discussing the details of a particular project instead of Fair Haven Camp’s vision to positively impact children’s lives.

It’s a common story we see in the nonprofit world: Great leaders like Tristan putting in the work each day, but struggling to lead donors to the big vision of what their organization could achieve.

Camp Fair Haven had inspired Tristan to join and eventually lead the organization. But he recognized that his passion wasn’t enough to take his nonprofit to the next level.

Tristan walked into the 7-Figure Fundraising workshop ready to learn the fundraising tools that he could take back and use to maximize Fair Haven’s impact. Now he’s got a new killer pitch and has taken on a bolder, more direct approach in his asks—and it’s working.

Like many of us, Tristan would often leave his pitch vague and open-ended and walk away empty-handed. “I had never been trained to ask.” he shared.

Tristan worked one-on-one with the fundraising coaches at the workshop to develop a better way to pitch - one that was more concise and compelling so that he could inspire donors to partner with Fair Haven Camps to give kids a great camp experience.

The very next day after the workshop, Tristan used his new pitch at a meeting with a church, whose members had shown interest earlier in the year in assisting Fair Haven Camps with its maintenance efforts. However, the pastor told him right before the meeting that he didn’t know if the church could make that happen after all.

Inspired to change their minds about the donation, Tristan laid out the camp’s big vision from his workshop pitch and asked the church members to join alongside him in providing boys and girls in New England with camp programs where they experience life to the fullest, create lasting memories, and make lifelong friends.

Tristan’s tenacity and vision paid off - quite literally. Instead of pulling out of their commitment, the church members decided to double down. They doubled the volunteers they agreed to send, to pay for the materials and labor for a much-needed new roof at the camp, and even gave an additional $5,000 to jumpstart the renovations.

Tristan walked into a meeting facing a crumbling agreement and left with a full commitment for more than he’d asked for - total more than $40k in value for Fair Haven Camps -- the very next day after the 7-Figure Fundraising workshop!

“We went from, ‘they weren’t going’ to people coming up to me after the presentations literally begging to join the trip,” he said.

That’s the power of a compelling pitch and inspiring vision.

The following Sunday, Tristan spoke at another church to raise scholarship donations for children to attend Fair Haven’s summer camp programs. Instead of giving a general update on the camp’s recent activities as he typically did, Tristan seized the opportunity to lay out the broader vision of Fair Haven Camps and how it’s working to positively impact hundreds of lives.

Tristan says that for church presentations as these, “I would come home with maybe $1,000 towards scholarships... which would be a really good day.”

On this Sunday, he inspired $10k in scholarship money from a small church congregation of about 130 people.

Tristan says his new pitch and dramatic success has given him newfound confidence that donors are consistently responding to, even two years later. “What I found was my confidence level skyrocketed immediately because I was confident in my message. I was confident in my preparation,” he shared.

Tristan said 7-Figure Fundraising workshop gave him a more effective way to fundraise that has totally changed the financial landscape of Fair Haven Camps and allowed them to more than double their budget in three years.

Here are a few of the successes that Fair Haven Camps over the past 3 years:

• 20% revenue growth in the first year after attending the workshop and 48% in growth two years after the workshop.  Prior to attending the camp’s revenue had been flat for 3 years

• Tristan inspired a donor to increase their giving almost fourfold - from $15k to $55k

• A donor who have previously given $500/year was moved to provide an additional $40k

• The year Tristan attended the workshop and implemented the 7-Figure Fundraising system, the camp’s year-end campaign was the biggest in its history, more than tripling their $20k goal and raising over $68k in this campaign by using the right message and the right method

Tristan took two days of fundraising training and achieved incredible success for Fair Haven Camps that continues on years later. But Tristan isn’t the only nonprofit leader [link to Wolf story] seeing incredible results like these.

Tristan went from overworked executive to inspired fundraiser with the mindset, skillset and pitch to take his nonprofit where he had only dreamed before.  

Before attending the 7-Figure workshop, Tristan had the vision and drive to increase the impact of Fair Haven Camps but lacked a proven system to fundraise more effectively. Now he’s got the confidence, the system and the tools he needs to succeed.

You can too.

We’ve cheered alongside the successes of more than 170 other nonprofit leaders who are transforming their organizations with the 7-Figure Fundraising model just like Tristan and teach dozens of more great nonprofit leaders at every workshop.

If you want to learn about a better, more effective way to fundraise major gifts for your nonprofit, learn more about the 7-Figure Fundraising workshop and development model and sign up to attend our next live workshop.

We host only a handful of these small-group workshops per year, so register now while seats are still available and start your own path to becoming a 7-figure fundraiser for your organization today.