At camp, we talk a lot about culture because, ultimately, culture impacts everything. Culture is where thoughts, feelings, and behaviors intertwine and come to life. As a profession, we are really good at focusing on the traditional definition of camp culture. We share values with the camp community, ask staff to embody ideals or change, celebrate small wins, engage with campers, and communicate openly with our teams. Camps prioritize youth voices, ask volunteers for feedback, and pass out countless surveys. We go hiking as a team, bring in pizza to celebrate together, and kick off the holidays with a themed roller-skating party.

But what about the business side of running camp? The real culture of an organization is actually built while doing this foundational work.

Organizational culture often comes up in conversations about how seasonal staff behave or choices campers make, but what about when it comes to the bottom line? Stretching your camp’s dollars grows both mission and business no matter what your model. Private camp? Budget matters. Nonprofit camp? Budget matters. Small start-up? Budget matters. Large camp with an endowment? Yes, budget still matters.

So, how does company culture impact your bottom line? Significantly. Building a staff culture of financial literacy directly influences your budget. When staff feel ownership and deep understanding of expenditures and revenue, your camp’s financial position is strengthened.

A positive organizational culture fosters transparency, accountability, long-term planning, quality work, and teamwork. It’s a rewarding experience for employees. On the other hand, an organization with a crummy culture is prone to mistrust, burnout, hoarding, individualism, and theft. Think about that as you consider the dollars and cents of running camp. Many organizations centralize finances, which can actually hinder strategic goals rather than support them.

True financial stability isn’t found in spreadsheets alone — it’s created by cultivating a culture of shared financial literacy and ownership. And this isn’t a one-time meeting or training. A year-round approach builds fiscal responsibility and employee buy-in at all staffing levels by embracing a continuous cycle of communication, teamwork, projections, and goal setting. This cycle includes three stages: planning, creation, and implementation.

Develop a Plan

Define the Goals

While building a culture of financial literacy requires a collaborative, team-based approach, every organization needs a leader to provide direction and guidance. During this phase, leadership shares that direction. For a camp owner, this might include strategic goals, while a nonprofit executive may refer to a strategic plan developed by a board of directors.

As the leader shares the vision and priorities, there is also an educational opportunity. Every staff member benefits from understanding camp revenue and expenditures. This may sound simple on the surface, but it becomes more complex the deeper you dig, and that awareness is critical.

Examples of how expenditures impact the bottom line include:

• Depreciation of critical assets, like buildings or vehicles, must be planned for.
• Overhead is made up of hidden costs that are often overlooked, such as staff time.
• Utilities are often underestimated.
• Revenue can also be more complicated than it appears.
• Grants may be restricted to specific uses.

The camp store can seem profitable at first glance. However, once staff time and other hidden costs are factored in, improperly priced items can actually result in losses.

Fundraising campaigns may generate revenue, but the cost of staff time and supplies is often unaccounted for.

While it’s vital for the leader to clearly outline the vision, this phase is also an invaluable opportunity for a listening session. Depending on the organization’s size, listening sessions may include direct reports, department heads, or the entire team. Ideally, in larger organizations, managers have already held similar sessions with their own teams. The listening session is designed for leaders to build a better understanding of day-to-day needs. A strong leader does not need to know every operational detail, but they do need to hear the day-to-day realities. This is essential for a leader to develop a complete picture from a variety of perspectives and positions.

Get Into the Nitty Gritty Details

It’s not uncommon during a budgeting process for the finance team to focus on annual costs and quarterly projections. But that is not enough to build culture and awareness. This phase is an opportunity for staff at every level to dig in and share what they need and want to be successful in their positions. This process helps staff think through things and make wise, thoughtful choices that prevent waste, build pride, and ultimately improve the program’s quality. This is an opportunity for managers to work with their teams to detail every single line item. As staff dig in and reach out to vendors, they will build relationships. It creates an opportunity for staff to pause and really inspect equipment. It’s truly a unique opportunity to take a fine-toothcomb look at all your organization’s assets and needs.

Cooking Up Savings

A camp chef researches the price of beef and discovers that the cost of ground beef has increased by 11.6 percent over the past 12 months, now reaching $6.64 per pound. The camp’s food distributor has also sent out a newsletter warning that prices are projected to continue rising next year.

Reviewing past menus, the chef notes that ground beef is used four times a week in the rotating menu — spaghetti, burgers, chili, and lasagna — for 200 people each week. During this research, the chef learns that pork prices have only risen by 1.4 percent and now sit at $3.82 per pound.

The chef approaches you with a cost-saving idea: replace the ground beef in the lasagna recipe with a less expensive Italian sausage. He explains that by making this switch, he can save the camp $84.60 per batch — which adds up to $676.80 in savings over eight weeks. Through these discussions with the camp’s food rep, he discovers he can lock in the current pork price by making a purchase commitment for the upcoming summer’s order.

Create Your Plan

Back and Forth — Build a Budget

By now, staff have handed in all the nitty-gritty details — how many cases of toilet paper will be needed, how many new arrows are required for archery, the projected rise in energy costs, and even the fun staff gift ideas that have been dreamed up.

At this stage, everything goes into the budget. Everything. This is your chance to see the full picture. What are the creative big ideas? What small details bring value? What are the “what ifs” on the staffs’ minds? When staff really sharpen their pencils, leadership often discovers surprises — like how achievable a “big idea” actually is, or revealing details that help with contingency plans and spotting trends.

This is where the real conversations happen. It’s a back-and-forth space to talk through why a team submitted a significant increase or decrease. You might be amazed at what an individual or department is willing to adjust for the good of the whole camp.

And it’s the perfect place to ask the tough questions:

Should we try to revenue our way out of this? If so, what’s the plan?

If not, how do we work together to make tough decisions?

The back and forth of building a budget is about a lot more than numbers. It is about teamwork, creativity, and developing a plan to turn into action later.

Implement the Plan

Financials

Once a budget has been created, it is all too common to hit Save and walk away. However, this document must become a dynamic tool for regular use by staff in varying positions. It is much more than a guide to approve or decline purchases. It is a tool to track the original plan versus the actual reality of living it.

A comparison of the budget to actuals, whether it’s monthly or quarterly, should be shared with staff to build transparency and minimize surprises. Team reviews of financials are an opportunity to:

• Share about crummy revenue
• Discuss large, unexpected expenses
• Celebrate big savings or discounts
• Problem solve unexpected hurdles such as equipment failures

Discussions about financials are also an opportunity to plan for and dream about the future. This further develops a culture of transparency and trust where employees know their feedback, ideas, and observations turn into real actions and planning. And when that feedback is not taken, there are clear reasons as to why. Again, this process builds trust and teamwork.

In 2023, Forbes published an article exploring the “18 Ways to Effectively Communicate Financial Data to Stakeholders.” The very first line states, “Effective communication of a company’s financial performance and strategy is crucial to building trust and securing support . . .” (Forbes Finance Council, 2023). While this article explores stakeholders such as investors, lenders, and regulators, a company’s staff are its greatest stakeholders. By definition, a stakeholder is someone who is impacted by an organization. Arguably, staff are most impacted by their employer and the business they work for.

Simplifying Financials

A traditional profit and loss statement (P&L) may be overwhelming for staff. Consider these tips and tricks to make a P&L understandable:

• Replace jargon with everyday terms.
  • Example: Replace “COGS” with “direct costs”
• Create a key that clearly defines jargon.
  • Example: Operating expenses are the day-to-day costs
• Create visualizations through charts and graphs.
  • Example: A line graph showing income versus expenses
• Offer a short overview of observations or real-life examples.
  • Example: Switching from buses to vans allowed us to increase the number of camper pickup routes, increasing camper enrollment”
• Include a short explanation of important points.
  • Example: Utilities are high this month due to construction
• Provide a comparison to prior time frames.
  • Example: Include “This Year vs Last Year” columns

End-of-Year Projections, Reflection, and Future Planning

Too often, end-of-year projections are quickly knocked out by a single executive staff member without input from the team. A collaborative approach can prevent a “use it or lose it” mentality that results in unnecessary purchases or stockpiling of supplies. Meaningful input empowers staff, preventing a scarcity mindset. With a year of meaningful input, a culture is created where staff can reflect on whether everything budgeted was really needed, leading to more realistic future budgeting.

As camp professionals, we end camper activities with meaningful reflection opportunities. We know this step is imperative to solidifying the connection between experience and meaning. Yet, we often fail to provide this opportunity for staff. A wise mentor of mine once told me, “How silly would we feel if we had this beautiful campsite but went out of business?”

Think about the stark reality behind that statement.

Regardless of camp type or business model, a strong financial standing means more impact. More money allows camps to underwrite more scholarships, improve quality through added training, innovate with new activities, plan for unexpected crises, build sustainability through savings or endowments, and more.

Staff are the key to saving nickels and dimes, small savings that quickly turn into real savings and, yes, real impact. Building a culture of financial literacy is an investment in staff, campers, and ultimately the longevity of your camp’s mission.

Photos courtesy of Camp K on Kenai Lake, Camp Fire Alaska, Cooper Landing, AK; Camp Yachad, Scotch Plains, NJ.

References

Economic Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture. (2025, September 25). Food Price Outlook – Summary Findings. ers.usda.gov/data-products/food-price-outlook/summary-findings

Forbes Finance Council. (2023, September 18). 18 ways to effectively communicate financial data to stakeholders. Forbes. forbes.com/councils/forbesfinancecouncil/2023/09/18/18-ways-to-effectively-communicate-financial-data-to-stakeholders/

US Bureau of Labor Statistics. (n.d.). Average retail food and energy prices, US and Midwest region. bls.gov/regions/mid-atlantic/data/averageretailfoodandenergyprices_usandmidwest_table.htm

Sterling Nell Leija is the cofounder of the Innovative Camp Company, where she works with camps and national youth-serving organizations to grow their mission and enhance their impact. As a seasoned camp pro, consultant, educator, speaker, and writer, Sterling brings extensive experience to the industry, sharing best practices, research, and tools with audiences ranging from seasonal summer staff to industry leaders. Her expertise encompasses capacity building, operational and capital budget management, fundraising, business development, and nonprofit operations. She can be reached at [email protected].