Jewish communal leaders concerned about ensuring a Jewish future know one thing for certain: attendance at a Jewish summer camp is one of the best ways to ensure Jewish continuity.
With that goal in mind, real estate entrepreneur and philanthropist Harold Grinspoon, co-founder of the Harold Grinspoon Foundation, has been supporting Jewish summer camps for more than 28 years, to the tune of $55 million.
Recently, the Massachusetts-based foundation’s JCamp 180 program announced the launch of the organization’s Forward Together matching grant. The grant will invest $25 million in unrestricted support and capital projects overt the next five years to more than 100 nonprofit Jewish overnight camps affiliated with JCamp 180.
Grant recipients include Capital Camps & Retreat Center, Camp Ramah in the Poconos, URJ Camp Harlam and Habonim Dror Moshava, all widely attended by Baltimore area youth.
“Forward Together is a 1:3 matching grant where the HGF disburses $1 for every $3 the camp raises,” stated a JCamp 180 press release. “Each camp will receive a base allocation of funds; if they raise four times the allocation within the grant period, the camp will receive a $10,000 bonus.”
Established in 2004, JCamp 180 provides Jewish nonprofit summer camps with free consulting services and grant-matching opportunities designed to enhance the long-term benefits of Jewish camping experiences.
Grinspoon, 93, said his visits to “multiple camps” last summer showed him “camps brimming with life, although continuing to struggle with significant mental health, staffing and infrastructure challenges. … The Forward Together grant renews my commitment to helping position Jewish nonprofit overnight camps for long-term sustainability for generations.”
Said Sarah M. Eisinger, director of JCamp 180: “The Harold Grinspoon Foundation support for Jewish summer camp is enduring and we are proud to make this commitment over these next five years. This support will give the camps the resources and tools to maintain and steward their current donors and attract new ones. We hope this match gives the camps the confidence to continue sharing the power of Jewish camp so they can be sustainable into the future.”
For information, visit jcamp180.org.
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