As we embark on our 105th year, I am pleased to report that both the Red Arrow Camp Foundation (RACF) and RAC itself are in very strong positions. Despite some tough weather early-on, the summer of 2024 received great feedback from parents, campers, staff, and alumni. But the proof is in the pudding and as of this writing, 87% of those eligible to return from last year have already secured their bunks for this summer. Please thank Eric, Mckenzie, Andrew, Anthony, Steve and the entire staff for their efforts last year.
Perhaps the only disappointment regarding last summer was that more boys didn’t take advantage of the experience. We only had 84 campers after full enrollment (96) the prior summer. The enrollment results were a function of two shorfalls. We lost five campers after they had already secured their bunks, and this is highly unusual. These lost deposits occurred for a variety of personal reasons, and we will be monitoring this metric closely as we recruit for 2025. Second, after averaging 32 new campers who came from referrals the past three summers (alumni, current families, friends of RAC), this figure inexplicably dropped to 18. You may have noticed that we are pushing hard for referrals this year and we are pleased with the community’s initial response. Our enrollment plan is built upon a metric we call 60/30/6 which simply means, we need to generate 60 returning campers, 30 referrals, and 6 new campers from online sources to achieve a full camp. Thanks to those of you who have already referred boys for the summer of 2025 and please continue to mention Red Arrow to your friends, family, neighbors, and colleagues.
The 2024 enrollment shortfall led to a small RAC operating deficit that was about equal in size to the surplus the prior year, so camp remains on solid financial footing. As you will read in the Second Century Campaign (SCC) Update, RACF enjoyed record fundraising last year with over $680,000 in donations. We have now exceeded the SCC goal of $2 million by over $400,000 with one year left in the Campaign. Your generosity has increased RACF’s financial reserves from $585,000 in 2018 to just over $2.1 million at the end of 2024. Importantly, we have also invested approximately $1 million in facilities and capital equipment projects and nearly $600,000 in camper scholarships during the Campaign. Or as I like to say, we have both invested in camp and built financial reserves for the long-term health of both the Foundation and camp.
I want to take this opportunity to welcome four new members of the RACF Advisory Board. Dan Sundt, David Hopper, Fred Parker, and Ryan Princer applied for and were approved as new board members last year. They joined us in Milwaukee last November for our Fall Annual Meeting at University School. All four have jumped onto operating committees and are making great contributions. While we have much to celebrate, we also have a lot of work in front of us. In addition to leading the RACF Board, I also chair our Strategic Planning/Enrollment committee. We recently completed an update to the Strategic plan.
By way of background, we completed RAC/RACF’s first strategic plan in 2022 and many of the priorities contained in that document have been achieved. For example, we have revised and strengthened the Foundation’s operating model, completed two large maintenance/storage buildings, purchased new mountain bikes, canoes, sailboats and RAVE swim platform, brought back Carnival, increased the endowment to $2.1 million, and exceeded our SCC fundraising goal a year ahead of schedule. So, building on that success, we embarked on an updated planning process last fall which was formally approved by the RACF Board this winter. The updated plan, which covers 2025-2029 has ten goals which are briefly summarized here.
I encourage you to read the entire document and please provide me or other members of the Board with your feedback. We view this as a living document that will be modified over the next few years to respond to emerging opportunities and threats.
Thank you for your continued support of Red Arrow Camp. I hope to see you along the shores of Trout Lake this summer.