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You’ve collected the stories. You’ve collected the data. Now what do you do with it? We’re sharing eight fast ideas for how and where to share your impact.
Create an Annual Camp Report
An annual report is basically a summary of everything an organization has accomplished in a year (here are some great examples). Could you compile some of your data and create an annual report (even if it’s just one page) documenting your camp’s summer impact? Yes! And programs like Canva even have templates to make it easier. Throw in some pictures, and you have a great asset that you can use over and over again.
Make a Campaigner Toolkit
If you plan to do any fundraising in the upcoming months, take your data and produce some assets for volunteers! Help them tell the story of camp by creating a toolkit that includes anecdotes about campers’ experiences (be sure to respect privacy), key numbers about your camp’s impact, and graphics and photos to visually tell a story.
Lean Into Staff Retention
There is a big trend in the camp world of building relationships with staff much like you would build a relationship with a donor–you need to steward them into investing their time and energy in your program, just like you would steward a donor into investing their money. One way you can do this is to create an “impact storybook” that really tells the story of your team members’ hard work over the summer. This could be something more traditional like a zine, or something digital like a TikTok or Instagram reel–bonus points if they can share a digital storybook on their own social media accounts!
Bolster Your Staff Recruitment
Prospective staff these days are often looking to learn about how their work would matter. Instead of just having the nuts and bolts of the camp job on your recruitment landing page, share a story of a counselor’s impact–and share data that illustrates the collective impact of your staff. When prospective staff can see meaning and purpose in working at your camp, they might be more inspired to apply.
Write an Internal Memo
Many camp directors work as a part of larger organizations–for instance, as part of a YMCA association, a religious organization, or a large parks and recreation department. Summarizing the accomplishments of the summer in a memo can be a quick way to share with colleagues a response to the question “How was your summer?”—and help your counterparts better understand the work that’s being done at camp.
Examine Your Results for Strengths
We’re all guilty of it—when we first get that summer data back, we immediately look for problems. We go through and try to figure out if people are upset about anything or where we failed. If you’ve already done that, set aside some time to really examine the results of your surveys or reflections with a strengths-based lens. What are you doing really well? What are you doing really well that is a superpower of your camp—and how can you do it even better? Of course, pay attention to complaints—but don’t let them take your focus away from celebrating and building on your successes!
Create a Word Cloud
Let’s say you have a ton of written responses from end-of-summer surveys. Insert them into a free word cloud generator like this one! In the typical word cloud, words get larger the more times they are mentioned in the submitted text. It’s always very interesting to see what themes emerge when responses are visually represented in a word cloud.
Quiz Your Audience
You have a lot of interesting data that might puzzle and astonish members of your camp community. Turn some of your data into a fun quiz on social media or even use it for next year’s camper or staff activities.
For instance, can you go into your food service data and calculate how many hot dogs were eaten at your camp last summer? See who can guess the closest number. Do you know how many campers have a parent or guardian who is a former camper? Can you guess how many gallons of paint or yards of embroidery floss were used at the craft shop? Turning some of your data into trivia can be a fun fall project, and sharing it out can definitely get people talking!
READ MORE: I Have Data. Now What?
