Using camp facilities for offseason programs and events
For most summer camps, the warm season is the main source of revenue and activity. However, a camp’s potential doesn’t need to end in August. With careful planning and strategic marketing, summer-camp facilities can be transformed into active, multi-purpose venues during the offseason, generating revenue year-round and building stronger ties to a local community.
There are many benefits to offering offseason programs and events:
- Increasing revenue and income
- Providing meaningful experiences beyond the summer
- Keeping staff employed longer
- Leveraging existing infrastructure
- Boosting growth and community engagement
- Marketing a facility to a more diverse audience.
Before launching offseason offerings, conduct a thorough inventory of a camp’s physical and logistical assets. Consider the facilities, meeting rooms, open fields, hiking trails, lakefront, gymnasiums, and other amenities. Once leaders know what’s available and functional year-round, staff members can begin matching those features to viable programs and events.
The following are five ways camps can use facilities more effectively during the offseason:
1. Host Retreats And Corporate Events
Team-building, leadership development, and wellness retreats are increasingly popular in the corporate world, especially in scenic, tech-free environments that encourage focus and bonding. Market a venue to local businesses, non-profits, and HR firms. Offer customizable retreat packages that include meals, lodging, meeting space, and team-building facilitators.
2. Offer Weekend Family Getaways
Offseason weekend camps and getaways can appeal to program alumni, current camper families, or new audiences. Keep these programs casual, fun, and all-inclusive to attract families looking for affordable, quality time together.
3. Host Weddings, Reunions, And Private Events
Camps can make unique and charming venues for weddings, family reunions, and milestone celebrations. A camp’s facilities can offer something different from traditional event halls. Partner with catering companies, photographers, DJs, and other wedding-event vendors to offer full-service packages for these events, or simply offer the facility for rent, allowing the host to select the providers.
4. Offer Educational And Outdoor Learning Programs
Schools and homeschool groups are often looking for experiential-learning environments. These programs can run during weekdays, filling downtime when traditional weekend events aren’t booked. Consider partnering with local school districts or charter networks to offer recurring programs during the school year, such as environmental workshops, outdoor education, and leadership or team-building activities.
5. Afterschool and Recreation Programming
A camp’s facilities can be highly desirable for recreation programming during the school year for afterschool programs and evening/weekend programs such as sports, arts, nature-based modules, clinics, and classes. These can include youth and adult programs, depending on the space the camp can provide. Camp staff members can run these programs internally or find contracted instructors to rent the space or enter a revenue-sharing agreement. To fill facilities from the morning to the evening, camps can provide senior and active-adult programming during the day while hosting youth programming during afterschool hours, with both taking place on weekends.
Summer camp facilities don’t need to sit empty for nine months each year. With the right strategy, directors can transform a property into a dynamic, multiuse facility that serves families, active adults, schools, companies, and a broader community year-round. By leveraging a natural setting and infrastructure, camps not only increase revenue but also build deeper, more consistent engagement with community members.