Harold Grinspoon Foundation commits $50 million in matching grants to Jewish overnight camps over five years
The foundation's JCamp 180 program will give up to $10 million a year to more than 100 nonprofit Jewish overnight camps, which must raise $3 for every $1 they receive. The new funding levels begin in 2027.
Agawam. The Harold Grinspoon Foundation will give up to $10 million a year for five years in matching grants to more than 100 nonprofit Jewish overnight camps, a $50 million commitment it announced on Sept. 29. For every dollar the foundation grants, a camp must raise $3.
The grants run through JCamp 180, a program of the foundation, which is based in Agawam, Mass. The foundation says the grants and the camps' matching gifts would bring $200 million into Jewish camping over the five years. Camps can spend the money on physical improvements, on building endowments and on needs such as scholarships and security.
How the grants will work
The commitment doubles what the foundation gives through its current Forward Together matching grant and its Endowment Accelerator, JCamp 180 told its camps in a notice dated Sept. 28. The foundation's board of trustees approved the increase the week before. JCamp 180 will meet its 2026 commitments, and the new levels start in 2027.
The 2027 rules will generally follow those of 2023 through 2026, the notice says. Each camp is allotted an amount by a formula based on its camper weeks and its beds, to be matched 1:3. Half goes to physical improvements and capital and half to unrestricted uses, over calendar year 2027, with annual reporting. Camps will learn their amounts in the coming months. Current Endowment Accelerator grants end in 2027 as planned, and guidelines for a new endowment grant are being written.
eJewishPhilanthropy, which reported the news on Oct. 1, wrote that Forward Together, a $25 million program begun in 2023, had been due to run through 2027. It reported that Forward Together grants ranged from $4,000 for the smallest camp to $100,000 for the largest, that JCamp 180 expects those amounts to double, and that $10 million of the new $50 million is expected to go to endowments.
Tight budgets at camps
Sarah Eisinger, director of JCamp 180, said in the foundation's announcement that two-thirds of its camps operate within 3 percent of breaking even, that costs such as food, security and insurance are rising faster than inflation, and that tuition no longer covers expenses.
About 10,000 donors gave toward the Forward Together match in 2025, the foundation said, and 88 camps are building permanent endowments with the Endowment Accelerator's help.
“Over the course of the Forward Together grant period, we were able to leverage the match to motivate both major donors and annual donors to increase their giving.”
Separately, JCamp 180's matching grant for nonprofit Jewish day camps in the United States and Canada is taking applications for 2027 funding until Oct. 16.
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