A Hard Year, Full of Light (Part 1: NH Gives)
You know how every blog post starts in 2020, right? “In these unprecedented times…”?
Those words and words like them – they’re exhausting because they’re true. Our communities and world as it exists today – a world full of opportunity and loss, of joy and injustice, of constant Zoom calls and feelings of disconnection – we have never navigated something like this. Today’s children and youth have never been forced so far from their routines and rituals. Living through Covid-19 is hard. This virus is omnipresent.
This is all true at Wanakee. It’s mid-July, yet the noise, energy, and organized chaos of camp is a memory. While 10 of us spend our days working together, doing our best to do what we can to live out our mission now and for the future, the stark difference between what we are doing and what we want to be doing is always on our minds. Not front-of-mind, but a longing, just below the surface, when a song or smell or feeling grabs at the heart and tugs on a memory.
This has been a hard year. This will continue to be a hard year. And yet, as we think about the Wanakee community and the present and future of our organization and mission, there is so much to be thankful for. I have three inspiring stories to tell, and they won’t be in order. One is NH Gives, another is a celebration of legacy and lifelong passion, and the last is a tale of foresight and intentionality. Combined, they paint a picture of hope, shared purpose, and a bright future to look forward to.
SO – we’ll start with NH Gives. 231 donors and $90,038, which earned Wanakee the Power of Many Award for a second straight year. How did that happen?
First, let me say something loudly and unequivocally – ours is a community of astounding dedication, generosity, and leadership. THANK YOU.
Wanakee’s 2020 program revenue is going to be close to $0 – we anticipate at least an 85% decline in (non-fundraising) income, yet fixed costs (things that can’t be avoided even if we don’t run summer camp, such as property insurance, maintenance, administration, etc.) make up roughly 35% of our annual expenses. This means that, in the best case scenario, our 2020 expenses will be more than double what our income will be. It will likely be a much wider gap than that.
I offer that granular financial perspective now because it underscores how much we need you this year. It is awe-inspiring that we didn’t have to explain the extent of the challenge ahead in order for people like you to know that. This spring, you made it abundantly clear that Wanakee’s mission, community, and place are deeply cherished, and that ensuring we come through this time of financial pain, ready to serve, is a shared priority. Through NH Gives, 231 people (231 people!!!) raised their hands and built a foundation, strong enough even in the sand dunes of this time for Wanakee’s leadership to confidently make decisions by asking:
“How can we realize our mission most effectively in 2020?”
“What can we do today to ensure we are positioned to bounce back stronger than ever, once it is safe to do so?”
“How can we invest in ourselves in a way that anticipates a changed ‘normal’ for the foreseeable future?”
While we are carefully managing all aspects of our finances, we never had to ask ourselves questions rooted in doubt about whether we could “keep the lights on.” We never had to wonder IF we should try new, untested ways to keep the Wanakee spirit alive -- we only wondered HOW we should do that.
Months before NH Gives and a month into the radical new reality of life in a pandemic, Nicole (our Board Chair) and I were deep in conversation over Facetime, gaming out scenarios, crunching numbers, and discussing the overwhelming unknowns. At that point, summer camp still seemed like a possibility, but it was becoming clear that it would look very different, if it happened at all. The first realizations that “this is going to be awhile…” were coming into focus. We ended our call at a bit of a low point, realizing that we weren’t going to solve any problems that day, but needed to continue learning and listening.
I shut off my iPad and opened my email to see if I’d missed anything. Indeed I had – something profoundly powerful – a brief note indicating a desire to make the largest single donation Wanakee has received in many moons - $50,000 (that is not a typo). I yelped. I re-read. I got teary. I still get a little teary when I think about that moment (like I did when I wrote this). I frantically pressed “call back.”
After a shared moment of astonishment and gratitude with Nicole, the conversation with the donors about “why now?” and “why us?” began.
I’ll never forget the words shared in our first chat – “In moments like this one, it’s important that people play the role they’re able to play. Right now, God has given us the opportunity to play this role.”
They shared how much Wanakee means to their family, the ways in which this place has helped their kids grow personally and in faith, how much their campers talk about their experiences here, and how important it was to all of them to see Wanakee’s positive momentum continue.
As an organization interwoven with the mission of the United Methodist Church in New England, it was uplifting and connective to learn that, in this moment in their lives when the donors were able to provide such strong support for organizations they cared about, they thought first of their local church, and then immediately of us here at Wanakee, an arm and extension of (and for) the local church.
After these conversations, we started talking about when the gift might be given, and ways that we might maximize the impact of this radical generosity. Given the timing and enormous success of NH Gives during our first year of participation in 2019, the conversation quickly shifted to that event. We agreed that offering funds up as a 1:1 match would be valuable and powerful. What we didn’t know was just how ready the global Wanakee family was to give. I had been preparing for the understandable possibility that we would see a decrease in giving this year – times are tough. While a $20,000 matching goal would have seemed attainable and exciting in February based on how generous this community was in 2019, the landscape looked very different in April.
Instead, the inverse happened – we couldn’t roll out the dollar-for-dollar,1:1 opportunities fast enough. Not including matches through the NH Charitable Foundation, prizes from NH Gives, and other matching funds, we received $30,488 during NH Gives – over 50% more than in 2019. When it became clear that between those donations, the matching funds and prizes (just under $10,000), and this major gift, we were once again positioned to raise the most in the state, we reached out to the donor and they initiated the transfer, saving a trip to the post office on one end and a trip to the bank on the other. On a day when hundreds of sets of eyes were invested in the (already mind-boggling) generosity of Wanakee people everywhere, this gift offered a mountaintop moment of clarity and direction.
To you, our 231 donors during NH Gives, and to all who have supported us in years prior and the weeks since, thank you for being leaders, for believing in Wanakee, for trusting our leadership, and for doing what you can to build a bright future, where the campers of our next 5 years and the imagined grandchildren of those young people can look forward to moments of deep meaning, radical acceptance, and unrivaled joy among our perfect, beautiful, spiritual hills. You are all playing the role you are called to play, and Wanakee is brighter for it. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Stories 2 and 3 of radical generosity – coming soon. Stay tuned!
Grace and Peace,
James B. Tresner, Executive Director