Agawam, MA — Jewish camps deepen belonging, create Jewish joy, and serve as a cornerstone of our Jewish community. But they’re also financially complex; with tight budgets and large overhead, they require sustained investment to serve campers generation after generation. To help meet this need, the Harold Grinspoon Foundation (HGF) is pleased to announce a $50 million matching grant through its JCamp 180 program, which helps Jewish nonprofit camps thrive well into the future.
“From the first time I visited a Jewish summer camp, I realized that camp was an incredible way for kids to experience what’s great about being Jewish,” says Harold Grinspoon. “I knew it was a great place to put my dollars. So we have been investing in Jewish camping to help camps meet the financial challenges they face. This grant and its matching component have the potential to truly transform what camps will be able to do. We’ve seen the amazing success of matching-challenge grants and I hope this match will encourage other funders to support the awesome impact of camp.”
With this commitment, JCamp 180 will award up to $10 million in matching grants each year over five years to support more than 100 Jewish overnight camps. For every dollar that the HGF grants, the camps must raise $3. This $50 million challenge grant and corresponding camp fundraising efforts will infuse a total of $200 million in the camp ecosystem over five years. Camps can use the funds to make critical physical improvements, build their endowments, and meet emerging needs such as increased scholarship or security expenses.
“The Jewish camp field is experiencing financial fragility,” says Sarah Eisinger, director of JCamp 180. “Two-thirds of our camps operate within a 3% margin of breakeven, and the camps have faced economic shocks from COVID-19, October 7, and disruptions due to climate change. The data shows that operating expenses such as food, security, and insurance are outpacing inflation, and tuition no longer covers expenses. Philanthropy plays an increasingly important role if we want camps to flourish.”
“In previous challenge grants we’ve offered to camps, they’ve done extremely well in meeting the 1:3 match and attracting new donors,” Eisinger continues. “There’s capacity to do more and appetite for the philanthropic community to support Jewish camping. This $50 million grant is an even larger invitation and call for everyone to donate to help Jewish camps thrive.”
This new commitment builds upon the success of Forward Together, the HGF’s previous matching-grant challenge for camps. In 2025 alone, approximately 10,000 donors were motivated to meet the Forward Together match, creating vibrant donor ecosystems at the Jewish camps. Additionally, 88 of the camps are now working to create permanent endowments with the special targeted support of JCamp 180’s Endowment Accelerator.
“Matches work. 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,” says Rabbi Eliav Bock, executive director of Ramah in the Rockies. “The existence of the Forward Together match gave donors confidence that their gifts would have amplified impact and provided a compelling reason to give now. We are excited about the prospect of doing more, and I know that my camp colleagues from across the field join me in embracing this new and larger challenge and what’s ahead for us as a field.”
Data shows that time spent at Jewish summer camp is a predictor of a lifelong Jewish identity, and its impact on our Jewish belonging cannot be understated.
“For more than 100 years, Jewish camps have remained one of the most powerful places where young people build lasting Jewish identity, community, and a sense of belonging,” says Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ). “Harold Grinspoon has long understood that investing in camp means investing in the Jewish future, and this extraordinary commitment is another expression of that vision. Across URJ's 14 camps, we have seen what becomes possible when philanthropy, strong leadership, and bold thinking come together. We are deeply grateful to Harold, the Harold Grinspoon Foundation, and JCamp 180 for challenging all of us to build an even stronger and more sustainable future for Jewish camp."
