How to Run a Summer Camp: Your Camp Management Toolkit

When a kid’s experience at your summer camp goes well, they bring home a whole season’s worth of amazing memories that will last them a lifetime. Yet, while we all know how important effective camp management can be, smoothly running a summer camp is often easier said than done.

That’s why we’ve gathered our top tips from veteran camp management experts to dive into how to run a summer camp, including advice for enhancing your efforts with the right camp management software.

If your organization wants to make next summer really count, you should:

1. Get to know your campers.
2. Empower your campers with self-management tools.
3. Keep parents in the loop all summer.
4. Focus your camper communication efforts.
5. Manage your camp’s finances effectively.

Ready to refresh your camp management skills? Explore our top best practices, so you can give campers their best summer yet!

1. Get to know your campers.

Unless this is your first year operating your summer camp, you likely already know how important it is to know your campers. Yet, one of the most common challenges camp management professionals encounter is a fundamental misunderstanding of their campers as individuals as well as a group.

Your team might be well-versed in the needs of the general demographics that make up your campers, but if you don’t have the tools in place to know your campers on an individual level, you won’t be able to serve them well during their time at your camp.

Recommended Camp Management Tool

Invest in robust camp database software before your next summer session. This way, you’ll have time to familiarize yourself with your new platform before your campers arrive.

When picking a camp database, look for these top features:

• Sign-up tools. A smooth registration process starts the camp experience off on the right note. Select a database with user-friendly registration tools that allow parents to sign their children up quickly. Then, the database should automatically use the information provided to create camper profiles. 
• Camper profiles. These will be the backbone of your new camp database. Camper profiles record everything you need to know about your summer camp’s attendees. This includes biographical information (like their name and birthday), contact information, the school they attend, payment history, and even custom information like their favorite colors, books, bands, and other relationship-strengthening details.
• Electronic health center. Your campers’ health is important. A database that allows you to document health concerns and act quickly if issues arise not only keeps campers safe but also reassures parents. Keep tabs on allergies, medical conditions, and medicine schedules in your camper database.

When your team invests in camp database software that takes the needs of your individual campers seriously, you’ll be well-equipped to build lasting relationships each summer.

Even better, having a robust camper database makes camp coordination and camp management training easy. When all this information is housed in a single system, your staff (both new and old) can easily access what they need to know to manage camper relationships.

2. Empower your campers with self-management tools.

When you provide campers (and their parents) with self-management tools, you make the camp experience better for everyone. Think of it this way: the more campers and their families can handle by themselves, the less administrative work for your staff, plus the better campers will be able to tailor their experience to their needs. 

Recommended Camp Management Tool

Find camp management software that takes camper self-management to the next level. Your next management platform should include both the behind-the-scenes features your team needs and the customer-facing management tools your campers need.

Some essential self-management features for your campers include:

• Registration. Signing up for your camp should be easy. Choose a camp registration software solution that lets you customize your registration forms to fit your camp’s exact specifications. 
• Activity management. Don’t put barriers between your campers and the activities they want to be a part of. During and after registration, present your campers with a full schedule of activities they can easily register for. Pick a platform with an activity filter so that your campers see the ones they’re eligible for, streamlining the process.
• Digital waivers. Allow your campers to experience new things and participate in all sorts of fun activities without putting your organization at risk. By placing the waiver-signing process into the hands of campers and their parents, you ensure it’s as convenient as possible for everyone involved! 

Your campers and their parents should feel like active participants in the camp experience. By choosing camp management software that offers self-management features, your campers will never feel left behind.

3. Keep parents in the loop all summer.

As much as parents value their kids’ independence, it’s tough to say goodbye when their children head off to summer camp.

When it comes to running a summer camp, camper retention is essential, and the key to keeping it high is including parents in your camp management strategy. After all, the parents decide to send their kids to your camp each season. 

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Find smart, software-powered ways to keep parents in the loop all summer long. With the right tools, your team can maintain strong relationships with parents while still giving kids the space they need to fully immerse themselves in your camp.

Find camp software that recognizes the role parents have to play by offering:

• Group registration. It’s not uncommon for parents to register multiple children for camp at once. It’s summer camp management 101 to make the registration process as easy as possible to increase your camp attendance. Help parents out by investing in smart software that allows them to register children in bulk. Parents can fill out shared information, like their children’s home addresses and contact information, and then add unique details for each camper.
• Emails from home. Your campers’ parents want to keep in touch while still allowing their kids to be independent. Try offering parents the ability to send one-way emails from home. Campers can access these messages like any other email, but won’t be able to send a message back. This way, kids can focus on their lives at camp while parents can still reach out to their loved ones.
• Routine updates. Provide parents with routine updates on their campers without taking campers out of activities or massively increasing your staff’s administrative burden. Modern camp mobile apps enable you to upload photos of campers, automatically identify individual campers, and alert parents that there’s a new photo of their child available. 

When running a summer camp, it’s easy to hyper-focus on the campers. Keep parents in mind and ensure they also have a positive camp experience by leveraging parent-focused tools that keep them in the loop. 

4. Focus your camper communication efforts.

Communication is one of the most important aspects of smart camp management, but many organizations struggle to build an effective communication strategy.

If your camp gains a reputation for spotty, unclear, or confusing communication practices, parents are unlikely to send their kids back next summer. 

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Adopt camp management software with communication features that let your team easily manage connections with all of your campers and their families. 

Your next camp management software should offer:

• Email automation. Email likely forms the heart of your summer camp’s communication strategy. Leverage your camp management platform’s email automation software to design, draft, and schedule emails to your campers and their parents. Flow names and email addresses from your database right into your templates to minimize manual input, and use email segments to plan communication campaigns.
• Camper prospecting features. Managing relationships with prospective campers is just as important as staying connected with past and current camper families. Streamline camper prospecting by choosing a management platform with prospecting tools. Manage camper prospect leads by tracking requests for new information, automating email responses, and taking an active role in how new campers join your community.
• Counselor communication. When it comes to your communication strategy, don’t forget your counselors! Effective communication with counselors about recruitment, training, and camp start dates is essential for properly running a summer camp. 

Your communication strategy directly impacts your relationships with campers and their families. Make sure your team manages these connections well by leveraging powerful communication solutions.

5. Manage your camp’s finances effectively.

A lot goes into managing camp finances, and whether or not your team has the right tools to do so can have major consequences on your summer camp’s success.

Whether it’s processing payments, checking whether your accounting is in order, or empowering campers to manage their own funds, a thoughtful financial management strategy is paramount to running a summer camp.

Recommended Camp Management Tool

Find camp management software that takes managing your camp’s finances as seriously as you do. This way, your team will be empowered with user-friendly, reliable tools to keep parents happy.

Find a camp software solution that provides:

• Robust billing tools. Not only should your customers be able to pay their bills online, but your team should also be able to track the billing cycle from beginning to end. See where new campers are in this process and automate reminder messages to steer them toward completing their purchases. This way, no one is ever hit with a surprise bill, and your team can ensure payments are successful.
• Convenient store cards. When parents send their kids off to camp, they want to be confident their loved ones will have all the resources they need. This includes having funds stored for emergency purchases, lunch money, fun toys at the camp store, or any other products your camp might sell. Choose a camp software solution that lets parents load money on an electronic camp card so their child can buy whatever they need.

One effective way to ensure campers return again and again to your community is to optimize financial interactions as much as possible. With powerful financial tools like these, your campers and their parents will never have to worry about your camp’s financial management.

More Resources for Running A Summer Camp

Camp management is so important to get right, and your team needs the right tools in place to manage your camp effectively. With these camp software solutions, your summer camp will be ready for any challenge!

Want to learn even more camp management strategies? Check out these additional resources to get started:

• CircuiTree Camp Management Software. Find out how CircuiTree’s leading camp management software elevates the operations of summer camps just like yours.
• CircuiTree Camp Registration Software. Smart camp management starts with the right camper registration tools. Find out how CircuiTree has revolutionized camp registration software.
• 5 Essential Camp Database Software Features You Really Need. There are a lot of camp software solutions out there. Check out our top camp database software features before you invest in a new platform.