Amici Camping Charity
Growth Strategy for a Charity that Enables Children from Low-Income Families to go to Summer Camp
The Amici Camping Charity was founded 49 years ago with the mission to enable children from low-income families to experience summer camp, and through it, to gain exposure to the life-changing power of camp. To date, Amici has provided more than 1,500 summer experiences with partner camps to children who have limited access to recreational activities, restricted ability to remove themselves from their social-economic environment, and scarce opportunities to gain self-confidence and realise their own potential. Amici employs a personalised and high-touch approach to match children to partner camps that best suits their needs, and once in the programme, Amici invests in the child year-over-year. This model infuses the campers with a stronger sense of self-worth, self-confidence, and leadership skills. Participants in Amici’s programmes have gone on to join the leadership teams at their respective camps and become the first members of their families to attend university.
Amici is at a crossroad, on the cusp of its 50th anniversary. Amici’s model has been highly successful, and in the last five years, Amici’s budget (and number of participants) has doubled. During this time, Amici has focused on building a stronger board of directors and a committed full-time team of resources to manage the charity. With burgeoning growth, the board sees an abundance of potential to better support disadvantaged children in both North America’s fourth largest urban area (Toronto), and impoverished communities across Canada.
We are pleased to be able to work with an organisation like Amici, which has had an incredible impact on the lives of hundreds of children through summer camp experiences. We look forward to contributing to the success of Amici, the Toronto community, and the children growing up in itAndrew Medland, Principal, Oliver Wyman
Scope
Oliver Wyman will validate, and potentially update, Amici’s vision, mission, and current business model to ensure the organisation can provide the desired social impact. Oliver Wyman will also provide strategic recommendations going forward, so Amici can achieve the vision and mission it has laid out.
Oliver Wyman plans to deliver four key components to Amici:
- New/revised vision and mission statements that align stakeholders on the desired social impact the charity seeks to achieve
- Strategic option assessment and a recommended operating model to achieve stated vision
- New strategic plan to execute the mission over the next six years
- New performance assessment tools and processes to effectively measure the impact
Expected Impact
This 10-week project is on-going at the time of writing but will provide Amici with the foundation to grow sustainably. It will enable Amici to direct resources towards programming that enables the not-for-profit to achieve its vision most effectively. Depending on the selected vision and strategy, this could result in:
- Sending more participants from the Toronto region to summer camp
- Expanding to year-round outreach in urban environments
- Partnering with other charities to expand reach
- Expanding the programme nationally to provide Canadian youth access to similar outreach
