Connecticut · Nonprofit
EXPERIENCE CAMPS
EXPERIENCE CAMPS (Connecticut) receives grants from 234 organizations whose IRS filings report $7,727,329 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($866,453). 104 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 50% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $9.2M
- Funders on record
- 234
- Grants received
- $7.7M
- Net assets
- $10M
What Experience Camps does
Mission
Experience Camps gives grieving children experiences that change their lives forever. Our free, one-week, overnight summer camps, year-round programs, and content help reframe the experience of grief and empower kids with coping skills to move forward with their lives.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Experience Camps is a national nonprofit dedicated to supporting children and teens grieving the death of a parent, sibling, or primary caregiver. With over 15 years of experience, it offers clinically informed, no-cost programs like summer camps and digital initiatives to help young people process grief, build coping skills, and rediscover joy. Grounded in modern grief theory, its camp programs blend play and reflection, while older teens participate in leadership training to support younger campers. The organization also extends its reach through virtual platforms like youtube and tiktok, including its grief sucks network, to meet kids where they are. With a growing social media presence and national media recognition, it advocates for a grief-sensitive culture and positions childhood grief as a public health priority. Prioritizing equity, the organization focuses on reducing the racial grief gap by expanding access and representation for children of color, who are disproportionately affected by caregiver loss
$4,125,988 spent$99,460 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $4,125,988.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2024 to 2025, from $6.7M to $11M (+59%).
How it's funded, over time
Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.
96% of EXPERIENCE CAMPS’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (82% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 7 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Leadership and staff
The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.
Chief executive
Sara Deren
Chief executive officer
Board chair
Ashley Pelzel
Board chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 14 funders to 83 funders, grant income rose $157k → $1.7M.
35 of 234 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 50% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
From the IRS filings of EXPERIENCE CAMPS’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 234 funders by total. Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How concentrated its funding is
EXPERIENCE CAMPS has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 11% of grant income, and it takes 10 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 10 funders to its left
57% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund EXPERIENCE CAMPS.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 70% · 2018 23% · 2019 40% · 2020 16% · 2021 16% · 2022 10% · 2023 15% — diversifying over time.
“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How long its funders stay
30% of EXPERIENCE CAMPS's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 44% give in more than one year at all.
Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.
Where its funders are
50% of EXPERIENCE CAMPS's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $3.9M that is directly attributable, 99% of it comes from funders outside Connecticut, across 29 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $3.9M arriving through sponsors registered in 21 states is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Against its field
EXPERIENCE CAMPS runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 1,152 youth development nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,152 youth development nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like EXPERIENCE CAMPS
Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In Connecticut
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
70% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
97%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for EXPERIENCE CAMPS: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.
Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds EXPERIENCE CAMPS?
- EXPERIENCE CAMPS (Connecticut) receives grants from 234 organizations whose IRS filings report $7,727,329 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($866,453). 104 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 50% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does EXPERIENCE CAMPS have?
- IRS filings report 234 organizations giving $7,727,329 in grants to EXPERIENCE CAMPS, 104 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of EXPERIENCE CAMPS?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $866,453 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like EXPERIENCE CAMPS find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Connecticut. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
Play a game about who funds Experience Camps →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 234 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing