Affordable For All

Beyond Tuition Assistance

AFFORDABLE FOR ALL

Transparent Financial Aid

Farm & Wilderness is committed to make the F&W camp experience truly affordable for all families, starting with transparency in the range of rates our camper families actually pay to attend our camps.

The way we provide financial assistance is intended to be transparent, timely, and predictable.

Once we say farewell to our family campers at the end of the summer sessions, our admissions team is already working on details for the next summer! We open registration in the fall, and families need details to solidify their plans. In addition to the dates and rates for each session, many of our families also look at our Affordable for All charts to get a better idea of what their estimated family contribution towards their child/ren’s tuition will be, based on their level of financial resources, which for most families is their employment income and can include other sources of financial funding & support.

Year to year, the amount of financial aid funding we have available shifts due to the actual amount which is donated in the previous calendar. We won’t know the final amount we have available until the calendar year concludes, and families rely on having an idea of what their cost will be before making a commitment for the following summer. Farm & Wilderness can only continue to provide transformative summer experiences for young people if we are able to predictably balance our budget each year.

A helpful metaphor is to think of Farm & Wilderness as baking a cake to share. We’ll start taking down information for folks’ needs in the fall, and we’ve been collecting the ingredients the entire year, but we need to try and commit to the needs of folks in October as we anticipate finishing baking the cake as December turns into January, and then we slice and serve that cake starting in mid-January right up until balances are due June 1. We open registration by November, tally our donations in December, and begin to make campership determinations in January, and continue to do so bi-monthly until June 1. Just as our Affordable for All and tuition rates change from year to year, we also will need to adjust the Affordable for All rates after that first round of determinations (and perhaps again after future determination rounds) to account for the total donations from the year before and do our best to ensure we’ve got enough to share with others.

This year, we will review the figures from the previous year’s donations and the outcome of the first round of campership determinations in early January 2025 so the total amount of campership does not exceed the amount of funding.

When adjustments to our Affordable for All charts are determined to be necessary, it is our intention to minimize the impact of any increase to estimated family contributions to all levels of financial resources, and to communicate these changes directly to all currently registered families as well as to those yet to register by way of updating our website.

We also want to give an idea of what the campership (our term for Financial Aid!) process entails before you even register. Keep scrolling to find out more and see our most up to date family contribution estimation charts.

Overnight Camp Rates

Day Camp Rates

Our Goal

How much will camp cost?

Financial Aid Estimator

2025 Family Contribution Charts Nov 2024

Please note that the 2 or more children amount above is for families who have registered that number of their own dependent children at a Farm & Wilderness overnight camp program in the same summer, though they may attend different programs and/or sessions.

2025 Day Camp Family Contribution Charts Nov 2024

Let's Get Going!

Step by Step

1. First things first- register your camper for camp using the register button at the top of our website! A deposit is expected to accompany registration, and we understand the amount can be a lot of money at one time, so please reach out directly to admissions (admissions@farmandwilderness.org) to set up a payment plan for your camper's registration deposit, if needed.

2. Next, complete your camper's health profile in CampDoc. The final section of the profile is the Campership information, which is where we'll gather the info needed to determine the campership amount and your expected family contribution.

3. The first meeting of the campership committee is during the second week of the calendar year, early January, and typically about 1/3 of all campership recipients receive their campership amount determination at this point. From then on, the campership committee meets every other week, so long as there are completed campership forms for campers whose health profiles have completed our pre-screening process. Families are notified of their campership amount and resulting family contribution via email. They then have 2 weeks to either decline the amount cancel their registration or that they accept the amount and confirm their payment plan for their family contribution.

Our Goal

Transparency Matters

Our camps and others like it are financially out of reach for many families--we know that. While we are always looking for ways to keep our expenses down, the fact is operating camps like ours is an expensive proposition.

Still, we are deeply committed to having our campers and staff reflect socio-economic, racial, and ethnic diversity. That’s been true for Farm & Wilderness since shortly after its founding in 1939 through our campership program.

Alumni, staff, and other friends of F&W have generously supported our campership program, which had previously operated much like financial aid at a college or independent school—where families request a campership when they register for camp and find out weeks or even months later if they will receive a campership.

We believe that how and when we talk about financial support to families is critical for F&W to be the welcoming and inclusive community we strive to be. So, we are sharing more information about what a family can expect to pay for their children to attend camp—right up front, based on their financial resources.

As a result, any interested family will have a general idea about how much camp will cost for them before they register their child/ren, AND they will know exactly what they are expected to pay within days of completing their child/ren's registration. We know that every household has more complexity to their financial picture than just their income, so it's important to note that while a family's household income is a leading factor in how much families can expect to pay for camp, it is not the only factor. Learn more about Campership Clarity here. We ask a series of supporting questions in order to best get a full picture of each family's situation through the campership form. As always, our Admissions team is available to talk through any questions or concerns with families—at any stage of the registration process.

Campership: Financial Aid for Campers

At Farm & Wilderness diversity has been a matter of fact since our founding. Ken and Susan Webb, who opened Timberlake camp in 1939, sought to have our camps be inclusive and representative of the racial, ethnic and socio-economic diversity in our country.

Farm & Wilderness has a long history of making our camps accessible and affordable to all families, regardless of their socio-economic status through our Campership Program. This long-lived program is funded by our multi-generational community of alumni, camp families, and current and former staff who share our commitment to increasing access to our camps.

While there is no guarantee that F&W will be able to meet each family’s request for financial assistance, especially if their request is far outside the ranges in the above rate tables, we are incredibly grateful for the financial support from our generous community of donors. Our determinations are made based on each family’s financial situation. This program is expansive beyond just tuition remission- our Affordable for All initiative provides funds to families to defray the total cost of camp—tuition, as well as gear and/or F&W’s scheduled transportation shuttles, typically from New York City for our overnight camps, and from Woodstock, VT for Barn Day Camp.

In addition to offering tuition remission directly to camp families, we also partner with intermediary organizations such as the St Regis Mohawk Tribe Education Division (NY), 1199 SEIU Anne Shore Sleep-Away Camp Program (NYC), Vermont Migrant Education Program, and more! We actively seek new partnerships, and if you would like to recommend an organization to us, please contact admissions@farmandwilderness.org.

The Campership Process

How and when do I apply?
After you register your camper for this summer, you'll have a registration health profile to complete for your camper, which includes everything we need to know about them before we welcome them to camp and while we have them in our care, ending with a section on Campership. This section begins with asking if you would like to apply for campership. Select "Yes" and the form will appear for you to complete. If you need assistance with completing any part of your camper's profile, please do not hesitate to call or email admissions! The Campership application includes both questions about income as well as open ended narrative questions to best get a complete picture of a family's financial situation. The form does end with a section to upload income documentation, for most families this is a copy of their most recent tax return, and we can discuss alternative documentation paths as needed.

I have applied, now what?
Our Admissions team will submit your application to the Campership Review Committee for consideration. First and foremost, the committee considers the family's financial situation in determining the amount of campership awarded, but the process includes both consideration of the numbers as well as the narrative portions families complete, so that we may consider the whole picture when determining campership amounts. See this page for further clarity in what is and is not considered during the campership determination process.

What happens after the committee makes determinations?
The first campership committee meeting will be in mid January, and will occur bi-weekly. If you do not hear from us within one month of completing your campership application and registration health forms, please reach out to us to check in. Families are notified of their campership amount and resulting family contribution via email. They then have 2 weeks to either decline the amount cancel their registration or that they accept the amount and confirm their payment plan for their family contribution. If the amount is not able to meet the needs of your family, you may decide to cancel your registration. If you must cancel, please call Admissions within that two week response period in order to receive a full refund of your deposit and any other payments you may have made towards the balance.

Things you should know about campership:

Campership amounts will be determined on a rolling basis, and the committee is scheduled to meet to review complete profiles bi-weekly. Please don't hesitate to apply, and make sure you complete your registration forms!
The campership application form appears during the registration process once you indicate you’d like to apply for financial aid. The application asks questions about the financial circumstances of all adults financially responsible for the camper and includes an upload of income verification. For most families, this is a copy of their most recent tax return. Please let us know if you need to submit alternative means of income verification and we will work with you towards a solution.
Campers on a waiting list or with incomplete registration forms in their camper's CampDoc Health profile will not be considered by the campership committee until registration is complete. All required sections and questions in the registration process along with a deposit are required to consider a camper fully registered for camp.
Families with more than one camper will need to complete a separate Campership form for each camper. You may copy and paste answers from one of your camper's Campership form to another of your children's campership form.

Things that are different for Campership 2025:

Estimated family contribution charts will likely be updated throughout the winter and spring of 2025, as we adjust the previous year’s donations and the outcome of the first round of campership determinations and compare them to our registrants and expected future registrants and other data to determine if we must revisit the estimated family contribution amounts to have the total amount of campership not exceed the amount of funding. It is our utmost hope that our generous community will continue to donate throughout the remainder of this year such that we do not need to alter these figures. Should adjustments to our Affordable for All charts be determined necessary, it is our intention to minimize the impact of any increase to estimated family contributions to all levels of financial resources, and to communicate these changes immediately to all currently registered families as well as to those yet to register by way of updating our website.
Families who have financial resources at or below ~200% of the federal poverty guidelines for their family size and thus also receive or are eligible to receive governmental assistance such as SNAP (food stamps) or LI-HEAP (heating/energy assistance) understandably find themselves in more fixed expenses. To provide a more fixed expectation for these families, those with financial resources of $75,000 and below each have a fixed rate listed for their family contribution. $1,100 is the least amount a family can expect to contribute financially towards their overnight session at Farm & Wilderness. We acknowledge that every family who decides to include Farm & Wilderness as a part of their child/ren’s summer makes many decisions, financial and otherwise, in order to make that happen. This is another situation in which starting regular monthly payments can be helpful to spread out the amount into smaller increments, registering in November and splitting the $1,100 evenly makes each monthly payment $137.50.
Last winter, we were able to amend that year’s Affordable for All policies to include extra campership funding directed towards families who had more than one child enrolled in overnight camp at Farm & Wilderness. Part of the reasoning for this mid-season adjustment was to help alleviate some built up past due balances we’d been working on with families who had multiple children registered, enabling folks to get back on track and make financial agreements with us that were more likely to be paid in a reasonably timely manner. Going forward, families who have more than one dependent child enrolled in Farm & Wilderness will receive a percentage reduction to their expected family contribution for each additional dependent child’s sessions. That is, a family with three children enrolled in Farm & Wilderness overnight programs would expect to pay the estimated family contribution for their first child, and then the corresponding percentage of that amount for each subsequent child. While the family contribution amounts on our charts may be subject to change this year, these percentages will not.

Admissions Contact Information
For information on retrieving your online account information, to ask about our camp programs, or if you have questions about our registration process, please email or use the live chat on our website at any time, or give us a call at 802-422-3761. We are able to answer or return messages Monday - Friday, 8-4 Vermont time.

Enrollment Director – Sam Green
Admissions Coordinator - Jenny Rist
Email: admissions@farmandwilderness.org

Transparency in Tuition