About Improve & Grow
We’re not just another agency. Our mission is to help camps grow.
Improve & Grow was born at a camp in 2014. Twelve years and 145+ organizations later, we’ve come back to where we started — because camp is the work that matters most to us.
Why Camps
Camp changes people. We’re here to protect that.
Something happens at camp that doesn’t happen anywhere else. A week away from screens and schedules, out under the trees. Kids come home different. And adults too. Careers get redirected at camp. Marriages get repaired. Faith gets real.
5.5M+
children, youth, and adults take part in Christian camp and conference programs every year
130,000+
churches in America are served by those camps
400,000+
adults are in full-time Christian work today because of a decision made at a camp
Figures from the Christian Camp and Conference Association.
So why do so many camps struggle to stay open?
Almost all of them are nonprofits, and about 88% are built to run year-round — yet most still live off of the summer season. The rest of the year, cabins sit empty and the shortfall gets covered by fundraising that was meant for ministry, not for keeping the lights on.
That gap is our work. Fill the midweek dates and the off-season weekends, and earned revenue starts covering operating costs — which frees fundraising to do what it was meant to do: fund ministry, hire staff, build facilities. Directors get to plan years ahead instead of season to season.
Filling your camp calendar year-round is the path to funding your mission
Our Story
Improve & Grow started at a camp.
Before Improve & Grow existed, Carl Lefever spent nearly two decades as an internal Lean Six Sigma consultant — finding waste, fixing systems, making things work. Then he and his family stepped away for missions training and overseas outreach.
When they came back, he took a short-term job at Refreshing Mountain, a Christian retreat and adventure center run by longtime family friends, implementing a new camp management system. Next he began learning to manage their Google Ads, improving it from breakeven to a 10X return on ad spend, and eventually managed their digital marketing — and had learned that the instinct to find waste and fix systems worked just as well on a marketing funnel as on a factory floor.
One day their admin director, Justin Harnish, half-joked that Carl should start an agency helping camps with their marketing. He did. Refreshing Mountain became Improve & Grow’s first client in January 2014, and more than a decade later, they still are.
We grew from there and served all kinds of businesses — contractors, hospitality, professional services. But camps kept finding us, and the work we did for them kept turning out to be our best.
Today: Improve & Grow is a camp marketing agency in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. We still serve select clients in other industries we’ve partnered with for years, but our focus is on helping camps grow.
Why this work matters to me.
I didn’t set out to start a marketing agency. I was working at a camp, trying to help some friends fill their calendar, and I found out I was good at it — and that I loved it.
What I didn’t expect was how much it would come to matter to me. When a camp fills its off-season, it isn’t just a better spreadsheet. It’s a director who can finally hire the person they’ve needed for three years. It’s a fundraising campaign that goes toward a new dining hall instead of covering a gap. It’s more kids on the property, more weeks out of the year.
I’ve spent twelve years learning how to do that well. Camps are where I started, and camps are where I intend to finish.
If you’re carrying the weight of a calendar that isn’t full enough, I’d like to help.
Carl Lefever
Our Founder
Our Company Core
Mission, vision, and the values we actually run on.
Everything starts with a plan. Then we build the system and run it.
Our Vision
We help camps fill their calendar with a growth action plan that funds their mission.
Our Mission
To help 120+ camps grow over the next 10 years — and indirectly help hundreds more through our podcast, blog, live workshops, and other free resources.
Customer Success
We put our customers’ success first, trusting ours will follow
Continual Improvement
We are continually improving our people, processes, and product
Excellence
We strive for excellence at all times and make it right when we fall short
Integrity
You can count on us to deliver on our promises
Generosity
We commit a portion of our time, knowledge, and profits with our community
Honor God
We are called to treat everyone with honesty, love, and respect
Our Team
The best part of I&G.
A small, senior, U.S.-based team — you’ll know everyone who touches your account, and you’ll work directly with the people doing the work.
How We Give Back
Our time, our knowledge, and our profits.
Generosity is one of our six values. Here’s what it actually looks like in practice.
Our knowledge
Our mission is to help as many camps as possible — and it’s why we put so much out in the open:
Workshops and sessions at camp conferences throughout the year
Our Profits
We give 10% of our company profits to Zoe International, an organization dedicated to ending human trafficking.
Our time
Our team volunteers together at local organizations through the year — most recently Blessings of Hope, and over the years Faith Friendship Ministries, Water Street Rescue Mission, and United Way.
We give back to our own industry too, as members of the American Marketing Association and the Lancaster Collective.
Partnership
We’d rather be known as a partner than a competitor.
We want to do all we can to help as many camps as possible — and we can’t do that alone. The camp world is small, and we’d like to be good for it. So we partner rather than compete:
Industry Associations
Business members of the Christian Camp and Conference Association and the American Camp Association, exhibiting and teaching at their events through the year.
Grow Your Camp Podcast
Carl co-hosts the Grow Your Camp Podcast with Mark P. Fisher of Inspiring Growth. Their mission is to share systems and stories to help camps grow.
Inspiring Growth Parternship
We partner with the team at Inspiring Growth when clients need sales coaching, virtual sales support, branding & creative, social media, email marketing, leadership development, and more.
Other Camp Professionals
We collaborate with consultants, agencies, and specialists across the camp world, and we’re always open to more.
When someone else is the better fit for a camp, we say so and make the introduction.
Business Member
Business member
What Camp Leaders Say
Our clients are our biggest fans.
The same three stages every camp we work with goes through — refined over more than a decade.
145+
organizations served since 2014
12+yrs
working with camps
4.8 ★
Google rating
100%
camp success rate
Visit Our Office
Improve & Grow is located in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where our team helps growth-focused local businesses improve their digital marketing, generate more qualified leads, and turn their websites into stronger sales tools.
Improve & Grow
312 E Walnut St, Unit D
Lancaster, PA 17602
Phone: (717) 553-2274
Our office is open during regular business hours and located near the heart of Lancaster City.
About Improve & Grow FAQ
Questions camp leaders ask us.
Do you only work with camps?
Camps are our focus and where all of our growth is aimed. We do still serve select clients in other industries — businesses we’ve worked with for years — but every bit of our attention and learning now goes toward camps and retreat centers.
Do you only work with Christian camps?
Christian camps are our sweet spot and where most of our experience and examples come from, but the work applies to camps of every kind — summer camps, retreat and conference centers, outdoor-education programs, guest-group hosting, and family camps.
Where are you located?
Lancaster, Pennsylvania — but we work with camps across the country, and we’re at camp conferences throughout the year.
Who will we actually be working with?
You’ll have a dedicated strategist as your main point of contact, backed by the specialists who handle your SEO, ads, website, and CRM.
Do you offer free resources?
Yes, and always will. The Grow Your Camp podcast, our camp marketing blog, the Camp Growth Roadmap, and the workshops we teach at conferences are all free.
Do you work with other camp organizations?
Regularly. We’re members of CCCA and ACA, we co-host the Grow Your Camp podcast, we partner directly with Inspiring Growth, and we collaborate with consultants and specialists across the camp world. If another partner is a better fit for what you need, we’ll tell you and make the introduction.