Need-Based Scholarships

Campers must be between the ages of 5 and 19 years old on June 15^th of the current camp season. Campers must live in one of Jewish Federation’s five counties: Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, or Philadelphia. Campers must identify as Jewish

• Jewish Federation only offers scholarships to overnight camps and programs that are approved by the Foundation for Jewish Camp and appear on their list of camps.
• Jewish Federation only offers scholarships to day camps that are on the Jewish Federation approved list of day camps.
• Jewish Federation only funds domestic camp programs with our Need-Based Scholarship program. If your child is planning to go to Israel, they may be eligible for one of the Jewish Federation’s Israel grants, which you can apply for here.

Yes. Overnight campers need to attend for at least 19 consecutive days and day campers need to attend for at least 15 days (which may be nonconsecutive).

Scholarship money is not sent to families. Funds are sent directly to the camp and applied to the camper’s account.

Eligible campers can receive between 10 and 30% of the cost of camp, dependent upon the financial information provided by the family. The cost of camp for each camper will be verified directly with the camp.

Given the limited amount of funds at Jewish Federation’s disposal, we use a family’s tax return to help us determine need for scholarship. Families must submit the most recent tax return (2016 or 2017). Please only submit the first two pages of the 1040 tax form (line 1 through line 79).

No. A single camper may only receive either a need-based scholarship or a One Happy Camper grant. If you are the parent of a first-time camper, please click here to go our One Happy Camper page to see if you are eligible for that funding first.

All applicants must be registered for camp by the scholarship application deadline. We cannot process the application of any camper who has not registered for camp.

If we are notified by May 15^th, before the camp season begins, of a change in camps, we will do our best to transfer your award to the new camp.

Once awards have been determined, we cannot increase the award, even if the cost of camp increases. If the cost of camp decreases, the award to the camp will decrease.

Unfortunately, we cannot process late applications because our award calculations are contingent on the total number of applications that we receive by our deadline. Applications received after the deadline will be placed on a waiting list to be processed ONLY if more funds become available.

Scholarship applications will not be processed until our deadlines close (03/02/18 for overnight camp and 04/02/18 for day camp). At that point, we will review all applications and expect to notify parents and camps of our decisions by April for overnight camp and May for day camp. Thank you for your patience.

Unfortunately, we only fund domestic camp programs from our list of approved camps. That said, your child may be eligible for one of Jewish Federation’s Israel grants which you can apply to here.