Asking for Money for a Need They Don't Have: Empower Girls Camp's Fundraising Fix

<p><b>Therese Tetzel on Building Empower Girls Camp to Change Girls’ Trajectories</b></p><p></p><p>James Misner talks with Therese Tetzel, founder of Empower Girls Camp, about leaving a 30-year corporate career to build a research-informed program that helps shy or at-risk girls develop confidence and resilience. They also discuss why short, consistent donor updates beat broad, generic appeals.</p><p></p><p><b>Key topics</b></p><ul><li>Empower Girls Camp aims to deeply impact a small group of girls rather than many superficially.</li><li>Therese left a 30-year corporate career after questioning its purpose, sparked by tutoring Sifa, a young refugee who couldn't read — Sifa's first camp became the turning point.</li><li>Serves girls 9–11 who are shy, withdrawn, or facing hardship at home — a "precision intervention disguised as a STEM camp."</li><li>Selection uses a 12-point counselor questionnaire and a scoring system built with a child psychologist.</li><li>Therese designed the program using her corporate product-development background, planning it out on butcher paper.</li><li>Lessons learned: not every parent says yes, so a response plan was needed; in fundraising, local relationships and short, frequent donor updates beat long newsletters.</li><li>Donors want to see impact, not a sales pitch — regular updates build trust.</li><li>Vision: keep adding schools and girls yearly, aiming for 20 schools.<p></p></li></ul><p><b>Timestamps</b></p><p>00:00 - Why nonprofit missions differ from corporate ones<br />00:28 - Meet Therese Tetzel and Empower Girls Camp<br />00:59 - Leaving corporate America after asking "What am I doing here?"<br />02:28 - Meeting Sifa and discovering the power of tutoring<br />03:10 - Teaching a six-year-old refugee to read in a month<br />04:07 - The first camp experience that changed everything<br />05:47 - From one camper to a broader model<br />06:17 - Launching a nonprofit with no prior experience<br />07:59 - Building the model from the American Camp Association study<br />09:26 - "Precision intervention masquerading as a STEM camp"<br />10:13 - Identifying the girls most likely to benefit<br />11:12 - The 12-point questionnaire and selection process<br />12:21 - Building the process on butcher paper<br />13:17 - Using school data to predict enrollment<br />14:14 - Parent permission, photo releases, vaccination records<br />15:27 - What didn't work: assuming every parent would say yes<br />17:10 - Fundraising lessons: local givin