BOLT Needs Your Help
Alumni and parent donations are always critical to the success of BOLT. We truly appreciate your help with supporting the program each year!
Every year, our program depends on funding provided by BOLT parents, alumni and friends to allow us to continue our backpacking and hiking trips, fall programming events, maintain the program’s need blind financial assistance, maintain our ability to lend out equipment and improve the quality of leader training. Without your support, we would not be able to offer BOLT as an opportunity for students at Brown.
We have two gift accounts that our donors may choose to support.
Current Use Gifts
We rely on a collection of about 100 gifts each year that provides $5,000 in "current use" support. This is funding that is immediately available for program use towards current needs.
Endowment Fund
A number of years ago, BOLT began building an endowment with the goal of establishing the program's sustainability in a permanent way for future generations of leaders and participants.
Our BOLT Program Endowment as of 06/30/12 has increased by $6,000 in gifts this past year. Thank you for your generosity and support!
Our endowment has a book value of $236,416 and its annual yield permanently supports our operating costs including BOLTer Financial Aid, the calendar of fall events and gear replacement. The current annual yield (funding that is available for current use) from this fund is around $13,000.
Your Support Matters
This year, we were able to offer a variety of Fall Program events, including traditions such as our a slide show, Thanksgiving Celebration and Charity Event and a day hike. With your help, we can continue to add new events to our schedule, growing the BOLT community at Brown and beyond.
We were able to ensure that participating in BOLT is need-blind, meaning that we are able to offer financial assistance to our BOLTers (participants) and our Leaders.
Each year our BOLTers have needed an average of $6,000 in financial assistance for participation fees. Our Leaders obtain their national certifications in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), wilderness first aid (WFA) and wilderness first responder (WFR) prior to leading a trip and we average about $1,200 in financial assistance in requests to assist with course fees.
During 2011-2012, we were able to replace worn and damaged gear including 17 backpacking stoves that were critically needed. Our stoves were discontinued and we could no longer purchase the fuel canisters for this brand of stove. We also replaced 30 sleeping bags, 10 back packs, plus 15 tarps and other replacements for damaged gear.
Over the past 6 years, we have replaced all of our original bags that were 18+ years old and have expanded our sleeping bag inventory to support the number of requests for "loaner" gear. We are currently working on replacing our 18+ year old backpacks by purchasing 5-10 packs a year.
We are truly grateful to our leaders, alumni and parents for their support in our efforts to secure BOLT's future at Brown!
More Fun Ways to Support Us
We also welcome your support in other ways that really help. It is always wonderful to feel your support.
- Host an alumni gathering or hike in your area.
- Send us warm, fuzzie items, i.e. fleece. Gently used items for our "auction collection" help keep costs down for participation. We loan out items before each trip. We love to receive your care packages with warm items and non-cotton clothing items.
- Share with us a great trail recipe that we absolutely need.
- Send us great BOLT pictures for our archives that we may be missing.
