Skylark Strat Plan

STRATEGIC PLAN

2023-2026

A Revolution in Summer Camping for Christ

Skylark is a powerful new ministry to empower local churches to reach more kids and young families for Christ through high quality, Christ-infused summer camps on their campus. Skylark’s vision is rooted in the fact that reaching children from birth to 12 years old is foundational for the future of the Gospel. Multiple studies show that the vast majority of Christians come to faith during these early years. George Barna says simply, “Reach a person for Christ by their 13th birthday or the chances are slim that you ever will.” We call it the Gospel Shot Clock (GSC), and the buzzer goes off on the thirteenth birthday. Young parents are also uniquely spiritually sensitive during these years - making this the perfect season of life to reach young families.

Skylark partners with local churches to provide world class all-summer day camps for elementary aged kids that are affordable, fun, and spiritually intentional. By providing working families an excellent full-time summer childcare option, Skylark enables our church partners to attract unreached kids and families in the community, love and serve them well, share the Gospel and get them connected into the church.

SUMMARY

Skylark completed its second “proof of concept” summer in 2022 conducting camp at five church partner locations across Dallas. While in its infancy, we already clearly see Skylark’s potential to reach millions of kids and families for Christ across the country and disciple the next generation of Kingdom leaders. This conviction flows from Skylark’s:

• Spiritual Effectiveness – reaching kids and families during their most spiritually sensitive stage of life (By far! See Barna data and Gospel Shot Clock page 8). Skylark is reaching the kids all summer vs. traditional one-week camp models and is deeply embedded in a local church for more sustained spiritual impact.

• Scalability – leverages existing church facilities providing rapid scalability.

• Sustainability – each camp requires $120,000 in startup capital to get to break-even in year two (see page 6). This can be loan capital at 6% interest. BaseCamp (Support Services) is funded with 25% of revenue from each camp and stabilizes in 2027 when 24 camps are operational.

Skylark is passionate about serving families in need. Each church partner provides $50,000 per year in scholarship funding and Skylark matches for a total of $100,000 per year. Skylark seeks donations for our portion of the scholarship funding for the first two years ($100,000) and then funds our commitment thereafter from camp operating surplus.

Over the next four years our focus is to solidify the model, add 12 additional camps, and build a strong operating team and platform (BaseCamp) for more rapid scale. In 2027 BaseCamp will be stabilized and all capital will be focused on new camp starts. We are seeking $7,000,000 over the next four years as summarized in the table below.

STRATEGIC PLAN SUMMARY 2023-2026

Dollars are in 1000s ($ in 000’s)

We need and welcome your prayer and support for this God-sized vision! Please reach out to discuss. • Stan Dobbs, Founder

CEO | 817-235-8024 |

• Jake Collins, President | 940-453-4970 | jcollins@campskylark.com

1. All Summer

Most church summer programs (VBS) and traditional camps last for one week – leaving working families to seek other childcare options (mostly secular) for the rest of the summer. Skylark believes the big opportunity is to offer working families an all-summer option – a one-stop summer childcare solution! This allows us to engage with the kids and families for up to 11 weeks vs. just one – deepening the Gospel impact in the kids and building relationships with the families to get them connected to church.

Because we can have the kids all summer, Skylark is also building an integrated educational program called SIGMA to help ensure kids stay on grade-level.

2. Local Church Integration

Long-term partnership and integration in a local church is central to the Skylark strategy – providing deeper and more sustained spiritual impact. Leveraging local church facilities also greatly reduces operating costs and allows rapid scalability across the country. The local church provides long-term ministry and discipleship for families. Skylark provides a “front-porch” to attract unreached families and integrate them into the church.

Skylark recruits the staff from the church (as much as possible). The Skylark Camp Director is integrated into the church year-round as an extension of church staff – building relationships with families and the local schools.

Skylark is taking the proven success of high-quality Christian camping and making two major pivots to make this experience available to mainstream America and to have a lasting spiritual impact.

RESULTS TO DATE

Summer 2022 was Skylark’s second full summer of “proof of concept.” We had 10 weeks of camp at five Dallas locations with fabulous church partners (CityBridge - Plano, Cottonwood Creek - McKinney, Irving Bible, TCAL - Mansfield and Hillcrest - Cedar Hill). Watch highlights at campskylark.com/video

Key results include:

• Served 925 campers and their families who attended a total of 2,594 weeks (averaging 2.8 weeks per camper)

• Approximately 25% of kids/families were “unchurched” (Goal is 50%)

• Saw 30 campers accept Christ

• 26% of families received scholarship assistance

• First year to test SIGMA reading program

We are refining the model and working through the best approaches to sharing the Gospel with the kids and families and connecting them to the host church.

FUN STATS

• It was a record-breaking year, more than doubling our camper numbers from last summer!

à 1st summer for any of our sites to have a 100+ camper week!

à 1st time for a BRAND NEW site to host a week with 75+ campers.

• 238 Morning Gauntlets

Every morning the staff run around the drop-off cars. When kids get out, they celebrate the arrival of each camper, complete with fun music, dancing, jumping and cheering. One parent affectionately dubbed them “The Happy People” and said she was tempted to swing by on her way to work even on days when she wasn't dropping campers off.

• 488 Rally Sessions!

The kids gathered twice a day to dance to music, watch a silly skit, play games and have a Bible lesson

• Incredible A+ Parent Ratings from our Satisfaction Survey

• First time for a staffer to move to Dallas for 3 months, just to join our summer team and serve with Skylark!

God continues to use Skylark to reach kids and their families with the Gospel and we’re grateful to be a part of the movement.

FINANCIAL PLAN

Key elements of the camp financial model template include:

• Enrollment growth to 200 campers over three years

• List price of $300/week

• Discounts incentivizing multi-week enrollment

• Each camp requires $120,000 in start up costs until stabilization in year two.

• 25% of camp revenue allocated to BaseCamp to cover support services

SKYLARK TYPICAL CAMP MODEL ($ IN 000’S)

SCHOLARSHIPS/FINANCIAL AID

Skylark is passionate about reaching kids and families in need. We invest $100,000 per year per camp to provide scholarships for families who need help with Skylark tuition. Each church provides $50,000 per year in scholarships and Skylark matches with $50,000 per year with the first two years coming from donations and thereafter funded from the camp’s annual operating surplus.

BASE CAMP

Skylark is building a great team and operating platform for scale (BaseCamp). See leadership profiles on page 12. BaseCamp is funded with revenue allocations from each camp and will stabilize in 2027 when 24 camps are operating.

BASE CAMP PATH TO STABILIZATION ($ IN 000’S)

Godquakes

This is the Eagle’s cabin (the oldest girls at camp). Three of these girls have come all three years of Skylark’s existence. One of them was the first camper to sign up our first year! She told her parents at the beginning of the summer that she was so excited to be back at her favorite place.

Last year, one of these sweet girls accepted Jesus on Thursday during the last week of camp. The next day she shared the gospel with her friends. Several girls chose to follow Christ on that last day of camp. They came back for another summer this year, ready to learn more about Jesus.

One of these Eagles also has autism. Both she and her family are so thankful to have a place where she feels accepted and loved and where she can thrive. God is changing lives and ministering to children and families through Skylark!

THE GOSPEL SHOT CLOCK

SPIRITUAL OPPORTUNITY

Reaching more kids is critical to the future of the Gospel. Research by George Barna in Transforming Children Into Spiritual Champions concludes simply: Reach a person for Christ by their 13th birthday or chances are slim that you ever will. We call that the Gospel Shot Clock. How do we reach a lot more kids (and their families) for Christ during the Gospel Shot Clock?

Most American families today are either dual-income or single-parent households, meaning that children spend a majority of their time during the Gospel Shot Clock in childcare of some form, including preschool and then after school and summers during the elementary years. The childcare industry is currently dominated by secular companies.

We see an opportunity to empower the church to take leadership of this critical industry for Christ. The Church has the passion, goodwill, facilities and people to do just that! Lionheart Children’s Academy, a sister ministry of Skylark, helps churches reach more kids and families during the Gospel Shot Clock’s early years by operating full-time childcare academies in church facilities. Skylark focuses on helping churches reach elementary age kids and their families during the summer.

STRATEGIC SUMMER

STRATEGIC SUMMER

Summer for elementary age kids may be the most spiritually strategic opportunity within the GSC for the following reasons:

Summer for elementary age kids may be the most spiritually strategic opportunity within the Gospel Shot Clock for the following reasons:

1. Kids are old enough to understand the core elements of the gospel and respond.

2. Kids are available in the summer all day for up to 12 weeks – allowing time to cultivate deep relationships with them and their parents.

1. Kids are old enough to understand the core elements of the gospel and respond.

2. Kids are available all summer for up to 12 hours per day - allowing time to cultivate deep relationships with them and their parents.

Working parents struggle to put together a summer child care schedule that is conveniently located, affordable or attractive for their elementary-age kids. Traditional daycare is convenient and sometimes affordable, but often not fun and attractive for kids. Summer camps are fun but expensive and often inconveniently located. Most of the available options are secular. Currently the Body of Christ provides mainly one week options like VBS and summer camp, leaving parents to choose secular options for the remainder of the summer.

Working parents struggle to put together a summer childcare schedule that is conveniently located, affordable or attractive for kids. Summer camps are fun but expensive and often inconveniently located. Most of the available options are secular. Currently the Body of Christ provides mainly one week options like VBS and summer camp, leaving parents to choose secular options for the remainder of the summer.

SUMMER CHILDCARE MARKET

SUMMER CHILD CARE MARKET

Godquakes

One of these campers journeyed through multiple foster homes before being adopted by a family on church staff at TCAL. Born with a meth addiction, he’s had developmental and behavioral challenges in many other childcare situations. At Skylark he’s been able to thrive. Though not every day has been perfect, he was loved and led and grew immensely last summer under the care and direction of the Skylark team.

His counselor is the young man pictured reading to them. He was an incredible model of kindness, patience, strength of character and faithfulness all summer. He’s exactly the kind of HERO children need, especially children from hard places. He’s the kind of hero we search for when we hire our summer staff. What a beautiful picture of how our program is reinforcing the Gospel message he hears at home and church by also experiencing it all day at camp.

CHURCH PARTNERSHIP MODEL

Church partners provide the facility and related cost and assist with scholarship funds to help reach lower income families. Church partners also help with community and school outreach to drive enrollment.

Skylark handles all operational aspects of the camp while partnering with church leaders to maximize relationship opportunities with the families and opportunities to connect them more deeply into the church. The Skylark Camp Director leads the camp and remains integrated in the church year round, ministering to families and cultivating relationships with local schools. We seek to hire at least 50% of the camp staff from the local church to make this integration even more seamless. Skylark also provides start up funding ($120,000) and additional scholarship funds.

CHURCH PROVIDES

• Long-term ministry to families

• Facilities and related costs

• Staff recruiting help

• Scholarship funding

• Community outreach/marketing help

SKYLARK PROVIDES

• All camp operations

• Camp Director (Year Round)

• Community outreach and marketing

• Staff recruiting, training, development

• Start up costs

• Matching scholarship funding

• FUN!

BUILDING A STRONG FOUNDATION

To accelerate the development and growth of Skylark, the organization is being built on the foundation of two other cutting edge ministries: Apartment Life and Lionheart Children’s Academy. These ministries have developed a shared-services model which shares top talent in key areas (strategic planning, finance/ administration, HR) to incubate new ministries like Skylark. Some of this talent is profiled in the Leadership Profiles.

Apartment Life was founded in 2000 to help churches more effectively reach apartment communities for Christ. With $25 million in annual revenue and deploying over 1,200 missionaries into apartments, Apartment Life is one of the fastest growing and spiritually impactful ministries in the country. Around 90% of Apartment Life’s expenses are covered by the apartment owners.

Lionheart was launched in 2014 to take back the childcare industry for Christ. Lionheart partners with local churches to provide full-time preschool, after school and summer programs targeting unchurched

working families. Lionheart currently has 14 locations, $22 million in annual revenue and 400 employees and is growing rapidly. Lionheart locations become selfsustaining within two years.

Apartment Life and Lionheart participate in the Best Christian Workplace annual survey to measure organizational health.

Apartment Life has received “Best Christian Workplace” designation for fifteen consecutive years and Lionheart has achieved the designation every year since inception as well.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Stan Dobbs, Founder and CEO

Andy Miller, Chief Revenue Officer, Heritage Golf Group

Tommy Miller, Former CEO, Interstate Batteries

Bobby Page, Founding Partner, JPI

Gary Staats, Partner and President (retired) The Covenant Group

David Ward, Executive Vice President, MAA

LEADERSHIP PROFILES

Stan Dobbs - Founder and CEO

Stan Dobbs is the founder of Apartment Life, Lionheart, and Skylark. After a career in the computer industry, Stan attended seminary in Fort Worth, Texas and developed a passion for serving apartment communities while on staff at a church. His passion is to birth and develop “businesstry” visions which are spiritually effective, scalable and sustainable via integrated business models. He lives in the Dallas area with his wife Vicky.

Jake Collins - President

With an eclectic array of interests and passions, Jake has experience in the medical, educational, travel, and Christian camping industries. He most recently spent 8 years at Pine Cove Christian Camps where he served in a variety of positions, his latest as a leadership development coach for young professionals. He has a track record for using creative solutions to further God’s Kingdom purposes and further human development. Jake is pursuing an MDIV from Southwestern Seminary with intents of completing a doctorate shortly after. When he is not around the classroom creating fun for kids, you can find him enjoying his own fun as a mountaineer, leading study tours, photography, writing, or running with the bulls in Spain.

Julie Barker - SVP - Financial Services

Julie has over 25 years of experience in Accounting and Finance both in for-profit and not-for-profit companies. She has been an AVP and Controller for multiple organizations. She is a CPA and holds a B.B.A. in Accounting from Angelo State University and an M.B.A. from Texas Tech University. She has served with Skylark since its’ inception. She took 3 years (2005-2008) to serve on the mission field in Mexico City as a teacher at Mexico City Christian Academy and taught middle school and high school students in Math, History, Science, and Bible. She enjoys spending time with family, friends, and her two dogs.

Baylee Blankenship - HR Partner

Baylee is from a small town in north Louisiana. She spent most of her life there and even stayed and went to Louisiana Tech University. Throughout her time at LA Tech, she spent her summer as a camp counselor at Pine Cove Timbers sharing the good news to 8th and 9th grade girls. After her college days, she explored different career avenues to find where the Lord was calling her to be. She spent time in ministry at the Austin Stone Community Church, The Bridge Community, and financial institutions. During this time, she also met her incredible husband, Reeves, while he was finishing up his football career at LA Tech. Through much prayer and patience, Baylee and Reeves found themselves in Dallas. Baylee loves serving, developing, and preparing people for life and for the Kingdom!

Brent Buell - Camp Director at CityBridge Community Church

Brent grew up as a youth pastor’s kid in Fort Worth, so the life of goofy, high energy ministry has shaped him for as long as he can remember, though you’d never guess it if you saw him in his happy place– sitting in a coffee shop, earbuds in, reading and journaling. From Fort Worth, Brent left for Wheaton College, where he graduated with a degree in Biblical and Theological Studies. Go Thunder! Brent has spent every summer since 2016 working at camp, where his louder, energetic side comes out more than anywhere else. Some of Brent’s favorite things include spending time with his family in Fort Worth and exercising, especially running.

Karis Childres - Camp Director at Irving Bible Church

Karis is a graduate of Dallas Baptist University! She was born and raised in East Texas, but dreams of living in the mountains one day. Karis has always loved working with and serving families. She has gotten to do this through babysitting, serving in children’s ministries, and being a counselor at Pine Cove for a few summers. Karis is a peopleperson and loves traveling, being outside and texting with exclamation points! Also, she can make almost anyone feel funny considering she laughs at everything. Karis is thankful and pumped to be a part of the Skylark team!

LEADERSHIP PROFILES

Elliott Dobbs - Director of Operations

Elliott is the how-to guy when it comes to camp! He has been a family camper for 8 years at Pine Cove Bluffs, worked as the college operations staffer on one of Pine Cove’s traveling teams, and now has worked in full-time camping ministry for 2 years. He has a passion for getting things done and conquering various challenges which is seen in his love for hiking, rock climbing, woodworking, and volleyball.

Kelley Grace Flournoy- Administrative Director

Kelley Grace (yes it’s both names) grew up all over the world. She spent the majority of her childhood overseas in Malawi, then moved back to Louisiana. She worked for Pine Cove during her summers in college and then did an internship there. KG married her husband Carter during his time at Texas A&M, and after he graduated they moved up to the Dallas area. They have the most perfect dog Olive who is normally right at KG’s heels. KG loves planning, processes, organization, and the craziness of Summer Camp.

Josh Fortney - Director of Programs & Partnerships

Josh spent over 10 years on staff at churches as a pastor before joining Skylark. He spent the first part of his career with Pine Cove Camps before recognizing the call on his life to serve God’s church in a unique way. Skylark blends his love of camp ministries and his desire to see the church reach people for Jesus. Josh is a graduate of Texas Tech and Dallas Theological Seminary. The greatest joy in his life aside from knowing Jesus is getting to be married to his best friend, Melissa. They have 2 wonderful kids (Fortniños), a spry senior pup (#PennyThePup) and are a family who loves to find joy and laughter in life.

Hannah Garcia - Camp Director at TCAL

Hannah graduated from the University of North Texas in May of 2021 with a Spanish degree in hopes to pursue a life in Latin missions. In college, God ignited Hannah’s heart for reaching the lost, intentionally loving others, and mentoring those who desire to grow in their relationship with the Lord. In the past year and a half, Hannah served and moved to Boston to help a church plant, but she moved back in 2022, allowing her to serve her first summer as a senior counselor for Skylark, where she was able to utilize her passion of mentoring. Her time at camp has been short, but it’s fitting for how the Lord has equipped her. Hannah is hopeful and expectant for God to move in the next season as a camp director!

William Garrison - Area Director

While studying Psychology at Texas A&M, William began spending summers working at camps. He spent every summer in East Texas at Pine Cove. After graduating in 2017, he briefly moved to Houston to work in construction logistics until he returned back to summer camping. William began working at Skylark in 2019 as the Hillcrest Camp Director.

Emily Gentiles - Director of Marketing

After moving a gazillion times, Emily settled finally in Texas, which she now considers the Motherland. She grew up in a Christian home with her 2 sisters and gave her life to the Lord at a young age. After graduating with a degree in Religion from ETBU, she spent the next several years doing camp ministry full-time at Carolina Creek Christian Camp. Then she met this handsome guy named David Gentiles. He was a singer, songwriter and worship leader and she HAD to have him. They’ve been involved in church ministry together for 15 years. While in Houston they began to foster and were able to adopt two wonderful children. David is on worship staff at CityBridge Community Church (The best church in the world) (If she’s allowed to say that).

Jacob Shellum - Camp Director at Cottonwood Creek Church

Jacob grew up in Fort Worth and he attended summer camps all through elementary and middle school. In high school, Jacob started working at Camp Thurman where he served four summers as well as volunteering at Camp Barnabas. After high school, Jacob studied Recreation, Parks & Tourism Sciences with a certificate in youth development at Texas A&M University (WHOOP!) and found his passion for camp ministry and chose to pursue full-time ministry. After serving two summers at Sky Ranch and graduating in December, Jacob moved to Dallas where he served as the CityBridge Program Director for the summer. The Lord opened up the right doors and Jacob was blessed with the opportunity to come on to Skylark full time as the Cottonwood Creek Church Camp Director.

Ashley Sink - Chief People Officer

Ashley spent her college summers at Worldsong Camp in Alabama, leading girls in discovering their part in God’s mission to the world. Through the years her Kingdom calling evolved through people and HR leadership roles in energy, full-time ministry, education, and publishing before joining Skylark. She is passionate about developing people to their God-given potential while enabling an organization to meet its strategic goals. Ashley and her husband have two daughters (Skylark campers!) and love to explore ideas, books, and the outdoors as a family.

NOTES

NOTES

NOTES

NOTES

facebook.com/skylarkcamps

instagram.com/skylarkcamps campskylark.com

214-531-3203

PO Box 210663, Bedford, TX 76095