The Cabin's 2023 Donor Report

DONOR REPORT 2023

Dear Friends of The Cabin, As the Executive Director of The Cabin, I am excited to celebrate the impact of your generous contributions in support of our mission. The Cabin is a thriving community of writers, readers, and learners who have come together to share their passion for the written word. Whether it is through our writing workshops, author readings, or youth programs, we are dedicated to providing a space for readers and writers of all levels to express themselves and explore the art of storytelling.

Thanks to your support, we've expanded our programming and reached even more individuals in our community. Your donations have allowed us to offer scholarships for our workshops, bring in renowned authors for readings and lectures, and develop innovative programs for young writers.

We are truly grateful for your partnership in our mission and look forward to continuing our work together to inspire a love of writing in our community.

Sincerely,

Kurt Zwolfer Executive Director The Cabin

The Cabin is a community-based nonprofit with a mission to engage readers, support writers, and inspire the next generation through stories.

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Education Programs

Writers in the Schools Our Writers in the Schools (WITS) program is designed to foster creativity, communication, and self-discovery. Working in 3rd–12th grade classrooms and juvenile detention centers throughout the Treasure Valley, The Cabin’s professional teaching-writers—poets, novelists, playwrights, and journalists—lead creative writing, reading, and discussion projects.

WITS by the Numbers 32 classrooms and 21 unique residencies 16 different locations

9 public schools 3 international schools 1 Montessori school 1 juvenile detention center 2 alternative high schools

773 students participated in the program 14 teaching-writers employed

by The Cabin 300+ hours of teaching-writer instruction time The Cabin partnered with ArTPack– a local nonprofit that supplies students with backpacks full of art supplies—that, at the end of a residency, students take home to keep–for two residencies in two different Title I elementary school classrooms to bring art and writing to students in underserved communities 4

Education Programs

Summer Writing Camps The Cabin’s Summer Writing Camps help kids cultivate a lifelong love of writing through fun, week-long literary adventures. Campers explore community spaces as they build tools to creatively express themselves.

Summer Writing Camps by the Numbers 8 weeks of 5-day, 3-hour long Summer Writing Camps 308 individual campers, with a maximum of 10 students per camp 32 unique camps in 8 genres, including collaborations with Zoo Boise and the World Center for Birds of Prey 12 teaching-writers employed by The Cabin $1,700 awarded in camp scholarships “Thank you for making writing fun for both of my kids. They loved it! I also admired their confidence in reading their own writing — presenting is not easy but you prepared them for success! Can't wait for them to do another camp! Thank you!

Summer Camp Parent

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Public Programs

Readings & Conversations We welcomed 4,801 community attendees to our Readings & Conversations series, featuring bestselling writers, Pulitzer Prize winning-journalists, and a three-time US Poet Laureate.

Additionally, two of these authors—Joy Harjo and Ruth Ozeki— visited a pair of high school libraries and engaged 101 students on the topics of craft, creativity, and the writing life.

Ghosts & Projectors Our refreshed Ghosts & Projectors series entertained 298 local readers and writers across an evening of literary trivia, a Belated Book Launch for a trio of local authors— Kim Cross, Samantha Silva, and Emily Pittinos—who unfortunately had books published during the pandemic, and a night at the Old State Penitentiary with debut novelist Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, author of Chain Gang All Stars.

Writers in the Attic Writers in the Attic, our in-house publication contest for emerging authors, saw 205 writers submitting 287 pieces for consideration in the anthology on the theme, Three. Selections for Three were procured by Daniel Stewart, a Pushcart Prize nominee and winner of the Erskine J. Poetry Prize from Smartish Pace.

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Public Programs

Free Drop-in Writing Workshops The Cabin’s free and open writing workshop, held on the first and third Tuesday of each month, welcomes writers of all backgrounds and skill levels to participate in unique prompts designed to inspire and support a network of local writers. This year, more than 150 drop-in attendees came to 23 workshops.

Six-week Writing Workshops All workshops take place at The Cabin in Boise, Idaho, and range from single-evening workshops to six-week intensives. All of our six-week workshops are capped at twelve students, so writers receive individualized guidance from the teaching-writer and fellow workshoppers. In the past nine months, 241 workshop attendees participated in 10 workshops with more than $3,000 offered in scholarship assistance.

Read Freely Project Since 2021, The Cabin has partnered with local bookstore Rediscovered Books to highlight and distribute recent books that are diverse, wellwritten, and yet vulnerable to censorship in our current social climate. This year, we collected $5,900 in donations from 78 individuals which directly supplemented the purchase of the selected books for distribution.

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Your generosity fuels our passion The Cabin is a place where words come to life, where stories are told, and where creativity thrives. As Idaho's only literary arts nonprofit, The Cabin has been a vital part of our community for years, and it wouldn't be possible without the generous support of donors like you.

Together, we can continue to inspire and empower our community through the power of words. Renew your sponsorship today!

To discuss next steps, please reach out to Hillary Bilinski by phone at (208) 331-8000 or by email at hillary@thecabinidaho.org.

Thank you to our current supporters

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Laura Moore Cunningham Foundation

Boise Public Library

Morrison Center Endowment Foundation

Idaho Humanities Council

Idaho Commission on the Arts

JR Simplot Company Foundation

National Endowment for the Arts

Idaho Power Foundation

Boise State University

Ball Ventures Ahlquist

St Lukes / Select Health

First Interstate Bank

Academy of American Poets

Whittenberger Foundation

Idaho Society of Clinical Oncologists

Zions Bank

Idaho Community Foundation

City of Boise

Amazon

Rediscovered Books

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Thank you for your dedication to The Cabin and our mission to celebrate the literary arts in Idaho.

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