How Peter Elbaum and Camp Tree help camps measure, automate, and reward referrals to grow camper and staff enrollment.

Word-of-mouth has always been one of the most powerful ways camps grow. Parents tell friends. Campers invite classmates. Staff members recruit other counselors. Those personal recommendations often outperform any advertisement a camp could buy.

The challenge is that most camps leave referrals to chance.

In this episode of the Grow Your Camp Podcast, Mark Fisher and Carl Lefever sit down with Peter Elbaum, owner of Camp Tree and Operations Director at Greystone Camp, to explore how camps can transform referrals from an informal process into a measurable, repeatable growth system. Along the way, they also discuss why great technology should create more time for relationships—not replace them—and why improving existing systems often produces the biggest gains.

Quick Camp Marketing Tip: Don’t Forget About the Other 95%

Before diving into referrals, Carl opens the episode with a marketing lesson that applies to every camp.

Think about the last major purchase you made. Whether it was a vehicle, software, equipment, or even a family vacation, you probably didn’t make the decision after a single website visit. You researched, compared options, read reviews, and came back multiple times before finally deciding.

Camp families behave the same way.

Most camp websites convert only about 3% to 5% of visitors into inquiries or registrations. That means if 1,000 people visit your website this month, roughly 950 will leave without taking action.

That doesn’t mean they aren’t interested.

More often, they’re simply not ready yet.

Maybe they’re comparing camps. Maybe they need to talk with a spouse or leadership team. Maybe life interrupted their decision-making process.

That’s why Carl recommends every camp use retargeting.

By placing a tracking pixel on your website, you can continue showing ads to people who have already visited your site across platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Google, and YouTube. Rather than spending all your marketing dollars attracting brand-new visitors, retargeting helps you stay in front of people who have already shown genuine interest.

“Before you spend all your energy chasing the next website visitor, make sure you have a plan for the other 95%.”

Click here to learn more about camp retargeting ads >

Peter’s Camp Story: Bringing Technology and Camping Together

Peter’s journey into camping wasn’t the traditional one.

Growing up in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, camp simply wasn’t part of the culture around him. His first real camp experiences came later through Young Life, where he discovered the life-changing impact camp can have on young people.

Eventually, Peter married into a family with deep camping roots. His wife’s family is now in its fifth generation of directing Greystone Camp in North Carolina, where Peter serves today as Operations Director.

But before returning to camp full time, Peter took an unexpected detour.

He became a software engineer.

Those seven years in technology fundamentally changed how he approaches camp operations. Writing software taught him to break complicated problems into manageable pieces and constantly look for opportunities to improve systems.

Instead of accepting repetitive work as “just part of camp,” Peter began asking a different question:

Is there a better way?

That mindset now shapes both his work at Greystone and his leadership of Camp Tree.

“The default is to work harder and not necessarily smarter.”

Technology Should Create More Time for People

One story perfectly captures Peter’s philosophy.

While working as a software engineer, he noticed his wife spending nearly three hours every few weeks manually updating Greystone’s online waitlist.

Rather than accepting the process, Peter automated it.

What had been a three-hour administrative task became a simple two-click process that took only a couple of minutes.

The goal wasn’t simply efficiency.

It was giving camp staff more time to invest in campers and families.

As Peter explains, technology should never replace relationships. It should eliminate repetitive work so staff members can spend more time doing what only people can do.

“The intention is to free people up…to spend time on what really counts at camp, which is the people—not busy work.”

Why Most Camps Need a Better Referral System

Peter didn’t originally set out to build referral software.

What he saw, however, was that referral programs often created enormous administrative headaches.

Someone refers a family.

That family registers.

A reward needs to be issued.

Someone has to remember who referred whom, verify enrollment, calculate incentives, and ensure every reward is delivered correctly.

When that process is handled manually, details inevitably slip through the cracks.

Camp Tree was built to become what Peter calls a camp’s “referral secretary.”

Instead of relying on spreadsheets and memory, the software tracks the entire referral process automatically, allowing camp staff to focus on serving people rather than managing paperwork.

Turning Word-of-Mouth Into a Measurable Growth System

Most camps already have enthusiastic ambassadors—they simply don’t have a way to measure their impact.

Camp Tree gives each ambassador a unique referral link they can share through social media, text messages, or personal conversations.

When someone uses that link to inquire about camp, the relationship is immediately connected inside the system.

From there, camps can track:

• Who referred each prospective camper
• Which referrals eventually enrolled
• Which ambassadors earned rewards
• How many new campers each ambassador generated

Perhaps even more importantly, camp staff can begin building relationships with prospective families as soon as they express interest.

Instead of guessing where new campers came from, referral performance becomes visible and measurable.

As Mark points out during the conversation:

“You can’t manage what you don’t measure.”

What Makes Families Want to Refer Friends?

One of the most practical conversations in the episode centers around referral rewards.

How much incentive actually motivates families to share?

Peter says there isn’t a universal answer, but after working with more than 100 camps, one benchmark consistently stands out:

Around 10% of tuition.

A reward at that level is meaningful enough to encourage sharing while remaining financially sustainable for most camps.

But Peter quickly reminds listeners that incentives aren’t the real driver of referrals.

Great camp experiences are.

“Camp needs to be referable.”

Families naturally invite friends when they believe deeply in what your camp provides. Referral rewards simply make it easier for them to act on that enthusiasm.

Strong camper experiences, year-round communication, and intentional relationships remain the true foundation of every successful referral program.

Measuring Results Instead of Guessing

One of Camp Tree’s featured success stories comes from South Mountain YMCA Camp, where leaders were finally able to answer a question that frustrates nearly every camp director:

Which marketing investments are actually working?

Traditional advertising like billboards, print ads, and camp directories often produce uncertain results. Leaders know they’re spending money but can’t confidently attribute registrations to specific campaigns.

Referral tracking changes that.

Because every referral is connected to actual enrollments, camps can clearly calculate return on investment.

One featured camp achieved a 15x return using Camp Tree—not because referrals suddenly became more powerful, but because the camp finally had a system for encouraging, tracking, and measuring them.

That kind of visibility allows camp leaders to invest with far greater confidence.

What This Means for Your Camp

One of the strongest themes running throughout this episode is that growth rarely comes from chasing the newest marketing tactic.

Instead, it often comes from improving systems that already exist.

Most camps already receive referrals.

Most camps already have families eager to recommend them.

Most camps already have staff members talking positively about their experiences.

The opportunity is creating a simple system that makes those referrals intentional, measurable, and easy to manage.

If you’d like to explore Camp Tree, Peter has provided $150 off your first year using promo code GYC26. He also shares practical operational insights through his Camp Operations newsletter for camp leaders looking to improve systems across their organizations.

As Carl reminds listeners in the closing moments of the episode, the goal isn’t simply to work harder.

It’s to build better systems that support healthier growth.

Whether you’re refining your marketing plan for next year, implementing retargeting on your website, or finally creating a referral program that your staff can actually manage, every improvement helps more campers experience the life-changing impact of camp.

Because when your systems work better, your people can focus on what matters most: building relationships that change lives.