Camp and Retreat Center is a 501c (3) ministry of the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Virginia situated on 125–acres of serene woods along the James River. We offer Christian hospitality to guests of all ages, races, and denominations, and welcome the opportunity to share God’s love as revered in the beauty of creation through overnight summer camps for ages 8–18, family camps, and year-round retreat programs.

Tucked away from the hustle and bustle of our everyday lifestyles, our mission is to provide a relaxed, comfortable environment to promote spiritual, personal and professional growth. We strive to be a place for our guests to rest, rejuvenate, and reconnect with God, His people, and His creation. Here within our inclusive, supportive community, our guests can overcome challenges, discover their personal gifts, and find ways to use their gifts in service. Chanco on the James seeks to be an inclusive place of transformational experiences and sanctuary for all, and it’s so incredibly important that our marketing efforts are able to support our mission.

Our organization creates and shares flyers, camper birthday cards, marketing postcards, our Annual Report, our tri-fold Annual Fund solicitation brochure, and so much more with the support of Conquest Graphics. Additionally, we utilize Conquest Graphics for our direct communications with our parishes in the diocese in efforts to solicit their financial support, mail brochures and flyers that we request they share with their congregation, and much more.

Even in the face of the digital age, our organization still utilizes print and direct mailings to reach out and connect to our community, as we have found direct mailings have a greater return rate than our digital communications. These financial returns fortunately offset our costs and allow us to keep our rates low and cost-friendly for our visitors. We strive to be the camp and retreat center available to all, regardless of socioeconomic status, and Conquest Graphic’s grants and non-profit discount is an enormous support to this endeavor.

As a smaller non-profit organization with a minimal budget, it is so important to find creative ways to connect with our donors, campers, retreat guests, parishes, and our community in order to keep them connected to our ministry and to inform them of our offerings throughout the year. It is also important for us to find new, creative ways to use print media in our marketing efforts to reach new campers and retreat guests that are not yet aware of our camp. Without the capability of print and direct mail, many of our guests would no longer be actively engaged with our organization. Annual Report booklets, Annual Fund brochures, event flyers, marketing postcards, birthday cards, Christmas cards and more help us to stay connected with our Chanco family, invite our guests to events, remind our community of volunteer opportunities, encourage financial support, and more. The print grant we have received in the past, and hopefully in the future, allows us to continue reaching and connecting with the people of our community to bring them together for our mission and ministry.