Kecia Kubota, Camp Fire Central Oregon's executive director, engages with youth at Camp Fire's FREE Absolutely Incredible Kid Day® celebration in Bend, March 2026.

Nonprofit Youth Organization Makes a Pitch-Perfect Appeal, Garnering Vital Dollars for Youth Scholarship Fund

When Kecia Kubota, Camp Fire Central Oregon’s executive director, gave her fundraising pitch to a room packed with caring Central Oregon women, she had no idea whether her message would resonate for the win. Once a quarter, the group of philanthropic female donors—Bend Women for Good—meets to hear about the needs of local nonprofits and collectively votes for a worthy cause to support.

Without question, every nonprofit pitching is truly a worthy cause, doing good work, providing essential services, and performing powerful missions in Central Oregon. But this past February, Kubota was pitch perfect in her presentation, communicating not just the fundraising needs of Camp Fire Central Oregon but how those dollars would directly benefit summer programing and its campers. Bend Women for Good (BWFG) awarded Camp Fire its quarterly coffer—$6,769.

“We were so excited to be the recipient of this incredible donation, which will play a direct role in ensuring kids who might not otherwise have a chance to attend summer camp will get to go,” Kubota says. “Times are very tough for many nonprofits, with so many deserving organizations right here in our back yard. We are so grateful to the members of BWFG for recognizing and honoring the role Camp Fire plays in lifting up our local youth and providing essential services in our community.”

Making the Pitch
Specifically striving to garner support for Camp Fire’s Summer Scholarship Fund, Kubota kicked off her short pitch, zooming out to reference “Gaps in the System,” a concept purported by the Nonprofit Association of Oregon’s (NAO) concept. It’s based on Maslo’s hierarchy of needs:

  1. Physiological (food/shelter)
  2. Safety
  3. Belonging and Connection
  4. Esteem
  5. Self-Actualization 

Per NAO research, the vast majority of federal funding and large-scale nonprofit services are now laser-focused on level one: physiological survival. Because of massive cuts in federal funding for even the most essential services, nonprofits are now exhausted just trying to fill those basic gaps. Foundations have followed suit, shifting their focus away from youth development and prevention just to keep people fed and housed.

“Individual donors are the backbone of levels 3 through 5,” Kubota said to the group. “You are the ones who fund belonging, esteem, and self-actualization. Regardless of who you vote for tonight, I urge you to remember: Humans need more than just survival to thrive.”

Communicating Camp Fire’s Value
Kubota swiftly moved from that high-level example to providing more specific examples of how Camp Fire serves its community and has been doing so for over a 100 years, notably providing over $200,000 in financial assistance to youth in 2025 and $75,000 to kids last summer alone. She noted that it’s through the generosity of individual donations, such as those from BWFG, that kids can continue to experience the value of Camp Fire, particularly in light of the nonprofit recently losing a key funder, which backed out of funding due to federal cuts to its budget.

No doubt, given the current, extreme economic constraints in our midst, Camp Fire Central Oregon has been taking a lot of hits. However, thanks to the big hearts of the BWFG members, dozens of deserving youth will experience the magic of Camp Fire, the support of a staff that’s dedicated to lifting up every young person in their care, and hope for a future in which they can better flourish and thrive. 

As Kubota put it, “In 2026, our focus is clear: creating safe, interactive environments that build curiosity, confidence, and compassion. We aren't just giving kids a place to stay while their parents work; we are providing the "Belonging" and "Esteem" levels of that hierarchy I mentioned. At Camp Fire Central Oregon, we are helping our youth become the best versions of themselves.”