Our Latest
Smith Vicars Family Foundation Advances Campership for Camp Holiday Trails | October 2025
The Smith Vicars Family Foundation is excited to partner with Charlottesville-based Camp Holiday Trails for a new challenge grant, the Campership Endowment. Inspired to help the camp and the staff achieve full utilization of core programs, this creates an opportunity for a 1 to 2 match designated for campership.
Camp Holiday Trails is the only camp of its kind in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It provides an interactive, traditional camp offering for children and teens with medical needs and their siblings, offering everything from s’mores and songs to horseback riding and archery.
The Campership Endowment ensures that every camper can partake in the Camp Holiday Trails experience while removing the financial stress of attending camp. In 2025, the camp offered a $100 camp fee - a significantly reduced portion of the actual cost of $2,000 per camper. Additional contributions to the Campership Endowment unlock the challenge grant offered by the Smith family and ensure this reduced fee for campers into the future.
“We are thrilled to invest in Camp Holiday Trails in this capacity” says Stuart P. Smith. “For those with medical needs and their families to have such positivity in their lives, and for additional donors to step forward and shape this experience is phenomenal. The Campership Endowment has a ripple effect on Camp Holiday Trails – a one-of-a-kind nonprofit in Virginia – and an incredible lasting impact on the campers it welcomes each year.”
New Grant Process and Brand for Smith Vicars Family Foundation | July 2025
Philanthropist Stuart P. Smith builds on the legacy of his family’s charitable giving – totaling more than $170 million to date – through the Smith Vicars Family Foundation. The Foundation advances innovation in Virginia, with a special focus on the Central and Southwest areas of the Commonwealth.
Through a new invitation-only grant process, the Foundation awards funding to special initiatives aligned with the priorities of: providing access to the arts; meeting health and human resource needs; enhancing education and life skills; preserving history; embracing civil engagement and discourse; and addressing other critical issues. Grants awarded range in size based on demonstrated need and anticipated impact.
“Nonprofits who are innovating play a critical role in bettering the lives of Virginians, and we are excited to continue our support of these organizations and initiatives through the Smith Vicars Family Foundation.” said Smith. “We are keenly interested in advancing thoughtful programming, access, and tools intended to benefit communities in unique ways.”
Launching alongside the new application process for grants is a Smith Vicars Family Foundation logo and website – defining the Foundation’s brand and contributing to the outreach and visibility of its significant philanthropic investments.
