Announcing the New Sustainability Toolkit
In 2022-2023, in partnership with a team of senior Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering students at Cal Poly University, the Retreat Center Collaboration studied models for financial and programmatic sustainability at retreat centers, seeking to identify the most influential variables that impact a retreat center’s performance. The study gathered data from 8 retreat centers within the RCC, selected to represent diversity of geography, budget size, and religious affiliation.
Completed in July 2023, our Sustainability Toolkit offers an overview of the study and its findings, including highlights from the students’ literature review and data analysis. The toolkit suggests key areas for improvement, provides a True Cost Calculator Tool and simple Best Practices Manual, plus links to related studies and community survey data from the RCC network across the United States and Canada.
We encourage you to read through the toolkit, try out the True Cost Calculator Tool, and maybe even conduct your own analysis using RCC survey data.
How does this study's findings and the toolkit compare with your center’s experience? Please join us for a special Community Call on October 10th to discuss these resources further with peers.
Join us on Community Calls by subscribing to our mailing list:
Would your retreat center like to contribute to future studies? The RCC Community Survey is open now through August 22nd, 2023. We invite you to share insights on your center’s financial health, budget size, and unique needs.
RCC has also launched a private Facebook group for retreat center professionals to connect as peers, learn, share, collaborate, and socialize together. This space is for you and it’s open now!