Welcome to The Carl B. Kern Fund, one of over 3,700 funds which make up The Dayton Foundation, a non-profit community foundation located in Dayton, Ohio. This Fund pays tribute to a person and an institution through annual distributions.

The person is 'C.B.' Kern, Dayton Y.M.C.A. Boys' Work Secretary from 1909-1917, whose outstanding work with youth was evident from the many testimonials and resolutions made in his memory after he died tragically and unexpectedly on June 3, 1917 at the age of 37.

The institution is organized camping, which 'C.B.' recognized as one of those unique experiences that can have such a profound, positive impact on the physical, mental, and spiritual development of youth. More of permanent value can be accomplished with a week in camp with a boy than months of casual contact, he wrote in a 1915 one-page report of the activities of his summer camp, Camp Ozone, which was subsequently renamed Camp Kern in his honor on September 17, 1917.

Please feel free to browse the Kern Fund web pages and learn more about the person and character of Carl B. Kern, the institution of organized camping which he embraced so strongly, and the activities of The Carl B. Kern Fund which serve to perpetuate the memory of 'C.B.' and support "the experience that lasts a lifetime".  

When Carl B. Kern established YMCA camping in the Dayton area in 1910, he was continuing a tradition that began 25 years earlier in 1885 with the first YMCA camp, Camp Dudley. A listing of YMCA Camps on the Web by Region will enable you to check into YMCA camps all around the country to see how far YMCA camping has come....  

Descriptions of other summer camp funds are on-line, including a Summer Fund developed by the Associated Grantmakers of Massachusetts, Inc. (AGM) (current as of 5/22/2017).

2019-09-07 - A List of Donations link for the current year has been added to the Finances dropdown for quicker access to this page.

2019-08-23 - The web site header now displays only the new address for The Dayton Foundation which is moving on Monday August 26th and will be back open for business on Tuesday August 27th.

2019-06-13 - A check for $15,000 was presented to Executive Director Chris Addison at YMCA Camp Kern's annual Strawberries and Ice Cream event, raising the total amount distributed to Camp Kern on behalf of the Fund to nearly $181,000.

2019-01-16 - The order of the Financial Summaries display now begins with the current year and goes backwards to 1987.

2019-01-07 - A link to the Fund's Facebook page has been added to the home page.

2019-01-02 - Donations to the Fund will continue to be matched by the Fund's founder through June of this year, marking the 30th Anniversary of the Fund's first distribution check to Camp Kern. Donors can use a printable form or make a credit card donation online.

2018-12-15 - An additional, sortable 'Donors' column has been added to the Financial Summaries report which counts the number of individual donors each year. There have been many years where one individual/entity has made more than one gift.

2018-11-23 - Profiles have been added for Bob Barr and Bob Salisbury.

2018-11-22 - Want a blast from the past from over 20 years ago? An Older News and Archives link has been added to the bottom of this column which reflects some rather old content (from the now-deleted latenews.htm file)!

2018-11-17 - The Honorary & Memorial Gifts page has been updated.

2018-09-16 - The Financial Summaries report has been updated so that you can click on a column heading to sort the column; click on it again to reverse sort.

2018-09-14 - 'In The News' was added to the top navigation bar, with links to one Camp Kern article and two Foundation articles, including a Good News article just published.

2018-09-03 - The website has been updated so that all of the links formerly found in the lefthand navigation column can now be found in the top gray navigation bar with dropdowns. This allows for more room to display content in the main section under the navigation bar.

2018-06-14 - A check for $10,000 was presented to Executive Director Chris Addison at YMCA Camp Kern's annual Strawberries and Ice Cream event, raising the total amount distributed to Camp Kern on behalf of the Fund to nearly $166,000.

2018-06-10 - All of the first nine Annual Reports of The Carl B. Kern Fund, covering the years 1988 through 1996, have now been scanned and posted on the Financial Summaries page.

2018-06-04 - The Carl B. Kern section has been greatly expanded to include additional historical historical information. Stay tuned for even more updates and links.

2018-06-03 - A new link called Distinct Donor Surnames has been created to display the names of all of the families who have donated to The Carl B. Kern Fund - many of whom have historical ties to the Dayton YMCA and YMCA Camp Kern.