End of Year Gratitude
Dear friends and supporters of Navigation Games,
As the year comes to a close, we’re excited to share some of our incredible achievements from 2024, and thank you for your support as we look ahead to celebrating the 10th anniversary of our founding in 2025. This year, we focused on empowering educators to teach orienteering and on bringing new events to new places with new partners. These priorities helped us connect with more communities and inspire more students than ever before!
2024 highlights:
Our 6-class orienteering unit is going strong in the Cambridge Public Schools 3rd grade curriculum. PE teachers at all CPSD elementary schools are on track to teach 100% of the lessons on their own this school year!
450 third graders from 12 schools took part in a team navigation challenge to celebrate the completion of their orienteering unit in Cambridge, MA.
56 cadets competed on 5 courses at the NJROTC Orienteering Championships in Durham, NH. Thanks to orienteering clubs UNO & NEOC for their collaboration!
Over 250 people explored our new maps and completed orienteering courses on Georges and Peddocks Islands, thanks to a Boston Harbor Now innovation grant.
Nearly 350 people signed up for our annual after-dark navigation game in October, WOW!
Seeing how much fun pre-schoolers have with our games, and learning about the importance of spatial reasoning in child development.
We organized 743 orienteering classes and events for 14,936 participants!
We could not have done all this without our amazing volunteers, staff, partners and loyal supporters - thank you!
Please help us continue our work bringing orienteering education to schools and youth-serving organizations by making a tax-deductible unrestricted donation. Payroll is ~80% of our expenses; our paid staff is key to our ability to reach so many educators and to managing the organization. Example costs:
$50 - maps for an orienteering activity in a school or youth organization
$200 - a “Beginning Orienteering Instruction” Kit and a training session for a youth serving organization or school
$1,000 - a full teaching kit with lesson plans, maps and orienteering courses for an organization
$5,000 - setting up a school district with curriculum, maps, a teacher workshop and demonstration classes
❄️Now through December 31st, gifts up to a total of $20,000 will be DOUBLED by a motivated donor, so don’t wait, donate today! We need your help to achieve our vision of teaching kids life skills through map navigation! Donate online, donate using Venmo or PayPal (@NavigationGames) or send a check to Navigation Games (address below). Many employers will match your charitable donations so please request your employee match when you donate! Every donation matters, no matter the size! If you’ve already donated, THANK YOU!
Volunteer opportunities
Want to get more involved? Please reach out to Maija (admin@navigationgames.org) if you want to know more about the following opportunities or you have other ideas about how to get involved:
Director and Assistant Director for our teen internship program: Seven weeks in Summer 2025.
Orienteer In Residence: 3-6 month volunteer teachers and mappers, throughout the year. Open to visitors from other countries; room and board provided.
Coach a middle school orienteering team in Cambridge once a week after school for about 6 weeks starting in late March. Navigation Games will provide coach training, practice plans, and materials.
Outreach & Marketing / Fundraising & Grant Writing / Administration: Assist with desk-based administrative support (in-person or virtual work is possible), communicating with clients, designing marketing collateral, writing blog posts, advertising events, maintaining/repairing and organizing equipment used for orienteering (maps, checkpoints, computers etc.)
Map-Making and Course Design: Help us make maps and design courses and activities! We use Purple Pen, SportIdent, Easygec, Open Orienteering Mapper and OCAD. We will train you.
Java Programming: work with a development team to update our orienteering electronic timing results software. Ideally you know Java, development cycles, github, and deployment of Java applications. 40-80 hours over 3 months.
About Navigation Games
Navigation Games is a non-profit with the mission to develop, share and deliver map navigation education for children, engage families and enable access to the sport of orienteering, and promote public health through outdoor exercise.
We believe orienteering is one of the best ways to not only encourage map navigation and outdoor physical activity for youth, but also to provide experiences and an environment where they can develop important life skills such as critical thinking, resilience, confidence and communication.
Contact us: 🌐 www.navigationgames.org ✉️ admin@navigationgames.org