As the association for Nature Camp alumni and friends, the Nature Camp Foundation is made up of former campers and counselors, and other friends with an interest in supporting the goals of the Foundation. We have a quarterly newsletter (The Afterglow Newsletter) and Membership Directory, Annual Meetings, Reunions every five years, and a variety of other social events. Since its founding in 1989, the NCF has supported and contributed to Nature Camp, through monetary and material donations, work on buildings, grounds and facilities, and an organized base of personal support (speakers for evening programs at Nature Camp, promoters of Nature Camp to local potential campers and organizations, professional fundraisers, lawyers, accountants, etc.)

In the seventeen years since the NCF’s founding, we have worked to establish a fund that would generate enough interest to meet the auxiliary needs of Nature Camp, which had been owned and operated by the Virginia Federation of Garden Clubs (VFGC) since 1942. After years of successfully meeting Camp’s supplemental needs while accruing a principal of around $300,000, the Nature Camp Foundation was poised to accept the responsibility for the future funding of Nature Camp when the VFGC made the difficult decision to end their operation of Nature Camp in the fall of 2006 in light of Nature Camp’s growing needs and the VFGC's own shrinking membership.

In 2006, after the Virginia Federation of Garden Clubs found it could no longer support Nature Camp, the Nature Camp Foundation set about creating a separate non-profit organization to own and run Camp. That organization is Nature Camp, Inc., formally established in 2007.

Bi-Annual Service Weekends and the annual Mountain Ecology Workshop Adult Session at Nature Camp bridge the social, educational, fundraising, and networking aspects of the NCF and are open to all members and non-members.

The Nature Camp Foundation is run by a Board of Directors consisting of five elected officers (President, Secretary, Treasurer and two At-Large Delegates) and the chairs of the standing committees. These people all vote, and no action may taken without approval by two-thirds of the Board. Elections are every 3 years. The past president, The Afterglow Newsletter editor and the Nature Camp Director serve as non-voting advisory members of the Board. Planned actions are announced in the newsletter and members have a chance to comment before they are enacted. There is also an annual meeting open to all members and held each May at Camp during Spring Service Weekend.

Standing committees are Education, Service, Finance, Membership, Special Projects and Long-Range Planning. Other committees may be established as the need arises (for instance, a Reunion Committee).