Invest in Their Future!​

The Cooper Center for Environmental Learning, which many of you know as “Camp Cooper” is an incredible educational partnership between the University of Arizona College of Education and Tucson Unified School District (TUSD). Since 1964, more than 130,000 kids have walked our trails, engaged in hands-on learning about our desert plants and animals as a way to explore broader concepts in science and better understand how all of us impact our the planet. We are the rare "residential (overnight) camp" in Southern Arizona, just 20 minutes from downtown Tucson.

Things took a major turn for the Cooper Center in 2015 when our operating partners both faced major budget cuts. Since then, we've come to you each spring, one month out of the year, to ask for help. 

Your Gift Helps Underserved Students

In 2018, we'll bring more than 3,000 students to Cooper Center -- not just from TUSD, but all across the Tucson valley. 90% of the schools that come to Cooper are Title 1 schools serving lower-income families. 

These are not kids who get to go to national parks or go off to camp in the summer. For most of them, a trip to the Cooper Center will be their only chance to learn about nature up-close and outdoors, guided by smart, caring staff and UA students who work at the Cooper as instructors.

Learn more about the Cooper Center for Environmental Learning

The Bigger Picture

Your help is essential to our mission of sharing the science and wonder of nature in a way that helps kids develop a love of nature and inspires them to care for our planet. We absolutely rely on community support! But just to be clear, we're not asking you to shoulder that burden on your own. We aggressively pursue grants throughout the year, every year, as part of our larger fundraising program. Today we also receive generous support from some of our region's best-known philanthropies, including the Thomas R. Brown Foundations, the Marshall Foundation, the Murphey Foundation and more.  

When you invest in the Cooper Center, you join them in saying you care about science education, you care about kids, and you care about connecting those dots to make the world a better place -- especially for the children who follow in our footsteps.

You Should Also Know

• All donations are tax deductible
• Cooper Center is also a setting for published research on environmental learning
• We give education majors at the UA (and other students) practice teaching science to improve education in Southern Arizona
• We value every gift, no matter the size!

#SupportCooperCenter

Please consider investing in this Tucson institution, our kids and their future. And if you give, please help spread the word by letting people know that you #SupportCooperCenter on Facebook, Instagram or wherever you connect with friends and family!