Act 1 · What happened in 2025
The Cairn Project: fundraising recovery
The Cairn Project's fundraising bottomed out in 2024, nearly doubled in 2025, and is already near the full-2025 total by mid-June 2026.
2025 raised
$40k
vs 2024 trough
+103%
2026 by mid-June
$34k
Donors all-time
2,500+
Earned
Projected (rest of 2026)
2026 is year-to-date through mid-June; the white dotted cap is projected. With the October Rim-to-Rim and ongoing Grit Lit + Trailblazer campaigns, full-year Cairn Project fundraising should land roughly $50–56k.
2024 was the trough; 2025 nearly doubled it; 2026 is already at $34k by mid-June — on pace to clear 2025 easily. The engine also changed shape: where it used to be a wide base of individual Trailblazer campaigns, today's recovery rides a handful of flagship peer-to-peer campaigns — above all First 50k and the Grand Canyon Rim-to-Rim. Steady Grit Lit ($8.5k in 2025) is the recurring base under it.
To be clear: the shift from individual Trailblazer campaigns to a handful of flagship peer-to-peer campaigns — including First 50k and the Grand Canyon Rim-to-Rim — wasn't planned. It followed the energy, and we turned it into strategy. (Full breakout in the Trailblazer deep dive.)