San Antonio – October 05, 2026 -- Outdoors Tomorrow Foundation (OTF) has added more than 800 schools and 60 school districts to its Outdoor Adventures (OA) program since January 1, 2026, the largest eight-month expansion in the nonprofit's history. The growth lifted OTF's reach from 210,000 students at the start of 2026 to approximately 270,000 students across all 50 states and Canada. OTF plans to push the total past 2,800 participating schools by December 31, 2026.
A $600,000 grant from Safari Club International Foundation funds the largest single-year school rollout
Safari Club International Foundation (SCIF) and SCIF Sables issued a $600,000 grant -- OTF's largest single donation to date -- enabling the organization to onboard roughly 800 schools in 2026. New adoptions include districts in New York, NY, Charlotte, NC, Jacksonville, FL, and additional sites across Texas and California.
Waitlist demand rebounds to approximately 2,000 schools despite the funding push
OTF's waitlist of schools registered but not yet served fell from 2,358 in 2025 to 1,221 following the grant-funded expansion, then climbed back to roughly 2,000 as another 600-700 schools requested the program, underscoring demand that continues to outpace capacity.
Curriculum spans 40 units and 360 lessons covering hunter education, archery, and wildlife identification
Delivered during school-day PE classes rather than as an extracurricular activity, the K-12 curriculum covers hunter education, archery, fishing, orienteering, wildlife identification, and Leave No Trace principles. In Texas alone, 19,000 students earned hunter education certifications in 2025. Founded in 2009, the program has grown roughly 20% year over year and has introduced more than 1,250,000 students to the outdoors cumulatively, onboarding 2,741 schools since inception.
Executive Director cites screen-time crisis as rationale for school-day outdoor instruction
"The average American spends seven hours a day on a screen; the average American child spends 4 to 7 minutes a day outside in unstructured play, or 30 minutes total counting structured activity,