Case Study
From Cash Registers to Real-Time Accountability
Crossings Ministries · Overnight Camp · Kentucky & Tennessee
Students Served Annually
To Answer Inventory Questions (Was 40 Min)
And Counting
The Challenge
Crossings Ministries serves roughly 20,000 students a year across two camp locations, Cedarmore and Jonathan Creek, each with its own retail operation including a store, a snack bar, and an ice cream trailer. Before FunFangle, every transaction ran through cash or credit cards. Credit card readers frequently lost their wireless connection. Barcode scanners failed mid-transaction. Lines backed up. Campers grew impatient and sometimes walked away.
Summer staff, hired for a single season and trained in about an hour, were left to troubleshoot unreliable hardware during the busiest days of the year. Behind the scenes, each camp location maintained separate inventory records in a disconnected system. If someone called after camp asking to buy a replacement shirt, it could take 40 minutes to determine whether one was still in stock.
End-of-day reconciliation was equally uncertain. Cash drawer counts did not reliably tie to system reports, leaving leadership without confidence that the numbers reflected what actually happened. For a controller responsible for financial accountability across a large ministry, that gap was unacceptable.
The Solution
FunFangle added a wristband-powered spending account system alongside existing cash and credit card options. Every registered camper receives a wristband at check-in, linked to an account that parents fund and monitor through the parent portal. At the store, snack bar, or ice cream trailer, staff scan the camper's wristband to process a purchase. The transaction is logged automatically, visible in real time to camp leadership and parents alike.
The system connects directly to Crossings' custom registration through an API, so camper data flows in without manual entry. Inventory is consolidated across both store locations. The controller can check stock levels, identify best sellers, and answer finance committee questions in seconds rather than hours.
After the first summer, Crossings expanded from offering wristbands to opt-in accounts only to issuing one to every camper at check-in. The bands aligned with their existing color-coded group system, and staff found that scanning a wristband at the register opened a natural moment to greet each camper by name, a small interaction that fit the ministry's hospitality culture.
Parents set daily spending limits by location, see what their children buy, and monitor balances. At deposit time, they choose whether leftover funds above $5 should be refunded or donated to missions. Self-service balance readers outside the stores let campers check their accounts without tying up staff. And a missions donation item built into the point-of-sale system allows campers to give directly.
“Prior to using FunFangle, I never really truly felt like the numbers I was getting out of the previous system were really what happened. Now it gives you a good feeling to know that you have that report you can run. It basically tells you when there's an issue.”