Girl Scout Cookies Part 3: What Does the Money Go To?

A topic that has mildly controversial, especially in recent years, is where all of the money from that box of Girl Scout cookies you bought goes to. Every council chooses the prices of the boxes and how the money is distributed individually, so if you want to know the breakdown of your specific council, I suggest you contact them directly.

So, in general, where does the money go? Well, about 25% goes to the baker, who uses it to pay their employees, cookie transport and for production costs. Keep in mind this money also goes into producing new types of cookies including the new gluten-free ones we are seeing this year.

Then, about 75% goes to the council to distribute. Most of that money stays with the council. This money goes to a lot of different things such as paying staff, paying for facilities, and camp renovations and repairs. This money also goes towards training volunteers, running council meetings and activities, and running summer camps.

And then troops get some money, usually anywhere from $0.40-$1.00 per box (depends on the council). The troops primarily use this money to fund their activities and service projects. Older girls are sometimes raising money to go on national or international trips. If you are buying cookies this year, but sure to ask the Girl Scout what they are raising money for, you might be pleasantly surprised!

So the controversy lies in how much money a troop will receive per box. While $1.00 per box isn't bad, $0.40 is pretty low and makes it hard for the troop to raise enough money for the year. If a girl sells 100 boxes, that's only $40 they've raised for the troop, which for a whole year isn't a lot (it's like $3.33 a month!). And 100 boxes is not as easy to sell as you may think. When I was an older scout I sold about 300 boxes a year (when I did sell), and I was busting my butt going to door to door and shivering in front of grocery stores in the middle of winter every weekend. Younger girls can't do that.

It is important to note here that some councils do offer the girls bonuses if they sell a lot of cookies. This is often in the form of bonus Girl Scout money that can be spent in the council shop or applied to the cost of council-run activities. This is not however the case in every council, but it is important to note here as that can be an important perk for the girls.

So, what can you do if you want that troop to keep more of the money? Make a direct donation to the troop! The scouts are not allowed to ask for direct donations, so you have to be the one to step up and contact the troop leader to donate or donate at a booth sale. If the donation is to the troop, all of the money stays with the troop.


Image Attribution: "Selling girl scout cookies" by Drmies - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Selling_girl_scout_cookies.JPG#mediaviewer/File:Selling_girl_scout_cookies.JPG

Girl Scout Cookies Part 2: What Does Selling Cookies Teach?

 

While selling cookies to raise money is an important purpose of the fundraiser, this activity also teaches young girls a variety of other useful life skills at all ages. Let's break it down by age group, but remember that all past skills can be learned by girls in older age groups as they start to sell cookies.

Daisies: Cookie selling time for Daisies can teach two useful things, counting and talking to adults. Daisies can easily help the cookie selling process by helping you sort cookies by the colors on the boxes (if they can't read just yet) and by counting out the boxes and cookies. This is also a great time to teach them some basic organization skills through sorting. 

Talking to an adult as a young kid can be tough, especially if it's an adult you don't know and you're shy. Since an adult must be with a Girl Scout when she is selling cookies, there is an adult safety net there to help to make the girl feel more comfortable. Plus there is an added bonus of the adult responding in a usually positive way due to how young the girl is. (Seriously though, who can say no to an adorable 5 year old asking you to buy cookies?)

Brownies: Adding onto what Daisies can learn, Brownies can start to count money, which is one of the most useful daily skills a girl can learn with cookies sales (think about how many cashiers you see struggle to count back change). A Brownie can also learn the basics of money management at a level of seeing how much money is coming in and what that money can potentially fund.

Juniors: During cookie season, Juniors should start being more involved in the paperwork part of the process. I'm not saying they need to fill out the paperwork, but showing them the paperwork and more of the behind-the-scenes action can help them begin to build a better understanding of how a business works. They are capable of helping to set up the booths at booth sales and sorting out how many cookies should be at the sale itself with the help of an adult.

Cadettes: Cadettes can start to fill out paperwork and help fill orders herself. This is a great age level to introduce goal setting to raise money for a specific project like a Silver Award project or a National or International trip, especially since big trips can take a few cookie seasons to save up for. It's a great time to learning budgeting for activities as well.

Seniors and Ambassadors: At this stage, girls should be involved in every aspect of cookie sales and should be looking at it through the lens of running a business. The girls will still be needing the help of an adult at some points, but the girls should really be doing most of the work with sales.

As you can see, the older the girls get, the more they learn about the business part of cookies sales. These sales can teach public relations, budgeting, and goal setting, which are all important skills to learn regardless of whether the scout decides to pursue business or not. These are of course just general examples of what the girls can learn, as there are many things that the girls can learn about themselves and the people around them.



Image Attribution: "GSUSA Do-si-dos" by BrokenSphere - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:GSUSA_Do-si-dos.JPG#mediaviewer/File:GSUSA_Do-si-dos.JPG