Looking for $ Saving & Fundraising Ideas....Please Help???

[collins0616]

If you take that direction then its crystal clear that you cannot and should not AT ALL use Girl Scout money for this trip. Not a single dime.

You can't restrict a girl's participation in an activity because she didn't raise any money or her family didn't kick in.

Oh no! You took that completely the wrong way. The girls will be doing the bulk of fundraising. If we as parents decide to do something (such as yard sales, etc) to help fund extra costs, then they will participate. I didnt mean their girls would get no funds, because they will get funds from cookies and what ever they as a troop decide to do as fundraisers. Im meaning above and beyond that.

 

[collins0616]

Our council is very strict as well with fundraisers (as it should be). Nuts and cookies are the big ones here. We also have a lot of rules (Safety Wise) about girl to adult ratio as well as sleeping arrangements. I had to jump through hoops to take my girls an hour away from home since it was in another state. Before doing anything, check it out with your council. I remember another troop in our area did a holiday raffle for an AG doll at a craft festival and they sold snacks, it wasn't allowed and all the $ had to be returned.

I completely understand. I made this post with the intention of getting ideas and actually seeing if it is feasable to even make the trip. I wanted to make a list of all the different ideas everyone had so we could actually take it to our Service Unit Manager & Council to see what is permitted and what is not. I would hate to go with a list of a few things and none of them work. That is the reason for me asking for ideas, I need a place to start. Once we get a list together and see what is ok'd thru council, then we can take it to the girls for them to vote on what they want to do.

 

[collins0616]

If you don't run it through council then how will you use the cookie money that was raised? If this isn't a scout trip then that would basically be considered stealing from the troop. The money doesn't belong to the individual girls or the leaders; it belongs to the troop to be used for troop activities and supplies. I thought this came about because you as a troop were discussing what to do with the cookie money?

Check the rules for taking girls that young out of state, even with parents, as a GS trip.

I haven't looked into the GS 100 year party at WDW because my troop will definitely not be able to come up with that kind of money before then and we've told our girls in no uncertain terms that if they want to travel then THEY have to come up with ideas for fundraising and do the work to raise the money. What I'm wondering though is if you can even register for that event as individuals and not as a troop? If you're registering as a troop, will you need to go through your council? And of course that then brings you back to being restricted to GS rules for fundraisers and donations.

I suspect this is a much bigger task that you've taken on than you realized.

ETA: I just want to make it clear I'm not throwing ANY accusations your way. I'm just making sure you are actually aware of the ramifications of whatever decisions you make as it seems as though you're still in the early stages of researching this and may not have considered a lot of different issues. This is a HUGE undertaking.

Exactly! Thank you for understanding. I am in the early stages and I am Researching. We are all new leaders and are learning as we go....therefore the post. I am looking for ideas, suggestions, etc so I know where to go from here. Yes, girls can register individually, and if It comes down to it that we cant go as a group, then we will go as individuals. If we cant go as a troop then yes, we will be funding the trip as a family. I am a rambler as most of you can tell, and i just put pen to paper (ie fingers to keys lol) I have to just spill out what I am trying to get out and sometimes it doesnt come out the way I entend or it can be taken in a different context.....my biggest flaw....sorry. I think that is the problem here, that I am just not making sense. Just my jumbled up brain right now.

 

[undertheradar]

With as long as it takes to get approval from both your local council and Girl Scouts, it looks like you have too short of a window already. Troops that travel in-state have to submit complete plans for funding and where all funds are coming from, I can't imagine the timeline for an out of state trip and are you sure that your troop is age eligible for out of state travel? It would appear that you need to factor daily cost per girl for lodging, meals, entry tickets, parking, gas, tolls, emergencies. You are leaving yourself about a 4 month window for fundraising if you receive authorization from Girl Scouts for your trip. How much have you estimated your trip budget will be and how much of that do you expect to come from fundraising?

 

[collins0616]

With as long as it takes to get approval from both your local council and Girl Scouts, it looks like you have too short of a window already. Troops that travel in-state have to submit complete plans for funding and where all funds are coming from, I can't imagine the timeline for an out of state trip and are you sure that your troop is age eligible for out of state travel? It would appear that you need to factor daily cost per girl for lodging, meals, entry tickets, parking, gas, tolls, emergencies. You are leaving yourself about a 4 month window for fundraising if you receive authorization from Girl Scouts for your trip. How much have you estimated your trip budget will be and how much of that do you expect to come from fundraising?

Without diving to far into it yet, it looks like tickets for the celebration and the yes programs are going to be about $150-$200 per girl. Then lodging will be at most (if we stay on property) $94 per night after tax. We will need 7 rooms minimum for the girls/chaperones. With that being almost $700 a night, I am looking more into houses. I would think I should be able to find 2 together for way less than that. I have already found some for around $200-$300 per night, and a discount with 7 days. Gas will be approximate at about $500-$600. Staying at a house, meals will be cheap. I can do breakfast for about $1.50 per person so about $300, dinner I can do for about $2.50 pp so about $500. Lunches we will pack and take with us so another $400 or so. I would like to build in around $500 for incedentals/emergency. Thats going to be around $460 per girl and us (2 leaders) if we stay on property. If not It will be cheaper offsite. I would like to get them where they raise $200-$300 per girl towards the trip, that way their families only have to come up with $100-$200 for the trip plus souveniers.

 

[msmayor]

I would like to get them where they raise $200-$300 per girl towards the trip, that way their families only have to come up with $100-$200 for the trip plus souveniers.

I understand you are new at the program. But taking the mindset that the "families only have to come up with $100-$200 for the trip" is simply not the way Girl Scouts is supposed to work.

The families aren't supposed to be reaching in their pockets for that much money for a GS trip. Dues and incidentals relating to meetings, sure...but that much coin for a trip? Its simply not fair to anyone who just can't come up with that kind of money that is part of the troop.

It sounds like its a large group. Just how are all these girls going to be transported...private vehicles? That's a whole other can of worms when it comes to GS travel....

 

[crisi]

Giant is one of the biggest Grocery stores here in PA. It is known as Martins in MD.

Are they a non-profit? You can't have a fundraiser for Scouts in our council that drives business to a for profit corporation - i.e. you can't see coupons to the Pizza place or gift cards that you buy at less than cost.

 

[crisi]

This is how I approached this with my troop.

My girls are currently all sixth grade Cadets. A few years ago the subject of a "big trip" came up. And I said "I'd love to be able to do that, but that is a lot of cookies - its going to take us several years and maybe some more fundraisers." We've been saving our cookie money for a "big trip" - but the girls aren't really motivated yet themselves to make it happen. And they can't agree on where to go. So I've told them we'll keep saving until they decide - or until we disband the troop and then we'll see how far their cookie money will get us (right now, Duluth here we come! Maybe Chicago - of course, the girl's ideas are WDW or New York City or Hawaii).

Cookie sales for our council average 150 boxes a girl, and my girls make $.55 a box and are right on the average. With five girls, in a cookie season our troop makes $400 a year - that isn't getting five of them and two chaperones to Disney - it barely pays for their crafts and badges. I hope I manage to get them on a "Big Trip" - they have over $1000 in the bank now - but they might be ninth graders and it might involving driving and no park tickets (Washington DC looks sort of attractive to me - lots of free things to do).

 

[collins0616]

I understand you are new at the program. But taking the mindset that the "families only have to come up with $100-$200 for the trip" is simply not the way Girl Scouts is supposed to work.

The families aren't supposed to be reaching in their pockets for that much money for a GS trip. Dues and incidentals relating to meetings, sure...but that much coin for a trip? Its simply not fair to anyone who just can't come up with that kind of money that is part of the troop.

It sounds like its a large group. Just how are all these girls going to be transported...private vehicles? That's a whole other can of worms when it comes to GS travel....

Maybe our leader is not doing things the right way, but I guess she got it from someone??? She does not charge dues and all of our Fall product money is used for crafts/snacks/etc. Every trip, event, anything that we have participated in we (parents) have had to pay out of pocket. Even the trip arranged through GSA to DC we have to pay out of pocket, and that comes straight from scouts. I guess we will be questioning council about this! Thats what I think too, if you are going to do an outing, parents shouldnt have to pay for it, but I am just following what I have seen/been told. Guess I will be bringing this up at our next meeting. Just since September we (as parents) have paid out over $100 for various outings. I dont think its fair to have to pay out all the money either and girls not being able to go because they cant afford it. There have been a couple things that my dd didnt get to do because I didnt have the money.

 

[collins0616]

This is how I approached this with my troop.

My girls are currently all sixth grade Cadets. A few years ago the subject of a "big trip" came up. And I said "I'd love to be able to do that, but that is a lot of cookies - its going to take us several years and maybe some more fundraisers." We've been saving our cookie money for a "big trip" - but the girls aren't really motivated yet themselves to make it happen. And they can't agree on where to go. So I've told them we'll keep saving until they decide - or until we disband the troop and then we'll see how far their cookie money will get us (right now, Duluth here we come! Maybe Chicago - of course, the girl's ideas are WDW or New York City or Hawaii).

Cookie sales for our council average 150 boxes a girl, and my girls make $.55 a box and are right on the average. With five girls, in a cookie season our troop makes $400 a year - that isn't getting five of them and two chaperones to Disney - it barely pays for their crafts and badges. I hope I manage to get them on a "Big Trip" - they have over $1000 in the bank now - but they might be ninth graders and it might involving driving and no park tickets (Washington DC looks sort of attractive to me - lots of free things to do).

This actually came about when they were talking about what they wanted to do with their cookie money. Not knowing the actual costs, I told them that if they sold the max which is 2500 a girl, we would go no problem (individual sales and booth sales combined). Then I actually started to think, what would it really cost and what would they really have to sell? Last year the troop only had 8 girls selling and they did about 1500 boxes. But then again their leader didnt do anything to encourage them, she never took them on outings, or had people come in to talk to them. Before the discussion on Disney they had set their goal at 250 each. Times 23 girls thats 5750 boxes. We will make .65 a box thats $3700. We are going to have to sell 3 times that to fully cover all costs. I am hoping that they will sell their 250 each in preorders and then with booth sales we can come up with the rest???

 

[crisi]

This actually came about when they were talking about what they wanted to do with their cookie money. Not knowing the actual costs, I told them that if they sold the max which is 2500 a girl, we would go no problem (individual sales and booth sales combined). Then I actually started to think, what would it really cost and what would they really have to sell? Last year the troop only had 8 girls selling and they did about 1500 boxes. But then again their leader didnt do anything to encourage them, she never took them on outings, or had people come in to talk to them. Before the discussion on Disney they had set their goal at 250 each. Times 23 girls thats 5750 boxes. We will make .65 a box thats $3700. We are going to have to sell 3 times that to fully cover all costs. I am hoping that they will sell their 250 each in preorders and then with booth sales we can come up with the rest???

Thats a LOT of cookies. We sold 55 boxes total at our booth. And expecting every girl in the troop to do that is a LOT. What is your council average per girl? Do you think all 23 girls can sell 750 boxes?

Remember that more girls in the troop doesn't mean more cookies - it usually means that the neighborhoods are better covered by girl scouts - I'd expect your eight original girls to have fewer sales this year - unless your new girls are from different neighborhoods. Its like putting two Starbucks down the street from each other - you don't end up selling twice the coffee.

Their expectations are always unreasonable - if I let my girls set their goals without guidance, they are all going to sell 2000 boxes. But I think yours are as well.

 

[undertheradar]

OP, I believe that your cost projection is way too low. Factoring a cost of $600.00 per girl/leader, you will need $15,000.00. At a profit to your troop of $0.65 per box, each girl will need to sell 1000 boxes, that is a lot of cookies. You would also need to send in deposits for rental homes, Disney, etc. This looks like a huge undertaking in such a short time.

 

[Leajess99]

I completely understand what you are saying. But because we have to have more than our 3 leaders attend as per our safety guidelines we will have to have more adults. There will be alot of the parents that will not be able to go anyways due to taking time off work. We do have 3 daisys that are only 5 years old, and I dont think that girls of those ages will be able to be away from their families for 7 days, A weekend maybe? but we are a days drive from Orlando so we have to have 2 extra travel days. These will probably account for some of the extra adults that are required by GSA to attend as chaperones.

Girl Scouts are currently planning a trip to DC for a Rock the Mall event and many were interested in going, but they had to have their money in starting in November and the trip is in June. We didnt have time to plan as we found out about 5 weeks before the 1st payment was due. It is only 3 days and will cost them $500. I feel like this is a better value and we have more time to plan. They will spend 3 of the 5 days at Disney participating in the celebration and doing YES programs and badge work. The other 2 days will be fun days and badge work.

Your Daisies would not be able to go on this type of trip. Our Daisies could not even overnight camp last Spring. I would be leery of even taking Brownies on such a trip without their parents and I would be shocked if parents were really willing to let their young kids go such a distance without them.

 

[collins0616]

Thats a LOT of cookies. We sold 55 boxes total at our booth. And expecting every girl in the troop to do that is a LOT. What is your council average per girl? Do you think all 23 girls can sell 750 boxes?

Remember that more girls in the troop doesn't mean more cookies - it usually means that the neighborhoods are better covered by girl scouts - I'd expect your eight original girls to have fewer sales this year - unless your new girls are from different neighborhoods. Its like putting two Starbucks down the street from each other - you don't end up selling twice the coffee.

Their expectations are always unreasonable - if I let my girls set their goals without guidance, they are all going to sell 2000 boxes. But I think yours are as well.

Most of our girls are spread out. We live in a somewhat rural area, with 5 small towns inbetween 2 bigger towns. We all know people in bigger businesses, and I plan on having them at booth sales in all 7 towns and maybe 2 major cities near us. I honestly dont think, if we push hard and sell, sell, sell, that we will have a problem coming up with the money. I just want to have backups if we are short. They set their goal at 250 each with out knowing anything. I know our girls, and I could bet if I told them they need to sell 500 preorders to go to WDW and we need to sell 250 at each booth sale....they will do it. We were the top selling troop in our service unit in fall product, so I have faith they can do it with cookies, since everyone knows cookies. We had many ppl tell us they werent interested in our fall product, but come back when we have cookies!!!

 

[collins0616]

Your Daisies would not be able to go on this type of trip. Our Daisies could not even overnight camp last Spring. I would be leery of even taking Brownies on such a trip without their parents and I would be shocked if parents were really willing to let their young kids go such a distance without them.

Yes, we will be going thru everything with council next week, just trying to get all my ducks in a row before we go to them.

 

[Shanna-like-Banana]

Samantha :

I love your energy about helping the girls plan this what could be awesome trip. I really like how you're trying to search out the info in advance and be as prepared as much as possible.

With that being said : A trip of this size, takes a really long time to plan. Like years.

I want to touch points on a few other things that have been said, simply in aspect to GS in general.

I am a Cadette Leader, we have 6th grade girls.

Our troop collects dues 2x a year. Once in Aug and again in Jan, $25 or $50 if a parent really wants to pay it all at once in Aug. The girls keep a ledger and they have to budget what they want to do with their money. Of course we suggests things, and sometimes give them 2 or 3 choices and they decide. We do not ask the parents for money again what-so-ever at all during the year.

Since the girls keep the ledger our account is an open book. All the girls and the parents know exactly how much is in the account, what is being used for and who decided for the money to be spent (the girls)

We earmark.

The first thing we do is work on reverse. Rather the pumping the girls up for how many cookies or nuts they are going to sell, we have them figure out what they want to do with the money/where they want to go.

We have a simple formula that we have used for years and it works. We earmark 50% of yearly nuts and cookie sales for the end of year trip, we earmark 25% of nuts and cookie sales as our seed money for next year and we earmark 25% of nuts and cookie sales to our long term goal.

Then the girls figure out what they have to work with, if they want to take a trip that cost 100 per person and they make .48 cents a box, how many boxes do they have to sell to make $100 half of their annual sale ? (420 per girl)

The other thing that has worked well for us is that we have clear and concise rules about funds usage. Our group decided that anything over $20 per person that any adult attending will pay half of their own cost, including leaders. Now that works for our group and may not work for other groups. Our girls and parents thought that under $20 was the reasonable amount for required adults to be absorbed under the troop funds and over was to be paid by half. Now that being said, we have clear rules about additional non-required adults. If we have room for you and you want to attend, great, but you pay your own share. period.

Now back to your trip : I know you said you're kinda newer at this, so let me give you some ideas of the info Council will be looking for when you put in your trip request : ( please don't think that I'm trying to "scare" you about any of this info, it's really just to be more informed about making travel plans )

How many registered adults do you have ? How many are CPR /1st Aid CERTIFIED. How many are AED certified ? Does this trip require X amount of registered adults to have a higher level of certification. If so, and it's needed in the sake of this trip, is the troop going to pay for that, or the individual ?

You will need to verify that all ages involved are permitted state travel, over night travel, etc. ( such as your Daisy's)

Does your troop need to be SLEEP IN / SLEEP OUT certified ? How many are required ? If it's required to go on this trip, will the troop be paying for the certification or each person pays their own. If you are staying in a hotel room, does there need to be a certified person per room ?

Do you know what your actual numbers of required registered adults are ? Do you have that many ? Are that many avaliable for the trip ?

What rules does your council have about sleeping in hotels ? Does your council allow an adult to share a bed with an unrelated minor ? Does this change your ratio ? Does this change your sleeping arrangements ? Does your council have rules about adjoining rooms ? Do they consider the space 1 room if the door is open, or 2 seperate rooms ?

Have you have all of your parents sign a " Intent to Travel " contract?

Have you clearly spelled out exactly to a T, specifically what each line item costs per person ? How does that cost change +/- if ppl drop out ?

Have you clearly stated with the parents, exactly what amount the troop is paying for the leaders. Is the troop paying anything for the required registered adults ? What about add adults that want to attend, but are not required in the ratio ?

Have you created a projected profit / payment plan for the parents ? Do you have a payment contract for the parents to sign ? What if they are late ? What if they drop out, is that money refunded, or absorbed by the troop ?

Are there going to be any male adults attending ? Do you have seperate sleeping/bath accomidations for that person ?

Are the girls going to be traveling in personal vehciles ? What type of vehicles are they (GS does have rules about certain vehicles ) Are those drivers going to consent to additional background checks ? Are they going to be willing to provided proof of auto ins ? Your council may require a certain min of ins in a personal vehicle.

Do you know if you need to purchase an Additional Insurace policy for GS ins ? What does it cover ? How much is it ?

 

[Shanna-like-Banana]

Most of our girls are spread out. We live in a somewhat rural area, with 5 small towns inbetween 2 bigger towns. We all know people in bigger businesses, and I plan on having them at booth sales in all 7 towns and maybe 2 major cities near us. I honestly dont think, if we push hard and sell, sell, sell, that we will have a problem coming up with the money. I just want to have backups if we are short. They set their goal at 250 each with out knowing anything. I know our girls, and I could bet if I told them they need to sell 500 preorders to go to WDW and we need to sell 250 at each booth sale....they will do it. We were the top selling troop in our service unit in fall product, so I have faith they can do it with cookies, since everyone knows cookies. We had many ppl tell us they werent interested in our fall product, but come back when we have cookies!!!

Does your council use the COOKIE KIOSK ? Ours has 5 major retailers in there that we are allowed to bid on, and we do get a mulitplier.

Our council forbids us from bidding on a site outside of our Service Unit, even is half of the troop lives in that part of town

Also, we are not allowed to solicit additional booths at other sites. As Gs aren't allowed to solicit anything, including donations, as the site is considered a donation of time and space.

 

[moonpie85]

This is just my opinion and I'm sure many will disagree but I feel your girls are too young to stay a day away from home for multiple days. Especially the younger years. I'm reminded of all our Girl Scout camping trips were inevitably at least one if not more would get "sick" in the middle of the night and call mommy to come get them. I just think a trip of this magnitude should be for the older girls.

I wish you luck in whatever you decide!

 

[Tink415]

I understand you are new at the program. But taking the mindset that the "families only have to come up with $100-$200 for the trip" is simply not the way Girl Scouts is supposed to work.

The families aren't supposed to be reaching in their pockets for that much money for a GS trip. Dues and incidentals relating to meetings, sure...but that much coin for a trip? Its simply not fair to anyone who just can't come up with that kind of money that is part of the troop.

It sounds like its a large group. Just how are all these girls going to be transported...private vehicles? That's a whole other can of worms when it comes to GS travel....

Our council encourages 'big trips' to be funded with troop pays 1/3, girl pays 1/3, parents pay 1/3; We're encouraged to have a girl/parent contribution for all trips big or small, many reasons. We're also taught to have trip progression, day trip close to home, day trip further away, 1 night, then 2 night, then longer. And some trips are paid 100% by girl/parent because only 1/2 thr troop is interested in attending.

Op, I would ask your council if you'd even be allowed such a trip. My guess is Juniors probably ok depending on what other trips they've been on, Daisies, probably not.

 

[crisi]

Most of our girls are spread out. We live in a somewhat rural area, with 5 small towns inbetween 2 bigger towns. We all know people in bigger businesses, and I plan on having them at booth sales in all 7 towns and maybe 2 major cities near us. I honestly dont think, if we push hard and sell, sell, sell, that we will have a problem coming up with the money. I just want to have backups if we are short. They set their goal at 250 each with out knowing anything. I know our girls, and I could bet if I told them they need to sell 500 preorders to go to WDW and we need to sell 250 at each booth sale....they will do it. We were the top selling troop in our service unit in fall product, so I have faith they can do it with cookies, since everyone knows cookies. We had many ppl tell us they werent interested in our fall product, but come back when we have cookies!!!

Are the parents onboard with "sell, sell, sell" All of them?

I hope you do it, but honestly, I have my doubts. And I think setting up this expectation for little kids if this doesn't work out is going to disappoint them.