Need ideas to get girl scout troop to Disney PLEASE!

[paysensmom]

We live in a very small place and our entire troop from Daisy on up is about 20 girls. What have you done as far as fund raising besides the nuts and cookies things? Any tips, tricks. Anything you can think of to help us make it happen.

 

[disprincessatheart]

My aunt recently mentioned something her church youth group is doing to raise money that I thought was very clever. They are washing cars during mass. If you want a wash you leave your keys with the adult supervising and your car is clean when you leave church. If you had a church you can partner with that might work since all the girls could help.

 

[carebee21]

You can do car washes, spaghetti feeds or pancake breakfasts or gift wrapping during the holidays.

I would also list the specific activity you're doing and how it relates to Girl Scouting(IE, Help Send the Girl Scouts To The Living With The Land Tour At Disney World to Earn their Gardening Badge!, or whatever it may be) Because honestly if the fundraiser just said, Help Us Earn Money for A Disney World Trip, I wouldn't donate money or participate in that fundraiser. If it's just a vacation or trip for fun, I can think of more important places to donate my money or participate in fundraisers (and I know it may sound rude, but I'm not trying to be offensive, just being honest. With the economy in the state it's in, I just think people are more selective of who and why they're donating money too.)

Also, I would recommend to each parent that they try to sign up with one of the points websites that let you exchange those points for Disney Gift Cards (I use Sunshine Rewards but if you search this forum, there are other companies mentioned, I just can't think of them right now.) You can earn money by completing FREE surveys or you earn a certain percentage of your purchase when you shop with specific online retailers and then once you reach a certain dollar or point level, you can cash out the money for Disney gift cards. It may not seem like a whole lot, but if you have 20 families earn at least $50 (which is very reasonable) that's an extra $1000 for doing very little.

 

[TLuvsD]

I don't mean to be a Debbie Downer, but you need to check with your Girl Scout Council...the younger girls may not be able to travel that far (generally there are mile limits). Better to know upfront than to have unhappy kids.
Write a travel contract: Behavior, money division, extra funds. Who is going to pay for the adults (the required adults, not the tag a long adults)?

Our girls had great success with garage sales, other troops had food sale opportunities (like at a community event--they sold taco plates), recycle everything you can. Have fun!

 

[MichelleB]

Took my troop to Disney as 6th graders in 2008. It took us 3 years to earn the money but the stipulation was that they had to earn every dime. We went for 5 nights, flew on Delta, stayed at All Stars, and included all meals. We sold a ton of fall product and cookies. Our troop normally averages the highest in our service unit with 4,000-5,000 cookies with 9 girls. We literally eat, live, and breath it for 3 months and not only go door-to-door but also normally do 18-24 cookie shops. In addition to that, we do a garage sale at least once each year and normally make $600-700 dollars. Each family donates what they want and the girls work it. We also raked leaves for donations one year -- that was a LOT of work and required a parent per girl to help. We made about $500. It's hard work, but well worth it.

 

[TLuvsD]

Michelle I love the raking leaves idea. I may have to copy that one!

 

[prncess674]

Sorry but I have to agree with the others, what service are you serving by going to WDW. If you are just going on a social trip then you really need to EARN the money, not just ask for the money because they are GS. I don't go stand on the corner and shake a can asking people to send me on summer vacation. If you are asking for donations/grossly inflated donation amounts for small tasks then over 50% of your trip needs to be service. If you are only planning one or two small badge projects then this is a personal trip and should be earned with cold hard cash, not service projects where
People think they are donating to service projects but are really just cleverly disguised pleasure trips with a green sash.

 

[paysensmom]

Great ideas so far, thank you so much!

 

[Evi]

Sorry but I have to agree with the others, what service are you serving by going to WDW. If you are just going on a social trip then you really need to EARN the money, not just ask for the money because they are GS. I don't go stand on the corner and shake a can asking people to send me on summer vacation. If you are asking for donations/grossly inflated donation amounts for small tasks then over 50% of your trip needs to be service. If you are only planning one or two small badge projects then this is a personal trip and should be earned with cold hard cash, not service projects where
People think they are donating to service projects but are really just cleverly disguised pleasure trips with a green sash.

Wow . I'm sure that the troop leader has a plan. Just because she didn't give you the entire outline of it doesn't mean you have to be such a killjoy. I think its wonderfull that a troop leader is trying to get the girls to earn money to go on what is a field trip. We all know there are tons of educational opportunities and I'm sure equall number of badge earning opportunities at Disney.

I do hope your girls are able to make the money and have a wonderfull trip. I'd encourage you to let people know what your girls are working towards. I'm sure they will be more then happy to participate.

 

[tavettava]

Ds is in Boy Scouts and we do a lot of fundraisers. The troop has its own cabin that Henry Ford donated way back in the 40's and we need to pay for the utilities, so we do a garage sale every summer. For other fundraisers we do sell candy bars, American Coney Island kits (its a coney island in Detroit), pizza kits (Little Ceasers is another local place), beef jerky (its buffalo and all organic and from a farm in the upper part of lower Michigan.) We are going to be selling wreaths and grave blankets this fall. Maybe try and see if any local places have the kits.

 

[mommyjam]

my daughters cheerleading team just did a basketball booth at a local festival and made a lot of money in just one day. They all donated bags of gently used stuffed animals (bonus of getting them out of our houses) and then they set up a basket ball hoop and a duck pond for the little kids at the local festival. The kids loved playing to win the stuffed animals. They made over 600 dollars, not bad for one day and not a lot of work.

 

[crisi]

Some councils will let the girls host a specialty fundraiser council event. The chocolate event here in the Twin Cities sold out fast - and I think those girls did pretty well. A troop from the other end of our council (too far for us) runs dogsledding day every year - they rake in the cash (its about $100 per girl and I think the troop turns a $25 profit - its too expensive for me to even mention to the girls in my troop - but then, who gets to dogsled?) Something less intense could be a "Saturday Songfest" where you bring the girls together to learn camp songs - you need a space and you could charge $5 per girl.

 

[prncess674]

Wow . I'm sure that the troop leader has a plan. Just because she didn't give you the entire outline of it doesn't mean you have to be such a killjoy. I think its wonderfull that a troop leader is trying to get the girls to earn money to go on what is a field trip. We all know there are tons of educational opportunities and I'm sure equall number of badge earning opportunities at Disney.

I do hope your girls are able to make the money and have a wonderfull trip. I'd encourage you to let people know what your girls are working towards. I'm sure they will be more then happy to participate.

Sorry, but the more likely scenario this is just like all the posts that pop up here weekly asking for ways to fundraise for trips to Disney. My “favorite” are folks who come here and say my band/show chori/dance team, etc. was “chosen” to perform in WDW. This whole being “chosen” is a Disney racket! Disney invites thousands of these organizations to perform on some random stage and then in return these groups spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in the park/hotels/dining. Disney is a smart marketer. I do not agree with asking for donations for these trips. If the majority of your trip is for personal travel then you need to offer services/goods at market rate and not ask for donations.

If the purpose is to fulfill badge requirements there are plenty of less expensive options. Asking people to donate so kids can take a pleasure trip while doing a few token badge activities in this economy is not right.

 

[tlbwriter]

I'm sure your leader already knows this, but I didn't find out until this year that troops have the option of not giving out prizes for product sales and keeping more money instead.

My aunt recently mentioned something her church youth group is doing to raise money that I thought was very clever. They are washing cars during mass. If you want a wash you leave your keys with the adult supervising and your car is clean when you leave church. If you had a church you can partner with that might work since all the girls could help.

What a great idea!

 

[drcmk]

I'm sure your leader already knows this, but I didn't find out until this year that troops have the option of not giving out prizes for product sales and keeping more money instead.

That is only for older girls. Daisies do not have that option (at least not in PA).

 

[drcmk]

We live in a very small place and our entire troop from Daisy on up is about 20 girls.

I know you didn't ask for opinions, but I also have to ask--"Why" are you planning this trip? How does it fit in with the Girl Scout mission?

 

[DisneyCher]

There is a trip report on the DIS about a GS troop that recently went to WDW from California. The poster name IRL is Lorraine, I think, but I can't remember her DIS name. Maybe you can read her pre-trippie and see what they did. I know she basically detailed all of their fundraising, but the only thing I can remember from the pre-trippie was the awful hate crimes perpetrated against her.

 

[tlbwriter]

That is only for older girls. Daisies do not have that option (at least not in PA).

The OP said her troop is "Daisy on up."

 

[tlbwriter]

I know you didn't ask for opinions, but I also have to ask--"Why" are you planning this trip? How does it fit in with the Girl Scout mission?

It doesn't have to be a mission or a service project. It can just be a reward for hard work. My daughter's troop uses some of their product sales money for a fun activity every year. Is that not allowed?

 

[pannm]

We did something called "take me to the movies"...It was a HUGE success. Our troop did it twice a year with the local movie theater and each time we made over $1,000. I think I remember hearing that you live in a small town though, so it may not be as big of an event.

We spoke to the local movie theater and they allowed our troop to have a morning at the movies- they gave us a flat rate per person of $5.00 for the first 50 people and $4.50 for 51-80 people and anything over 81 was $4 per person...and that included movie, pop and popcorn. We charged $7 per person and had them pay at the movie theater. The movie theater manager gave us the difference after everything was done. It worked out well. One year we packed TWO of our theaters (we have a 5-theater multi-plex type of place).
We ALSO sold swaps that the girls had made (they are SUPER CHEAP to make...we sold them for $2 a piece and they sold like crazy) We also did a raffle. People could buy tickets from the troop parents before the movie, then at the end of the movie we raffled off a BUNCH of items. Some were donated items from around town, some items we paid for but got a good discount.

That was our BIGGEST fundraiser all year. It was even bigger than our cookie and nut sales combined!