Help! How Can My Troop Earn Money, I Need Fundraiser Ideas?

This is the very second post in the series called “Ask a Leader Advice”. All you have to do is write in and I will answer your questions. If I have ideas, or have wrote other helpful tips about the topic they are below as well. If you have a question that needs answered, email me at [email protected].

I also encourage other leaders to add their advice in the comments below. I am only one leader offering my advice from my perspective.  I look forward to answering your questions each week and helping other leaders get their voices heard here as well.

Leader’s Question, There have been a number of variations to this question, but in the end what I am answering… HELP, I need fundraiser advice.  Here is one version of the question. 

“I have a couple of families who are low income. I’ve suggested to my co-leader that we raise our minimum of the fall products selling and cookies. She feels that the minimum is enough since during fall products that we’re competing with the school and asking parents to sell more is hard. We’ve done a bake sale before and not gotten what we’ve expected in funds. What else do you suggest?”

Advice from one leader to another….

There are a number of things that come to mind to get you started raising money for your troop beyond just selling the Fall Product and Girl Scout Cookies.

Before I jump in, I will start by saying fundraisers are a touchy subject with Girl Scouts, and as we all know each council handles them differently. So before pursuing any of the following ideas please check with your council. I am basing my ideas on what I know my council will allow. 

• Yard Sale – Depending on your Girls ages a Yard sale is a lot of work but can bring in a lot of profit, and when your girls are done donate whats left to another organization who wants to have a yard sale.
• Car wash – If you choose the right location you can bring in a good profit from this type of fundraiser. If you wanted to add a bake sale and sell water at the car wash as well people can snack while they wait for their cars.
• Cookies in a jar during the holiday season –
• Hoagie sales – This fundraiser always did very well for my troop and was very simple to put together. You just have to find a local deli that you can get the supplies from and figure out what you need to charge based on price of material.  If you want a free order form and more details of how I have done hoagie sale click here
• Collecting Cans, Old Ink, or Cell phones – Believe it or not after 3 months of collecting, putting signs up in local businesses to get old ink and cell phones, and asking all the troops in service unit to collect cans my girls earned over $200 dollars toward their bronze award. After collecting all the cans we took the girls to a recycling facility they got to take a tour and drop off their cans for recycling.  For the ink we used a company called empty4cash – click here to learn more
• Host a Dog Wash – This is a unique fun way to earn some cash. You can bring dog treats to give pets after wash.  Maybe also include special deals for families with more than one pet.
• Host a Community Meal – You can get every Girl Scout level involved in this and can even work toward their cooking badge while earning money. Ideas are to have a chili cook-offs, spaghetti supper or pancake breakfasts. You could also consider trying a unique meal if you have parents with cooking skills try a new cooking adventure such as Chinese or traditional Bolivian cuisine.

For over 100 ideas that could get your creative juices flowing checkout this book from Richard Black called The Fundraiser Guru: 100 All New Fundraising Ideas while some ideas wont work for Girl Scout Troops there are lots of ideas to get your girls thinking about Fundraiser they can do as group. 

Another thing to check with you council. Sometimes they will not allow you to have other fundraisers going while the fall and cookie sales are going. Now my council would allow us to  make our hoagie sales be parent run sales, which pretty much means they are a sale that does not go on the official books.  Now that is my council so please check with yours before going in that direction.

Incentive Ideas to Keep Your Girls Engaged With Fundraisers. 

Have you ever heard of scout cash?  It is a great way to give your girls a incentive to participate in activities, help out at meeting, and other tasks you decide to use scout cash for. If you have issues getting girls to participate in fundraisers, I have found offering scout cash for every dollar they sell gets more girls selling and participating.  I shared another post explaining how to use it, and also a free printable with your very own scout cash to use with your troop. Click here to learn more.

How Do I Write a Leader For Advice?

You can write me and ask for troop ideas, help dealing with issues with girls and parents, suggestions for fundraisers, service projects etc. I will answer the question sharing my experiences and give you my advice, and then comments are also open for other leaders to add their thoughts and advice. If you have a question that needs answered, email me at [email protected]. If I answer your question here on the blog I will email you and let you know the answer is live.