girl scouts of central illinois

Community partners and local experts can inspire your Girl Scout troop to try new things—but that’s not the only reason you’ll want to team up with them! If you’ve got more questions than answers about a Cybersecurity badge or if shopping for camping gear feels overwhelming, you can lean on local partners to help you navigate new territory and boost your confidence in the process.

Check with the Girl Scout council or service unit. GSCI is building the “bridge” to help volunteers find the expert help they need for all the extraordinary new badges. We will soon be launching the “bridge”. Look for the announcement soon!

Need more ideas? Ask around at your next service unit meeting! Your service unit volunteers likely have some local recommendations or know of fellow troop leaders who’ve arranged similar guest speakers, events, or badge workshops.

Look within your troop community. You might be surprised by just how much talent you already have in your group! With enough notice and some guidance on how to best work with the girls, troop families are usually happy to share their skills.

Look to the parents of the girls in your troop. In addition to special skills and talents, many parents speak several languages, practice different religions, and have various cultural traditions that we’ve used to accomplish badges. Additionally, many parents have unique skills within their careers to help you.

Reach out to first-degree connections. Think about who you interact with in your daily life: your girl’s school, your colleagues, fellow volunteers at other service organizations… What special skills might they be willing to lend to your troop?

Talk to local businesses and nonprofits. You’re all invested in making your hometown a better place, so don’t be afraid to reach out and see how you might team up. Bonus: you might be surprised by how many local businesses are willing to offer your troop free or discounted programs!

Check your local event listings. “Turnkey” community events are an easy way to save planning time while engaging your troop. “When our botanic garden announced its Bug and Insect Festival, the event was a natural for earning the Bugs badge,” explains Denise. “This well-organized festival included opportunities to touch all sorts of insects and learn from experts. The girls had a great time and learned a lot!”

And once you find the right local expert(s) or community partner(s)? Your troop can build important community relationships with them.

Teaching Essential Skills for a Lifetime
A well known component of Girl Scouting is the Cookie Program, the largest girl-run business in the world. Once a year, Girl Scouts around the country venture into the entrepreneurial world to learn business and financial skills and earn money to fund their Girl Scouting goals. Through “learning by earning,” Girl Scouting aims to empower girls through the development of five essential skills: goal setting, money management, people skills, decision making, and business ethics.

The Girl Scout Research Institute set out to understand the extent to which Girl Scouts actually develop these five essential skills, as well as to examine the specific ways girls benefit from their participation in the Cookie Program. Survey responses from 1417 Brownie and Junior Girl Scouts representing various regions of the country provide compelling evidence that girls do benefit from the Cookie Program through development of these essential skills.

Key Findings
Overall, a majority of Girl Scout “Cookie Entrepreneurs” develop the 5 essential skills.
85% of girls developed Money Management skills, reporting that they had developed budgets, taken cookie orders, and handled customers’ money.

83% of girls developed Business Ethics, learning to fulfill promises to customers, keep true to the Girl Scout Promise and Law in their business dealings, and consider how best to contribute to their communities with their earnings.

80% of girls developed the Goal Setting skill, learning how to set sales goals relative to action plans and to create a set of objectives with their team to reach their goals.

77% of girls developed the Decision Making skill, learning how to work as a team to develop a basic business plan, deciding when and where to sell cookies, and reaching agreements on what to do with the money they earned.

75% of girls developed People Skills, learning to talk, listen, and work with different kinds of people while selling cookies.

Learning the 5 essential skills has a positive impact on girls’ lives.

• Significantly, more than half of girls (55%) achieved all 5 skills.
• Girls who developed the 5 skills were more likely to report that they learned new things while selling cookies that will help them in school and other areas of their life than girls who did not (93% vs. 63%, respectively).
• Overall, girls reported that selling cookies was fun (96%). Learning by earning made it even more fun. Girls were more likely to report cookie selling was fun when they developed the 5 skills than when they did not (98% vs. 90%, respectively).
• Even though the vast majority of Girl Scouts were eager to sell cookies next year (95%), those who had achieved the 5 skills were even more eager than those who did not (95% vs. 90%, respectively).
• Specific Girl Scout experiences can make the difference between achieving and not achieving the 5 essential skills.
• Girls who attended troop or group meetings about selling cookies, practiced how to sell Girl Scout cookies with their friends and family, and worked toward the Cookie Business and Financial Literacy badges developed more goal setting, decision making, money management, people, and business ethics skills than girls who had fewer or none of those experiences.

Cookie season is here, and you’re feeling proud of your Girl Scout troop for rocking their goal setting conversation and committing to a cookie goal that’ll power their weekend camping trip this summer. But before your girls break out their order forms, there’s another group you need to rally: your troop’s parents and caregivers.

That doesn’t sound difficult—after all, most troop families want to be supportive—but what happens when you have parents who see the cookie program as just another task on their lengthy to-do list rather than an entrepreneurial experience for their cookie boss?

The cookie program is a team effort, and adult support plays a major part. Here are a few ways to motivate any apprehensive parents in your troop.

Hold a cookie-specific meeting for parents and caregivers.
Even if you discussed the cookie program at your first parent meeting, make time to reconnect with troop adults. Hold a cookie parent meeting. Discuss how the cookie sale will operate, tasks for parents, deadlines for what is due when, skills the girls learn by participating, and how the girls want to spend the troop profit. Parents were more than happy to help their girls build these skills.

Your troop parents will likely have more questions about what’s expected of them and their girls, so be sure to review all aspect of the program. You can also let parents know at the meeting that you’re looking for some extra support.

Share your troop’s goal and how they’ll get there.
Open the conversation by outlining the goal or experience the girls are working toward, and talk about the girls’ decision-making process and that you’re proud of their ability to work as a team. When people ask why they’re selling cookies, they can say ‘we’re building a butterfly garden’ or ‘we have a camping trip we’re hoping to take.’” Families are much more supportive if they know where the cookie proceeds go; the same goes for customers and other members of your community!

Once you’ve shared your troop’s vision, let the adults know what the goal means for their girl. Open communication with the parents is key to a successful troop cookie sale.

Outline the immediate and long-term benefits of the cookie program.
Explain that the profit from the cookie program funds the rest of the year’s badges, programs, and events, and other activities and trips the girls have discussed. Remind them that the cookie program is not about the cookies or the money. Parents love to hear how the sale works—the girls set their own goals! We purposely set low and high goals so the girls can reach some but work hard for others. Once parents hear how hands-on the sale is for their daughters and how they’ll learn how to make change and speak to customers and work as a team, they’re much more willing to participate in the program.

Stress the five skills girls learn from the cookie program set them up for success in school, extracurricular activities, and beyond; helping parents and caregivers understand the big picture goes a long way in building the support you need.

Learn more about cookies! Explore the various resources that can help everyone . . . troop leader resources, girl resources, and parent resources.