Girl Scouts of the USA historically has relied on a self-generating funding system. But as it approaches the century mark, a sweeping organizational transition will mean a new focus on fundraising and an enhanced partnership with its local councils around

By David Mckenna

The traditional funding base for the national organization is simple — a $10 annual membership fee from each girl in each local council.

“It’s a beautiful integration,” Cloninger says. “I don’t know if there’s another national federation in the nonprofit sector that has that same arrangement.”

New ideas in fundraising
The arrangement will continue, she notes, but in a streamlined form that will leave about 109 high-capacity, well-resourced regional offices and make it easier to revitalize the Girl Scouts brand and thereby create new fundraising models — the second component of the transformation.