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

Cloninger has worked to establish an effective national fund-development staff with the goal of substantially increasing contributed income. She notes that, for now, most contributed income for Girl Scouting is received by the local councils which, in a business sense, are independent organizations. The national organization didn’t have a dedicated fundraising department when she took the job, but rather a combined funding and marketing department that tried to do it all but usually ended up focusing on marketing. The first staffing change she made was to appoint a senior vice president for fund development.