With nearly 4,000 local affiliates as it celebrates its centennial, Boys and Girls Clubs of America still is learning how to keep everyone funded, happy and on the same page.

By Nicole Rollender

‘World’s best-kept secret’
BGCA primarily reaches donors through its network of local clubs, but those 3,700 (and growing) independent clubs are run like a franchise system.

“There are no company-owned stores here,” Aschermann says. “Anything we do has to be done by force of persuasion or by providing such added value to their work, which is part of our strategy, so the clubs come on board.”