Fundraising with Kids: Canadian Guides vs Scouts (Shift Mama)

It's Girl Guide Cookie season and Scouts Canada Popcorn season. I have to say that these two fundraisers highlight one of the main differences between these two great programs for youth.

A little background, incase you just started following me, I have been a long time Girl Guide - a LONG time. Girl Guides of Canada offers adventures, travel, skill building, and leadership training to Canada's youth.

I had the opportunity to work with Scouts Canada last year. It was a year of full immersion into Scouts Canada programs - I learned that Scouts is also fantastic program offering adventures, travel, skill building, and leadership training to Canada's youth.

Scouts also have a pretty awesome sense of humour - shout out to the Events Coordinator Rachel at my Council office for this great sign.

There are many similarities, and many differences. One of the noticeable differences in the programming is how they run their main fundraising campaign. For Guides - this is cookies. Twice a year the Guides sell cookies. Chocolate Mint in the fall and "Classic" in the spring (these are ones most people are familar with - one box with a sleeve of vanilla and a sleeve of chocolate sandwich cookies). Scouts Canada sells Trails End Popcorn in the fall (some areas of Canada also have Apple Day. My Council did not do this).

How the fundraising is approached by the Girl Guides is what really gets me. Girl Guide cookies are ordered for the Unit about six months ahead of time. Guides estimate how many cookies they will sell and order by the case. So that means in the spring when the Units are wrapping up, Guiders need to look into their crystal ball and predict how many girls will leave the Unit, and how many will register.

With Scout Popcorn there is no pre-order by the leaders. The kids are given an order sheet and sent out to ask friend, family, neighbours to buy some popcorn. Whenever possible the kids are provided with a few samples of the popcorn ahead of time so they can sample and use what they think about their favourites to sell. Kids set their goals and set out to sell, teaching the Scouts to set a goal and achieve something is more of a possibility with this system, Scouts are rewarded on a number of levels - first Unit (bag or box) sold gets them a crest, then at set National and sometimes Area or Group levels there are additional prizes - gift cards, funds to use at local scout shops and so on. The rewards are achievable and the best part - they are awarded during the Scouting year. Scouts can see the connection between setting the goal, selling and delivering the product, and receiving their rewards. The Scout Popcorn program also has a scholarship component - scouts must sell a certain amount of popcorn in one year to qualify and then for every other year a percentage of their sales goes into their scholarship account.

With Guide cookies the girls have little to do with goal setting, unless they are working for something over a long period - like the groups that I worked with that were travelling and working over a year or two to raise the funds. Some units will work with the girls to come up with a goal for the spring cookies (ordered in December) but the majority of areas I have lived in have requested that the Guiders use the spring cookie funds to fund start up of the unit in the fall. So goal setting is a bit futile. There is a program to reward the girls - Cookie All Stars - pretty much every girl should earn a crest, and from there the next level of reward starts at 7 cases sold, and up from there. Sadly the rewards are not provided during the Guiding year, this past year they arrived the last couple of days of June. After school was out, and after almost every Unit has finished for the year. Tne kids don't connect the sales to the reward or to any goals they may have helped set.

I realize that both systems have their negatives as well as the positives - with popcorn I would say having to head back out to deliver the product to the Scouts customers is a big down side, making extra work and time demands on the parents. Popcorn is also a higher price point, and can be tougher sale.

Guide cookies are available for purchase upon first contact with the customer. They are a lower price point, but are seen as less healthy option (not to mention the recent media about palm oil/GMOs).

I'd love to see the Girl Guides move to a pre-order system - like the Scouts and The Girl Scouts of the United States. And while I am dreaming - how about offering at least three types of cookies at the same time- chocolate mint, vanilla and chocolate sandwich (sold in separate boxes) to provide more options to the public.

Learn more about Girl Guides Cookies here - Girl Guides of Canada Cookies

Learn more about Scouts Canada/Trails End Popcorn Here - Scouts Canada Popcorn

Share your best tips on fundraising with kids on the comments!