Girl Scout Fundraising Ideas

Girl Scout fundraising will vary from council to council. Some won’t allow Girl Scout fundraising at all while others limit the time of year, the number of times per year or the type of fundraising.

Many councils will limit Girl Scout fundraising to “money earning” such as car washes and garage sales. Product sales are generally frowned upon unless the items are homemade. Make sure to check with your council before planning a fundraiser with your troop.

Here are some ideas for Girl Scout fundraising you can suggest to your troop. These ideas come from the facebook page Freebies for Girl Scouts.

From Misty:
A car wash is great with older scouts! One of our local car dealerships allows them for civic groups at their locations! Or if your town does a local event, having a cold bottled drinks stand is a really great fund raiser!

From Donna:
We don’t do a lot of those because in my council were not allowed we’re not allowed unless we petition council. We’re definitely not allowed to do it during cookie season.

From Joss:
We are limited to service base fundraising. So they have to clean yards, babysitting, etc.

From Theresa:
We had a non-profit car show ask us help park cars. The girls would just stop people in their cars on the way in-saying “welcome to the show”. More of a greeting. The “parking” fee was optional and they gave us the money collected for parking.

From Kim:
We’re planning an art auction.

From Amanda:
Our local Savers store “like salvation army or goodwill” has clothing drives. So easy. Pick a date and drop off clothes and get paid 20 cents per pound. Community drops clothes off to a location you pick on a certain date and time and you just load them up. We raised over $1500. Also funds2org is a shoe drive.

From Maria:
Garage sale where all GS families donate items and girls run it. Can even add a bake sale. Savers also offers a donation type fundraiser.

From Tiffiny:
We have not done it with Girl Scouts yet, but my boys have done a ruck-a-thon for Cub Scouts. They picked a 5 mile trail to hike and the scouts had people sponsor them (like $1 to $5 per mile). They had to ruck with different essentials based on age (essential 6 then add change of clothes, extra shoes, ect. as their age went up). We took pictures during the hike and a screenshot of the distance and shared it with with sponsors when they collected the money. It was a fun way for the scouts to feel they earned the money themselves and a great way to get them active outdoors at the same time. My friend is starting a trailblazers troop in the fall with scouts from the different troops within the SU and plans to do this as a fundraiser to avoid the confusion of trying to collect funds from the other troops from the fall sales/cookies sales. You could even work on your Trail Adventurer badge while planning it.

From Natalie:
Our council requires us to fill out a form and have to show whatever it is will be girl-led. We did a bake sale and a spaghetti night.

From Laura:
We have a group that works with local venues to have parents/older girls do concession stands for concerts, sports games, etc.

From Bridgette:
We had a spaghetti dinner and silent auction and raised around $4000. The girls used their contacts and family members to get creative and donate things like a weekend at their ski condo or a weekend at their vacation home, etc. Local businesses donated gift cards or basket of products for people to bid on and people donated everything from homemade Christmas decorations to a handmade quilt. It was so fun and the girls set up, cooked, served, cleaned, etc. With the help of parents. It was a huge success.