When Parents Don’t Pay

Here are some ideas for Girl Scout fundraising you can suggest to your troop. These ideas come from the facebook page Girl Scout Troop Ideas & Support.

We’ve included some patch suggestions to reward your girls for their cookie selling.

See all our cookie patches and downloads.

From Nicole:
Did they sign a cookie agreement prior acknowledging that they’re responsible for payment? If not, then it’ll come out of your proceeds. If they did then council should handle it. I would just keep proof that you’ve asked repeatedly and you’ve done your part.

From Chrissy:
I’d def have a stern talking with them next year and limit what they can take that’s not already ordered/ paid for. I always advise parents- you can not return cookies but I can always get you more.

From Kori:
In Oregon, we have an ethics pledge that all girls and parents have to sign. It states that they are responsible for any money that comes in and any money that is missing and that legal action will be pursued if they don’t follow.

From Bobbi Jo:
In our council we submit non-payment forum to the council & council will send collections on the parent for payment. We (leaders or troop) are not responsible for making the payment.

From Jodi
You turn in the girl owing form and contact your council. They’ll ask for her agreement form they sign stating they know they are responsible for the money plus receipts of them signing for the cookies showing they did get them. From there council will take legal action. With my troops experience, council took the money that parent owed from our troop but put it on hold till it’s approved than we get that back. The girl/s unfortunately aren’t allowed be in the troop/ sell product until the parent turns in the money.

From Participant 747
Yes. It was a nightmare. Ultimately what happened is that the troop lost money (contacted council and got it all documented). But then that family left the troop to be Juliette and asked for their % of the troop money to be transferred to their Juliette account. I again contacted council and reminded them of the cookie incident and they were able to work with me and the troop so that amount ended up staying with the troop in the end . I wanted to chime in here to say the best we can do is keep good financial records and get things ‘on file’ with council when things don’t seem right. We are not in the business of financial threats or being collection agents – that should not happen at the troop level. Hopefully for others it works out. I know I learned a lot about keeping clean records.

From Jourdan
We do not prepay in our council. Last cookie season we had a mom take 500 boxes and the next day the dad was blowing up our group chat (with all the trip parents) about how mom took off with the cookies and that we will never see them again. We have a debt form that our cookie manager filled out and submitted to council. Following the debt form council removed the money owed from the parent that ran off from our account and went after the parents for the balance due.

From Cassie
Document EVERYTHING you have. Send yourself images of text messages in email, it will be time stamped.

Document document document all attempts to collect, all updates of amount owed.

And print that Girl Orders HTML tab in ebudde before you get locked out.

Council needs that data to prosecute and collect.

From Melodie
We didn’t wait until the last minute to address it. Let your council know now if you think it will be an issue. Each parent should have completed a permission form and debt form which holds them financially liable for unsold cookies instead of the troop. Also keep a paper trail of conversations with the parent showing that you’ve properly communicated expectations.

From Laurine
Our council doesnt really do anything more than a suggestion. Each troop cookie mom/ treasurer decides if you pay for cookies up front or if you cab only have a certain amount out unpaid for at a time. But we dont pay all at once at end we collect money as we go personally.

From Lauren
This is why I only give a single case of each flavor at a time. Then when they pay off a case, they can come get another. So the most they can owe is $600 and not thousands.

From Brandi
That is definitely something you will have to ask your council. That said, our council is the same way. They have a process for reporting a parent as “uncollected”. The troop does not lose out on any proceeds. The troop still keeps their money. But, there is additional paperwork for the cookie chair. They must attach a special uncollected form, signed permission slip, all signed receipts for that scout, and any documentation of attempts to collect payment. Council will then sue them for collection outside of the troop setting. They will most likely be barred from selling in the future or have significant restrictions in place. Our council does offer an additional $0.01 bonus per box for troops that do collect all money, so a troop with an uncollected parent would lose out on the bonus, but not the basic proceeds.

From Jennifer
To help you in the future we have started that they cannot pick up more cookies unless 50% of their balance is paid. I know this does not help you now but something to think about for the future. I would be freaking out if the parent tried to return that many cookies to the troop and then the Troop have to off load them before the end of the season.

From Kris
My mother covered it but made the council and everyone involved very aware of what happened , and it was a lot of money plus obviously didn’t let that fam back in Girl Scouts which sucks cause the kid is who suffered.

From Friendly
I have had parents not pay. Our council will sometimes reimburse up to $250, but that’s not much when you think about the fact that cookies are six dollars a box. When we ask for help going after the parents for the money, we were told that the money belongs to the troop, so it’s the troop leader’s responsibility to go after the parents.

From Pat
In our cookie training, it is emphasized that (a) parents MUST sign a form acknowledging they are responsible for payment for all cookies they take, AND (b) the troop leader or cookie manager MUST complete and submit a non-payment form within a certain window of time. If you do that, council will take action from there. The troop does not have to pay for those cookies, but neither do we get the profit from them. It helps with documentation if you provide evidence of trying to contact the parent – copies of emails, letters, screenshots of text messages, etc. I’ve also been aware of troops that neglected to file those forms, or file them on time, and then yes – council has withdrawn those funds from the troop account.

From Ami
Our council does nothing to try to collect money from parents who don’t pay. Fill out forms for when someone doesn’t pay. I personally asked a local police officer to pay them a visit when someone didn’t pay for Boy Scout popcorn. It’s a felony when more than $300. Boy Scouts had money that week. Just sayin.