Would it bother you if you were the parent of a Girl Scout, and they're encouraged to sell cookies, including standing out in the cold in front of stores, yet the leader of the GS organization makes almost half a million dollars a year?

Our daughter has been in Girl Scouts the past two years and she enjoys helping at the booths to sell cookies. We have had no pressure from the troop leader or other parents to reach certain quotas. The leader wants the girls to have fun and do the best they can.

Most of the locations our girls sell at have been indoors, so being out in the cold hasn’t been a problem for us.

So the Girl Scouts should not have a full time Executive Director, just a full time volunteer? What should an executive for a non profit earn?

People who run large non profits should not be forced to be volunteers. If the non profit wants quality leadership, they need to pay for it.

The Girl Scouts do great work at empowering girls. I agree the whole cookie sales thing should be open and transparent fund raising. But equating a first grader standing in the cold to sell a dozen boxes of cookies to some kind of exploitation to line the greedy pockets of an executive is wrong, and ignores the reality of the situation.

Better to ask your local council where the revenue from the cookies goes.

@zenvelo: I don’t believe that I indicated anywhere that I think the CEO should be a volunteer.

Mixing apples and oranges. The exec is the leader of a 300,000 person organization. He/she needs to be a good manager.

No issue here. Just whining.

@jca When I hear those large salary numbers I wonder about it too. Does that means the Exec Director would not do the job for only $200,000? Does that they must need so much money to care about the organization or they would leave?
If the job paid a smaller amount they would get people who were there because they actually cared about the cause.

You can run a big organization like that for a lot less than The President Of The United States makes.
This is exactly the kind of thing that ended my donating to the United Way.

I may not like it, but if it was important to my daughter, I’d do it. I hope it’s not going to be important to her.

@LuckyGuy: Exactly. Can’t they get someone to do it for 250 or 300, even? Someone even somewhat competent and who will do a good job and still be loyal?

If she makes that much, that tells me that others that work for her and with her are making 250 -300k. That means a lot goes toward salaries. They can’t get staffers to do the job for less than that? I’m not saying low wages, but the wage of the CEO is huge, IMHO.

@elbitanroso: No whining. Just asking a question and making some points.

I have never liked ( when I was raising my daughter ) feeling pressured for kids to sell anything for whatever cause. Putting friends, co-workers, family and perfect strangers on the spot to buy anything rubs me the wrong way.
My daughter sold candy bars one year for a 4-H group she was involved in and yep, you guessed it, I bought most of them. haha
I really think pimping children to sell anything is distasteful.

I was a campfire girl and learned a lot from selling all that candy. I probably sold 3 thousand boxes in the ten years I was there. I did earn my way to camp every year though.
It DOES bother me that businesses are exploiting their non profit status to pay themselves huge salaries. I don’t know how, but it would be nice to overhaul that non profit exemption to make sure it’s not exploited. The head of Girl Scouts has nothing on some mega church preachers.

I also feel it is excessive. Sure, she deserves to get paid, but dammmmmmmmmmm. For bucks like that I would expect her to do lots of special, extra things, like go from one town to another helping girls sit outside of Walmart, or provide rides for girls who don’t have one.
BTW, anybody hear about those opportunist mothers who took their daughters to a legal marijuana shop to sell cookies? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

@Jonesn4burgers , one of my fellow campfire girls used to sell near a thousand boxes of candy a year. After we were done she told me how she did it. In Oregon, hard liquor was only sold in state owned liquor stores. All the drunks felt guilty seeing a cute little girl standing in front of the liquor store selling candy and she sold a shit load there!

@Coloma Putting friends, co-workers, family and perfect strangers on the spot to buy anything rubs me the wrong way.

I agree. This is why the only fundraiser I don’t mind helping my daughter with is Girl Scouts. We have NO problem selling these cookies. People ask us when they will be arriving. They look for us and our cookies, it’s so easy.

@jonsblond I rode my bike around selling GS cookies as a child. True, they are in high demand. Gimme the thin mints please. :-)

@jca Ok, no volunteers. But what’s an appropriate salary? Girl Scouts Nat’l. Headquarters is in New York City. It’s not cheap to live there, and a person who is Executive Director needs to be present in the city itself until late night on a regular basis. $450K is not outrageous in Manhattan.

The money these girls make by selling cookies pays for their year end trip. The more the girls sell, the more the girls get to do. Our girls went to Six Flags last year and it was a great time for all of us. My daughter and I can’t wait for the year end trip this year, so we’ll be doing our best to sell as many cookies as we can.

@Coloma Give me your address and I’ll send a box or two. :)

It’s “non-profit” in the sense that profits aren’t divided up between investors.

Instead the “profits” go to the executives….

I just looked at the most recent Form 990 for the Girl Scouts of the United States of America. The CEO’s true annual compensation – salary plus bonuses, taxable benefits, and deferred or nontaxable benefits – is approximately $1.4 million.

@jonsblond Oh you tempt me, but no thanks, I’m saving my calories for beer. lol

So you wouldn’t bother you if she made less money? Do you think the girls or their parents should be paid? I really doubt any of those little girls care about money. If my daughter wanted to be a Girl Scout, she’d be one. If she wanted to stand outside of a grocery store and sell, she could. If not, that’s fine too. She doesn’t HAVE to be a Girl Scout; it’s voluntary. I wouldn’t be dropping $200 for a badge, though, and that has nothing to do with the CEO’s salary. I’d be glad to take orders for cookies at work if that would help. Who says these girls have to get so many badges? If she wants them, she’ll work for them. If she doesn’t want to put in the work, she’ll do without badges. Consider it a life lesson.

@jca @zenvelo If they started the Not-for-profit ofr if they were taking some true financial risk I can see a salry larger than $200–250k but not much higher.
I would want someone who considers the position an honor and wants to contribute to its benefit. Furthermore, the position should have a salary cap and run for a limited time – one year – like loaned executive programs. (It is criminal what they paid G. McGovern for American Red Cross. >$1M.)
Seriously, the Girls Scouts have been around a long time and have a lot of support. I am willing to bet the place would operate well as long as the Exec. Dir was civil, presented well, and showed care and concern for the organization.
~All they need is someone to change the dates on the calendar and maybe suggest a different activity and flavor of cookie. I’d be honored to take the job for a year for $120,000.

First of all, if it’s cold, the kids set up their table inside the store. At least they do here.

Second, they do get rewards for selling a lot of cookies, just like we get rewards in the real world if we do well in our work. I think it’s a good exercise for the kids, showing the value / rewards of work.

Last, the CEO should be paid. It’s not like he or she works a couple of hours a week. They dedicate their lives to it. They are the head of a massive organization. You may complain that they make $450,000 a year, but if I was the CEO I wouldn’t be complaining about it!

According to @sadiemartinpaul, the total compensation is 1.4 mil. @zenvelo I understand she should be compensated well and it’s in New York City but 1.4 mil seems a bit excessive.

@livelaughlove – I am definitely not saying the girls should be paid.

@Dutchess – 1.4 mil?

Most CEOs make an excessive amount of money. This lady isn’t special, she’s one of many.

What @jca? The OP stated the CEO made $450,000. If he or she makes 1.4 mil, well, right on! Let me know when the position comes open!

@Dutchess_III The OP is @jca. As it says in her response right above her comment to you, @SadieMartinPaul says the salary is $1.4 million, not $450,000.

Sry! Didn’t read thoroughly. Just glanced at the details and thought she was referring TO the CEO, as “the head of the GS,” who makes $450,000.

Why are the girls having to stand outside in the cold? Where they sell, to whom they sell, and under what circumstances is totally under their control. Its not as if someone is standing over them with a whip forcing them to freeze in cold weather.

And any of the GS selling cookies I’ve ever seen have been in the lobby area of stores (for lack of a better term). If a particular store is insisting upon them being outdoors, then find a different store. Or else take orders at work or around the neighborhood. There are so many many different ways of selling GS cookies that presenting the picture of them standing in the bitter cold contrasted with a cozy warm and rich CEO is setting up a false dichotomy for the sake of sensationalism.

If your kid is freezing her toes off selling cookies then either you or she need to muster up some creativity. Its simply not necessary to endure inhumane conditions just to sell cookies (which are usually in high demand anyhow).

And if you’ve got a fanatical troop leader being high pressure about it, there are a few choices there also. Find a different troop with a more reasonable leader or if the kid doesn’t want to switch, then use this as a real life lesson in not bowing to peer pressure. This will come in very handy in the teen years when all her friends are pressuring her into drugs.

Just because someone (ANYONE) is pressuring you to do something doesn’t mean you have to cave in. This includes GS leaders.

Most kids enjoy selling the cookies unless some nitwit adult is taking the fun out of it with unnecessary pressure. Resist it.

Your primary problem is local it sounds like. Either switch to another troop or give this martinet a piece of your mind about her tactics.

And, for crying out loud, find a place that will welcome your kids inside to sell during one of the most brutal winters in recent history. Nobody says she IS REQUIRED to stand outside freezing. That’s ridiculous.

@LuckyGuy So you’d live in Manhattan in a residence that lends itself to entertaining potential donors, all for $120,000 per year? after the first few months rent, how would you pay for the rest of the year? And what would you live on?

@Dutchess: I thought she made only $450k which I already thought was way too much, but @livelaughlove pointed out that the total compensation she gets (the CEO of GS) is 1.4 mil.

@Buttonstc: good points. Nobody makes anybody do it but an email went out about a selling situation which will be the end of March. Around here, it’s still cold then. I have the email at work and can paraphrase it tomorrow when I can access it.

Who doesn’t love Girl Scout cookies? I was thinking to myself this morning I need to hunt down a store with a little girl standing in front. I think it’s foolish to buy 50 boxes and “hand them out to my friends” because people WILL buy them if you stand anywhere and offer them up! In addition, isn’t that just teaching your daughter that you will buy her way out of her obligations to earn her own way and contribute to the team mentality by learning work ethic? I get it that you work a lot, but she is in Girl Scouts, which does involve participation. Put a positive spin on it and find a couple of hours to team up with other girls and mothers and make it fun!
As far as what the CEO makes, congratulations to them and so be it. They are the representation at the highest level for hundreds of thousands of Girl Scouts. The better represented, organized, and promoted they are the better they can become. Everyone gets paid what the market will bear, and no one on this site can say they honestly understand the job to be able to defend or curse the pay set for the position. It is probably well worth the compensation, knowing other CEO salaries in line with similar sized organizations. @LuckyGuy – come on. It’s actually insulting to hear you believe all the CEO does is change dates and daydream about cookies.
So if anyone wants to PM me their address I will gladly buy a few boxes for you to ship to me and support an awesome kid in an awesome organization. Thanks!

One smart little cookie of a GS set up her booth outside a marijuana dispensary in San Francisco. She’s breaking all sorts of records and earning all sorts of patches, lol. After 45 minutes, she had to call for more supplies.

One day she will probably be the CEO of GS, all the way to the top!

@GloPro asks, “Who doesn’t love Girl Scout cookies?”

I especially like the fact that each box comes with two servings. A sleeve for him, a sleeve for me…

@GoldieAV16 Exactly! I actually keep several boxes hidden because they don’t last a week otherwise. It’s like Christmas every time a fresh box materializes long after the little girls stop standing outside. I don’t know any other cookies with such power!

@GoldieAV16

I vicariously adore Danielle Lei. Such a fine combination of brains and beauty.

You have no idea how happy I was when Keebler started making Samoas.

@zenvelo If I felt strongly about the cause I’d do it in a heartbeat. Since it would be a temporary assignment, where I would be maintaining my existing home, I would expect the organization to pay for the housing. The $120,000 – even in Manhattan is more than enough for the expenses.
Frankly, you know and I know that none of the people in that position are worried about making rent or not having enough to cover the electric bill.
As long as the organization kept me from losing too much of my own money I would welcome the chance to make the contribution of my time for a year. It would be an invaluable experience. And it would look dandy on my next resume when I was looking for a job in industry.
Peace Corps anyone?

I have wondered aloud why the cookies are not sold in late March? One more month and most of the country has more moderate weather.

I don’t think the girls should be pressured nor should parents be made to feel like they have to participate in selling the cookies. If the girls like selling in front of the stores fine. If their mom wants to buy $200 worth of boxes and give them away, I think that is fine too. Or, even if a mom just wants to write a check so the whole amount goes to Girl Scouts rather than paying for cookies.

As far as the CEO’s salary. That is probably a modest salary for how large the organization is. CEO salaries are very high. I am not too bothered that it is $500k, although I would like it better if it were less.

@JLeslie: Someone corrected me, the actual total compensation is 1.4 million. Read comment above from @livelaughlove21.

That sounds more like a typical CEO salary.

Generally, I am not fond of these types of fundraisers, but I guess it makes some sense. At least it is a product many people like.

I’ve never seen a troop selling cookies outside during inclement weather. Their stands are always located inside the businesses that let them use their property. The troops in our area use the indoor lobbies of banks, grocery stores and Family Video.

@jonsblond

Exactly right. Same here. There are all sorts of buildings (from businesses to apt. buildings in large cities) who welcome the GS in their lobbies because they know everyone loves the cookies. All a kid has to do is pick up the yellow pages and call or go online to email managers of these places and in a half hour or less they’d have several places welcoming them in. If some store is stupid enough to make them stand outside in this kind of weather then its “NO COOKIES FOR YOU !”

And let the kid do the calling herself. Who can resist a cute polite kid and their cookies?
:D
And it teaches them good social and business skills.

Here I see tables outside Walmart during the selling season, maybe in a few weeks when the temps are in the 40’s. I never see the tables inside of Walmart, it’s probably against Walmart policy or whatever. I also see them in school in the lobby, at events, which is not what I’m talking about.

I don’t know about your local Walmart but in Phila. I was told by the manager that they officially support one charity only (which was Children’s Miracle Network) for in-store solicitation. But I was welcome to set up outside of their store. (This had nothing to do with GS Cookies)

So that’s their corporate policy and each store picks their particular local charity.

But there are SO MANY other places. All kinds of stores and Apt. buildings as well love the GS.

I have seen them in grocery stores, banks, hospitals, all kinds of places. There is no limit to where you can go.

I loved the news story about the kid who set up by the medical MJ dispensary. Now that’s a match ! Pot for the munches.

But creativity can produce some amazing things.

I agree with @Buttonstc. I think your primary problem is not universal, it’s local. It’s your troop leader. My sons didn’t have the best troop leader when they were in Boy Scouts, so we didn’t enroll them the following year. I love the troop leader our daughter has now. Her main focus is learning while having fun. If you are stuck with a leader you don’t like you have two choices. You either leave or voice your concerns and volunteer your time to help make the experience enjoyable for your child.

@jca Did the leader give your daughter a choice of dates and locations to sell cookies? My daughter’s leader gives the girls a choice of 6 different dates and locations and lets the girls choose the time that’s best for them. They need to choose one date and location, but they are welcome to help more if they can. Last year my daughter chose two dates, but ended up selling on three different occasions because she volunteered at the last minute to help when some girls failed to show up.

@jonsblond

That really is a great troop leader leading by example and securing locations for them ahead of time rather than just a decree demanding some arbitrary quota from each kid.

There are plenty of ways to make it enjoyable for kids. And at that age they naturally love helping out with things like this.

Its usually some overly demanding adult who can quash their natural enthusiasm and ruins it for them.

We like our troop leader and she’s our neighbor and very involved in the school and community. I think the person above her is the one pushing “sell sell sell” but regardless, we won’t be standing out at a table in front of a store, so I’m not terribly upset about that.

I’m still concerned about the CEO’s compensation of 1.4 mil. I think that’s excessive and unnecessary. I was thinking the half a mil salary was high, but when @livelaughlove21 said she makes 1.4 mil, I really think it’s a lot.

but regardless, we won’t be standing out at a table in front of a store, so I’m not terribly upset about that.

That puts pressure on other children and parents to make up for one less child who won’t be there to sell for a few short hours. I think I’m the only stay-at-home mom in town who has a daughter in Girl Scouts, so I can say with certainty that every other parent works and can still find two hours one day out of the year to get their child to a booth to help sell cookies. Girl Scouts need group effort for success. Just handing over money doesn’t teach your daughter a lesson. It sounds like you don’t want to put in the time, and that’s okay if it’s not for you, especially if you don’t approve of the CEO’s compensation. (I hope none of this sounds bitchy because I really like you and it wasn’t written with ill intent.)

I’m not a fan of the girl scouts. I don’t think they empower women at all. They just force gender stereotypes down their throat.

Girl Scouts empower young girls @flip86. The group helps encourage young girls to take care of themselves and the world around them. How is that enforcing gender stereotypes? Do you think the only thing they learn is how to cook for their man and clean house? Seriously. I don’t think you know one thing about the organization.

@jca The CEO is doing CEO work, and GS probably pays competitive salaries for the market. I’m not defending the salary, just saying that is how it usually works. I don’t know how much GS makes per box of cookies, but let’s say it is a dollar box. At that rate the $1.4 is a drop in the bucket. The way I understand it part of the money goes to the local troop to support things they want to do that year, and then I guess part goes to administrative fees including salaries. Does the troop leader get paid?

@jca Just to be clear, it was @SadieMartinPaul that said her salary was $1.4 million, not me. I didn’t bother to look it up.

@JLeslie: I am not sure if the troop leader gets paid. I thought not but who knows. It’s a good question.

@jonsblond: No insult taken. I like you, too. :) As far as pressure on the others, I feel like if the pressure comes from above, the parents can resist it, too. If they want to join in, they can, if not, they can just say no, since it’s all voluntary.

@livelaughlove21: Sorry – so many posts above!

This is an excerpt of what I received. I omitted names and other details that would give away who this is from or who or where I am.

Good afternoon parents!
Now that we have over a week of cookie selling behind, thought I would send a little rally email to give the girls some incentives to SELL, SELL, SELL!!!

Money earned from cookie sales funds exciting trips and projects for our girls. Our troop earns $0.70 per box sold. If we exceed our 2013 sales of 653 boxes, we will earn $0.75 per box!!! Last year the girls went to Build-A-Bear and were able to each get a bear, an outfit, and a special badge with the money we earned, not to mention all the fun and laughs they shared.

Some goals to consider:
25 boxes sold gets a theme patch
100 boxes gets another patch PLUS a Peace, Love and Cookies Necklace (can be found on the order form)
125 boxes gets a Peace, Love and Cookies water bottle and sunglasses
150 boxes gets a Bling Heart Bracelet

Also, after 75 boxes are sold, the girls earn $15 in cookie credits which can be used to purchase fun items such as bandanas, water bottles, journals, basketballs, etc. Last year, ____ was so proud of the blanket and purse she received from her sales!

I have signed everyone up in the ______ Club, so that you may send emails to friends and family which allows them to place an online order (keep in mind these cookies still need to be delivered to these people, so remember that before you send an email to your aunt in Florida! lol)
The website is ________________. Your child’s username is their first name followed by ____ “____” and password is _____ The average sale from an online ask is 5.5 boxes!!! If you send 24 emails through cookie club, your daughter will receive a “Cookie Buzz” patch!

Also, don’t forget to remind people about Operation Cookie Drop—often times people would like to support your Girl Scout, but don’t want cookies for themselves. Instead, they can purchase cookies that will be donated to our Armed Forces. (In 2013 over 80,000 boxes were donated to our troops abroad, VA Hospitals and other military related efforts. Simply add the number of boxes to be donated in the “Cookie Boxes Donated” column.

FINALLY, we are trying to organize a Cookie Booth for our girls, which will likely take place the morning of Saturday, March __. Once I have more information I will forward it along.

If you have any questions, or have trouble logging in to ________, please email me or give me a call at ____________

Happy Selling!

_______

@jca I would just go ahead and pay $10 for the build a bear field trip if the troop didn’t sell enough cookies to cover paying for the whole trip. I wouldn’t want to be cheered on to sell more more more. I don’t mind a sales update letting the troop know where we stood and what our goal was, but anything more than that would annoy me. It’s the same in zumba class, I don’t want to be yelled at by the instructor, that’s why I like zumba, lots of hand signals. Some instructors are like football coaches screaming to work harder. Annoying.

I guess some kids in GS come from very poor families and for them the cookie sales make a big difference in what the troop can do. I would hope maybe there is a GS fund that helps with that. I would rather a little money go to a central fund like that than to a necklace or pin for higher sales.

Necklaces, bracelets and teddy bears?

Fuck that. Can I join the boy scouts and go camping?

~ I have a different objection. I did a little searching and see that in the US, the Girl Scouts sell between 140 and 200 million boxes per year. A typical box contains 1200 calories, and 50% are from fat!
That means the Girl Scouts are directly responsible for adding between 50 million and 70 million pounds of fat to America’s waistline.
They are almost as bad as the local Country Feed Trough Buffet.~

It’s a competition. Nothing wrong with that, as long as the kid wants to do it.

We could say “Why do we ‘force’ our children to play soccer? Sometimes they have to play in the cold and it’s so much work for them and the parents.”

@LuckyGuy Nope. The people who BUY the cookies, then scarf them down, are responsible for adding how ever many calories to themselves. Which is why I don’t buy GS cookies or any cookies for that matter. (Man…Thin Mints and the coconut ones though….mmmmm! Which is why I don’t buy them.)

@Dutchess_III If a person buys a box, usually because they know the child or the parent and maybe feel a little obligated, you can’t expect them to throw the cookies away. they have to make a choice. OK, if I polish off this box over the next two days I need to skip 2 meals. Most people don;t think that way.

I have a funny picture in my head. For the most part, the cookies are basically, starch, fat and sugar with very little essential vitamins. I imagine a cargo plane dumping 60 million, 1 pound, blobs of butter onto an already well fed population.

What if they added a Min Daily Req of Vitamin A, B, C, D, and E to each cookie. It might only add about 1 cent to price of a box – the price we are paying for the Exec Director and her cronies.

:) And I do buy them for that reason…and then “donate” them to the office or the grandkids or whatever. After I’ve eaten 4 of them. Or maybe 5. 6.

That’s a good way of thinking about food if you want to stop yourself from eating it. When I changed my eating habits to lose about 40 pounds, 26 years ago, my sister, the Diet Queen, taught me how, and she used that technique. Like we were at the store and they were offering some samples of something….like onion rings or something. I went to get one, and Sis grabbed my arm, dragged me away and said, “Fried worms. How can they even OFFER them. That’s disgusting.”
Works.

@Seek_Kolinahr Our troop goes camping. They swim, hike, fish, climb rock climbing walls and learn archery. The girls will be learning self-defense moves tonight from a local martial art instructor, but our daughter can’t make it because she’s home from school with a sore throat and tummy ache. :(

I just saw on The View that a GS set up in front of a medical marijuana dispensary in California. Sold all her cookies. LOL.

The one part of that email which I did like was where they mentioned that if someone wants to help out a scout but doesn’t want cookies for themselves, they can specify that the boxes they purchase can be donated to our troops overseas.

Now, that’s a great idea. Not just because its good marketing but because of how much it would help in keeping up the morale of the men and women who are sacrificing so much for us. GS cookies are the ultimate gift from home.

And I’m quite sure that they’ll adequately burn off the extra calories slogging through the desert sands :)

Just picturing the smiles on their faces when they get those cookies brings a smile to me also.

So, somebody high up in the administration of the GS dreamed up that idea so its nice to know that they’re making an effort toward creativity to earn those salaries which they are paid rather than just doing the same old same old every year.

Haha….I love the girl that set up her cookie selling table outside the marijuana dispensary, perfect! Maybe GS’s need to expand into edibles. lol