How much should be donated to Council?

[mjengels]

How much do troops dontate to there council? Just wondering. I know the popcorn is big but know one in our troop wants to sell it popcorn this yesr. What should we do? If they dont' want to do popcorn we need another fundraiser and donated some money (right). What do you think the average amount should be.

Thanks for any input....

[ScoutNut]

According to the popcorn companies, 70% of the cost of the popcorn supports local scouting.

 

With an average unit profit of 30%, that leaves council with 40%.

 

If you made an FOS donation of 40% of your money earning profit it should be on par with what council would get from the popcorn sale.

[purcelce]

Go with the tithe concept.

 

Donate 10% of the troop's fundraisers to the council.

 

 

[Aquila calva]

This is getting things mixed up WAY too much.

 

Scouting units are not expected to give donations to a council.

 

Money-earning projects are carried out on the unit level to support the unit (Pack, Troop, Crew, etc.). Any money earned from these efforts belongs to the unit and by extension it belongs to the chartering organization. Most of these chartering organizations are themselves not-for-profit organizations. Nowhere does any scouting literature say that a unit (or a chartering organization) should (or is expected to) give money to a scout council. Does it???? This would be transferring money from one non-profit corporation to another non-profit corporation.

 

A councils Friends of Scouting campaign solicits donations from families, individuals and corporations. Most of these contributions are tax deductible contributions.

 

Scouting units are encouraged to sell the scout-sponsored popcorn, but the amount going to the council is a business arrangement between the popcorn company and the scout council.

 

Please donate to your councils Friends of Scouting campaign through the Family Friends of Scouting or through the councils corporate contribution program.

 

But don't give your unit's money directly to the council.

[acco40]

Aquila calva, I think the suggestion was to donate, via FOS, a portion of their alternative fundraiser, not because they have to but because by switching from Trails End to another type of fundraiser, the Council has a net revenue loss.

 

For what it's worth, in our Council, and our district specifically, we tend to sell popcorn out the wazoo but seem to be a little low on FOS donations.

 

[nldscout]

I disagree with Aquila calva!

 

Most council depend on popcorn profits to run programs used by ALL units. So why should a unit who deceides not to sell, not help pay for those programs if they are not selling popcorn.

 

[Aquila calva]

Can anyone reading this thread tell us about a case where a Scouting official on the district, council or national level actually solicited money from a Scouting units bank account? This could be for Friends of Scouting or any other purpose. I hope not. Perhaps this thread is just another example of units making up their own Scouting program, as altruistic as it may be.

 

The popcorn sales program, unit fundraising activities (including money earning projects), and Friends of Scouting are all different and distinct activities in the Scouting program. They all involve money, but they shouldnt be confused, one with another.

 

[ScoutNut]

The original poster's Troop was planning on giving a donation to their council because they were not planning on participationg in their councils popcorn sale.

 

There is nothing wrong with that & is their choice.

 

They were looking for ideas on how to allocate a donation amount, not on weather they should donate or not.

[Aquila calva]

Dear mjengels,

 

It may be most helpful for your troop's leadership team to talk about this subject directly with your district executive. Your original post makes no mention of your troop's participation in a Friends of Scouting campaign. This may be the best way for your troop to support your Council. Of course, most of us here want to be as supportive as we can be to our Councils. We also want to provide opportunities for our scouts to be able to afford camping trips and all the other expenses associated with Scouting.

 

 

[NeilLup]

Hello Aquila,

 

I directly solicited money from one of the Troops in our council. This very large Troop has an annual budget well over $50,000 and has a "war chest" in the bank over $20,000. They do not do popcorn and refuse to attend our council's camp instead going to and supporting the camp of a neighboring council. They "generously" contributed $200 to FOS and refused to allow us to contact parents directly.

 

I suggested that they were getting a lot more than that from the council and that either they should permit and support a FOS solicitation among all the parents in their unit, or else should attend our council's summer camp or else should contribute generously from their war chest.

[Jeffrey H]

Neilup,

 

$200 to FOS from a wealthy Troop?  Wow!  Thats quite a sacrifice. 

 

My Pack, which barely makes it on our meager budget, probably gives more than $1,500 annually to FOS through the contributions of our parents and leaders.  We tend to be generous with FOS because were not very good at fundraising (popcorn) and the parents would  rather make direct donations than mess with the coordination and hassle of selling popcorn.

 

This troop could be giving more to FOS, but on the flip side, large troops like these contribute tremendously to the success of the overall Scouting program.  In other words, they deliver the full Scout program to the boys locally.  Troops like these are the reason boys stay in Scouting.

 

[OneHour]

The parents in our troop usually pony up close to $1500 - $2000 of FOS. Personally, I'm getting tired of paying $200 for the Council hat. I'm just going to have to add $50 more to get that coffe mug as well!

 

We're not rich. We just believe in scouting! I don't participate in United Way any more. Instead, I focus my donation (which would have gone to United Way and pointed to BSA) to our Council FOS effort.

 

As for fundraiser, our Council gets the cut with whatever popcorn or scout fair ticket/raffle that our troop sells.

 

As for our Pack, on an average, we usually sell about $8000 worth of popcorn. That's $3200 to the Council in addition to about $1000-$1200 worth of FOS. We have done our portion of helping our Council on the Cub Scout side! Yes, we could do more, but resources are lacking and not very forthcoming.