What percentage of fundraising do you give back to the Friends of Scouting program?

[curious_scouter]

Does seem a bit ungrateful to complain about what you get when nothing is owed.  If friendly with the council peeps, I'd say so respectfully.  We want to help and especially now, but that kind of response is off putting and certainly I'll think twice about doing this in the future.  Not everyone will speak up and say so, if you're doing this routinely - I'd consider you're doing yourself more harm than good.  An effusive "thank you" and highlighting the support in a newsletter or round table would generate a lot more benefit than dickering for an extra 10%.

That said, it's easy to imagine there being a lot of pressure on councils to drum up new money in the face of the bankruptcy costs.  It may be coming from the right place, but presented in an off putting way.  I dunno. 

[mrjohns2]

We give 0% to FOS of our “outside” fundraisers. We do meet our FOS stretch goal and our popcorn goals and go to council camps and camporees. So, we play along and seem to get along well. 

[Eagle94-A1]

We have not had a dull time DE in my district prior to merger for at least 9 years, always having to share one with another district.  Since the merger in 2021, we have had 2 DEs.  One didn't even attend the district camporee. The other didn't  attend the council camporee, although she was brand new and I will cut her some slack. We have hand delivered advancement paperwork only to be be told "It was never turned in" (despite having a photo taken of the paperwork in fact being turned in because of previous issues). We needed professional help trying to get into the schools for recruiting, to no avail. When asked to focus membership recruitment on struggling units instead of starting new units, was told point blank they would start new units where "needed." And prices to use facilities and attend events have skyrocketed with no announcement. In fact prices went up, but the prices listed on the website are the old ones. 

[Tired_Eagle_Feathers]

On 5/5/2022 at 3:39 PM, T2Eagle said:

A couple additional thoughts and questions.  It is always important to remember that when you are fundraising you are technically fundraising for your Chartered Organization which owns your unit and its funds.  The money doesn't belong to the troop it belongs to the CO who is allowing the troop to use its funds.  Before you give any significant amount of money to anyone, especially council, you should make sure that's what they want done with their money.  If council wants your CO to give them $2000 then they should ask the CO directly.  This is the first thing I would respond to any council type making this kind of ask.

I have been reading old threads here about the rechartering mechanisms that are now on the table due to the lawsuit.  Seems many traditional COs are not rechartering and are instead reverting to rental agreements, and then in many cases troops become chartered through their Council.

I assume this would mean that all the troop's money in that case is actually the Council's money.

There was talk in the threads of setting up "Parents of X" corporations to charter the troop.  Seems like this would be a smarter move to protect your troop's assets.  Of course, you have to run a tight ship with your corporation or the parents running it could end up personally liable.

[InquisitiveScouter]

1 hour ago, Eagle94-A1 said:

We have not had a dull time DE in my district prior to merger for at least 9 years, always having to share one with another district.  Since the merger in 2021, we have had 2 DEs.  One didn't even attend the district camporee. The other didn't  attend the council camporee, although she was brand new and I will cut her some slack. We have hand delivered advancement paperwork only to be be told "It was never turned in" (despite having a photo taken of the paperwork in fact being turned in because of previous issues). We needed professional help trying to get into the schools for recruiting, to no avail. When asked to focus membership recruitment on struggling units instead of starting new units, was told point blank they would start new units where "needed." And prices to use facilities and attend events have skyrocketed with no announcement. In fact prices went up, but the prices listed on the website are the old ones. 

Just makes you proud to be a part of it all, doesn't it?

[qwazse]

@MattySchnides, welcome to the forum.

We don't give fundraising $'s to council. We do let a representative come and pitch FoS to our parents at a local CoH.

[OaklandAndy]

Reading all this makes me thankful I have a council with few issues, at least nothing worth mentioning at the moment and hopefully never. I do find it interesting that they asked for more money, but didn't ask if they could do a FoS presentation for your unit. Quick to take a buck and not make one. 

[physics32]

Our PLC decides the distribution of funds.  They do all the work anyway.  Sometimes they will surprise you though.  After the last fundraiser they donated 10% to the WOSM Ukraine Scouts Humanitarian Relief Fund.

We also do camp cards and popcorn sales specifically to support the Council, and with other units in the District, maintain the local camp, as the Council no longer will.

I made the mistake of donating to FOS using the monthly payment option this year.  They made their pitch in February.  Since then I’ve received 5 phone calls from our DE that they aren’t sure they will get a payment from me in January through the system and they are very concerned about the $25 due then.  I really hope they don’t harass non-Scouting donors about their system problems.

[BetterWithCheddar]

I'm a parent of a Lion and will be experiencing FOS for the first time this Spring. For the more tenured volunteers, can I ask a few questions?

• I have an FOS flyer from my youth asking for $129 (the cost to support 1 scout for 1 year). Mentally, I was preparing to make a donation of around $200. Now I see the campaign is asking for $401 (the cost to support 1 scout for 1 year in 2023). What the heck happened there?
• I assume the council has an FOS fundraising goal. Does that goal get pushed down to the districts and the unit level? If so, does that mean every unit has an FOS goal? What happens if the unit doesn't hit the goal? Are they assessed a lump sum?

[Sentinel947]

15 minutes ago, BetterWithCheddar said:

I'm a parent of a Lion and will be experiencing FOS for the first time this Spring. For the more tenured volunteers, can I ask a few questions?

• I have an FOS flyer from my youth asking for $129 (the cost to support 1 scout for 1 year). Mentally, I was preparing to make a donation of around $200. Now I see the campaign is asking for $401 (the cost to support 1 scout for 1 year in 2023). What the heck happened there?
• I assume the council has an FOS fundraising goal. Does that goal get pushed down to the districts and the unit level? If so, does that mean every unit has an FOS goal? What happens if the unit doesn't hit the goal? Are they assessed a lump sum?

• Each council's "Cost per Scout" is going to be different. My council says $206 a year or $17 a month supports 1 Scout.
• Each district/unit does have an FOS goal based on number of Scouts, families and the demographics of the area. Generally there are no consequences to a unit for not hitting an FOS goal. Some council's are moving away from FOS entirely to a council fee model, but mine has not. 

Edited February 19, 2023 by Sentinel947

[InquisitiveScouter]

27 minutes ago, BetterWithCheddar said:

I'm a parent of a Lion and will be experiencing FOS for the first time this Spring. For the more tenured volunteers, can I ask a few questions?

• I have an FOS flyer from my youth asking for $129 (the cost to support 1 scout for 1 year). Mentally, I was preparing to make a donation of around $200. Now I see the campaign is asking for $401 (the cost to support 1 scout for 1 year in 2023). What the heck happened there?
• I assume the council has an FOS fundraising goal. Does that goal get pushed down to the districts and the unit level? If so, does that mean every unit has an FOS goal? What happens if the unit doesn't hit the goal? Are they assessed a lump sum?

I recommend you hold on to your money, and give it in increments.

Give an increment (say $25) to the council every time you have a positive interaction with a paid professional.

Every time you have a positive interaction with a volunteer from another unit, give it to that unit.

I'd love to see you post here about these incremental gifts.  Let's see where Scouting is really happening.

Edited February 19, 2023 by InquisitiveScouter

[scoutldr]

2 hours ago, BetterWithCheddar said:

What the heck happened there?

Well, for one thing, professionals' salaries probably tripled since then.

[InquisitiveScouter]

47 minutes ago, scoutldr said:

Well, for one thing, professionals' salaries probably tripled since then.

And payments into the victim compensation fund.

[Delphinus]

2 hours ago, InquisitiveScouter said:

And payments into the victim compensation fund.

And meanwhile, parents are urged to get out there and sell, sell, sell (I hear this in Randolph and Mortimer Duke's voices) more popcorn. The Pack we used to be in heavily urged us to sell popcorn rather than just pay our dues. The "Popcorn Colonel" let slip last year that ~40% of the sale proceeds go to the Pack and ~30% go to the council. So selling $750 to cover all of the $225 dues actually meant that Pack got $300 from all that free labor. Then, we always had the hard sell of "Friends of Scouting" at the Blue & Gold each year to look forward to. Apparently, Packs that schedule that "presentation" get a streamer to put on their flag. 

[InquisitiveScouter]

14 hours ago, Delphinus said:

And meanwhile, parents are urged to get out there and sell, sell, sell (I hear this in Randolph and Mortimer Duke's voices) more popcorn. The Pack we used to be in heavily urged us to sell popcorn rather than just pay our dues. The "Popcorn Colonel" let slip last year that ~40% of the sale proceeds go to the Pack and ~30% go to the council. So selling $750 to cover all of the $225 dues actually meant that Pack got $300 from all that free labor. Then, we always had the hard sell of "Friends of Scouting" at the Blue & Gold each year to look forward to. Apparently, Packs that schedule that "presentation" get a streamer to put on their flag. 

https://youtu.be/i2uu6NF2inY