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

[HashTagScouts]

Pretty sure it's up to the locality. We had asked local Walmart for a donation and helpful store manager explained that each store has a specific $ amount they can give to "community engagement" each quarter, and once the quarterly allotment is gone. it's gone.

When my son was planning his Eagle project, he inquired at both our local Home Depot and Lowes for donation of materials. Home Depot HR manager was in charge of their community program, and she asked him to come back at the first of the next month and she would be happy to give what they could (seemed similar to Walmart concept, but monthly rather than quarterly)- ended up giving him four vouchers that were essentially $100 gift cards. Lowes was more tricky, it took my driving him there for several attempts to connect to "the right person that can help with that", and ended up being a one-trip shopping pass for 20% discount (which is the same as employee discount). The pack and some of our Eagle candidates have asked to fundraise at that Lowes selling candy bars and they've generally been OK with it, but they get a lot of requests from other groups, so sometimes we've been shut out or had to wait several weeks for time.   

[BetterWithCheddar]

Our Pack does popcorn "show-and-sells" at two fairly large retailers. I think the families who sign up are reasonably successful; however, I'm uncomfortable asking people to pay $20 for $5 worth of popcorn (but I don't begrudge those who do). We'll hit our Spring candy bar sale pretty hard. No one seems to mind paying $2 for a candy bar and the Pack keeps $1 for every candy bar sold.

[nolesrule]

We don't do popcorn, because we'd never be able to compete with the Cub Scouts. We sell Camp Cards in the spring and last year First Aid Kits in the fall. Unfortunately we are never able to get table sales in front of a high traffic area. The one time we did get in at a Walmart they doublebooked us with girl scouts selling cookies and that was a disaster.

Edited February 23, 2023 by nolesrule

[Better4itall]

Friends of Scouting was instituted because "Because funds provided through the United
Way and other sources are insufficient to carry out the program determined by the council executive board". Here's the reference https://filestore.scouting.org/filestore/mission/pdf/33071.pdf.  Your unit does not owe the council a dime beyond dues. The FOS program was instituted as a direct community outreach to solicit donations from benefactors. But it has become one of the many fundraising channels back to units. So dues, popcorn, camp cards and FOS all now fall to the units. Advice to councils: go look elsewhere, scouting families are tapped out.

[sierracharliescouter]

On 6/12/2023 at 8:37 PM, Better4itall said:

Friends of Scouting was instituted because "Because funds provided through the United
Way and other sources are insufficient to carry out the program determined by the council executive board". Here's the reference https://filestore.scouting.org/filestore/mission/pdf/33071.pdf.  Your unit does not owe the council a dime beyond dues. The FOS program was instituted as a direct community outreach to solicit donations from benefactors. But it has become one of the many fundraising channels back to units. So dues, popcorn, camp cards and FOS all now fall to the units. Advice to councils: go look elsewhere, scouting families are tapped out.

I used to help with FOS. I won't anymore with the massive increase in our local council dues.

[DannyG]

My unit doesn't give a percentage, per se....  Rather, after fundraising is done and all the unit expenses are paid for, we take the remaining funds (if any) and decide how much we want to give to FOS.

[SiouxRanger]

Nothing. Not a % of any fundraiser.  Some FOS events were held at Pack and Troop events, but at least a decade ago.  FOS is defunct in out council-has been for at least a decade.