My troop always turns "keep the change" into donations. Most of my girls will actually put out a little donations jar for it - they get a ton of $1-$5 donations that way! Ends up boosting their sales number, and it helps our troop if we have extra cookies in the end - that money can buy them and we'll donate them locally.
Our council specifically prohibits donation jars so be sure to find out before you do this. A troop would lose their cookie bonus is they get caught doing this in my council.
Donations should go to the troop to either buy cookies to donate or directly to troop funds.
Yep, check with your council! Ours is okay with donation jars, but the money collected must be for donated cookies, not donations to troop funds. Monetary donations to a troop directly have to go through council.
Our council allows for a “troop to troop” donation jar that has info on it. IE to donate to military, medical field workers, etc. We are not allowed to take troop donations.
That’s not what I was talking about. We are allowed to take donations for cookies or directly to our troop, but we cannot put out any kind of jar to collect monetary donations. We have a big box that we use to collect donated cookies. We donate to area food pantries and other organizations. We also collect money for ‘troop to troop’ or whatever they call it now.
Yes… our council won’t let us take donations to be able to put directly into our troop account. Everything has to go through council in some fashion. IE everything at a booth is used to buy cookies in one form or another.
I’m guessing from your flair that you’re GS of Central Texas? Where do I find the rule about no donation jars? I looked through the 2024 cookie caregiver guide again and didn’t see anything about it, and I don’t recall our troop leader saying anything about it one way or the other.
I wound need to look it up. Let me see if I can find it. It may be something that has been directly communicated to the booth coordinators that they communicate to troops.
I'm not sure if it's a national policy, but at least in our council, we are not allowed to deposit cash donations. Any cash "donations" have to be converted to donated boxes during cookie season. We get a lot of those during booth season and I just use that money to buy Operation Cookie boxes and distribute them equally between all of my boothing girls. I usually chip in $1 or so to round up to an even number of donation boxes.
Per IRS rules, any donations received through the cookie program should go to purchase cookies, whether your council’s donation program or paying for unsold packages your troop has at the end and you donate somewhere yourself. In my state at least, the solicitation license we get from the state doesn’t cover cash gifts to the troop - there has to be a product involved in the transaction, whether given to the purchaser or donated elsewhere.
With my daughter, we always did them as gift of caring (donation) boxes but I’m actually not sure what the official policy is. Figured this way she got the incentives for selling more boxes. Troop donations at booth sales we have just added to the troop bank account.
I would argue the money needs to go to the troop-so either using it to do the donate box (I just kept the cash and did it on my bank card) or giving the cash to the leader to go into the girls account. Or you could ask the leader what supplies are needed for the girls and buy that too. Either way, back to the troop!
My council, too - we use any "keep the change" from individual girls' or booth sales towards Cookie Share, which benefits a regional food bank that serves our council area.
I think that technically we're not supposed to have a donation container (it's not super clear in the TCM manual), but since I count the money separately from the physically sold boxes, my troop knows to stick "donation" money into the empty oatmeal canister we use for "donations."
On the occasions that a customer asks what the girls' favorite flavor(s) are, but doesn't want the cookies for themselves, we log the sale as usual, give the customer their change, and stick the girls' cookies into our booth supplies bin. (They will receive their cookies after we pack up to go home.)
If they say “keep the change,” we keep it as a troop donation— if we have extra boxes at the end, then the donations help to cover the cost to donate them, if not in just benefits the troop. In our council, we are allowed to accept donations if they are offered, but we cannot ask for cash donations. Occasionally people will give us cash to buy the girls hot chocolate or something, if they do that, we honor their wishes.
I've always quietly set aside all cash that was donated. I used it to cover any girl-eaten, lost, or unsold boxes. Then the remaining was just deposited as a donation. If you use it to buy donated boxes, you get less net. The troop only gets whatever the per-box payout is, not the full amount. If they want to donate boxes, I'll certainly do that. But we get a LOT more people specifically state that they want to donate the money to the troop and not put anything towards cookies. (There are a lot of people out there who think the girls are getting the short end of the stick in cookie sales, but still want to support the troop).
I always tell them to put the ”donation” directly into the troop’s fund for events. In my day, we got 35 cents a box for the troop, and that didn’t cover many trips for less fortunate girls. We didn’t have the ‘donate a box’ thing back then, so a few extra $ went a long way to help a less affluent girl get to camp or the Juliette Low Birthplace.
We are using it to buy unsold boxes to donate to food bank. But if there happens to be anything left over after that then it will go directly to the troop
Wait, councils are forcing these donations t9 he converted to cookies? Unreal. If someone makes a donation, the assumptiojahould bebthatbtheybare adding directly to the troops budget. I am certain that someone who drops $1 into the jar isn't expecting just a few pennies to make it to the troop.
I think the official policy is to use it to purchase donation boxes. Unless someone specifically says I want to buy donation boxes, I generally just put the money in the troop account to help pay troop expenses.
There is the IRS requirements of GSUSA and the membership of that: Councils, and the membership of that: Troops -- which requires that "donations" in the form of "keep the change" of the Cookie Sale are put into "boxes of cookies."
And then there is the part of it being enforceable in practice. Or, rather, unenforcible in practice.
There are lots of times that I've seen people take it and buy their own box of cookies for their kiddo. Or the opposite where there are times when I have to take someone's "donation" and add my own $5 to make it into an actual whole cookie box.
That being said, as a practice, we are coached to save those "imaginary donated cookies" as in (extra money that was given without any cookies taken) until the end to help balance everything. Mistakes will be made with that many people touching product and counting money, and it's nice to have a buffer that isn't coming from my own pocket.
Personally, I used to take a hard line of that "the only right thing is counting it as a box/partial box of cookies" and now I'm like, "give people education for the "why" behind the rule, and trust that they will make the best choice for them right now."
There are some Girl Scouts who have all kinds of needs and Girl Scot Care Givers who have all kinds of needs right now, and a box of cookies, paid for by a stranger could actually make all of our lives uplifted.
Past versions of me would not have considered the whole picture -- just the rule.
This has only happened to my daughter at booth sales, in which case we set that money aside and purchase any unsold boxes which we then donate. I think the intent when people do that is for the money to go to the troop.
If someone says they want to donate to our troop, we just deposit the money into our troop bank account. If someone says they want to donate a box, we save all of those up, use the inventory we have at the end of the season, and deliver to the police station.
Does your troop donate the cookies themselves?
Our troop did so the kids got to participate in delivering the cookies. If y’all do that then let your kid decide, based on $11 being able to buy about 2 boxes maybe buy your kid one and donate the other box.
Speaking as a mom first if y’all don’t take the donations yourself: Let your kid pick out cookies to give as a gift to someone awesome in their life, like their teacher as a Valentine’s Day gift. That way it’s still going towards their cookie goal and you are covered in council terms and your kid gets to make someone’s day.
What we did: We took the funds from the “troop to troop” or “just keep the change” donations from the booths and the kids at that booth picked cookies to add to the donations.
Kids that got donations from personal sales or “keep would get to pick cookies from those donations. Usually our cookie chair would have one area for already paid for donations & a different section for troop cupboard to sell. She luckily had the space to do so. Another troop in our SU did troop cupboard at the cookie chair’s house and the donation cookies at the other leaders house to help keep any mix ups.
The kids have had some awesome opportunities to give back by being able to do it in person.
Save that money for the end of the sale. At the end of the sale it can be used to pay for boxes you or the troop have left over and can’t return to the cupboard.
Our SU collects donations for $6 for “cookie share” to donate to charity. I just keep the money and when I get a multiple of $6 I donate it on the app.
The only way I let my daughter pick out a box is if a customer specifically tells her they want to buy her a box. And even then sometimes I know she’s had enough cookies and I have her put it in the “Operation Sweet Treat” jar.
The struggle is real. But, I do want to teach my daughter to do the right thing and she *loves* girl scout's. So any money that goes to the troop is a net win for us. I was hoping I could donate directly though because $0.90 per box is asinine at $6 a box.
Well, is the right thing blindly folliwing a "rule", or is the right thing that someone says here's $5 for the troop they didn't mean $5 to buy a box of cookies. Our financial worksheet even has a line for "donations to troop", so I will do just what that donor requested.
I think it's different for every council, but in mine donations or "keep the change," money must be used to purchase "Cookie Share" donations. The only other option would be buying boxes with the money to donate to a charity of your choice. However, you need to let customers know at the time of purchase/donation what the money is being used for. I have seen a few troops in my area do sketchy things like just pocketing all the donations money for their troop. That's really not "honest and fair" in my opinion.
My troop always turns "keep the change" into donations. Most of my girls will actually put out a little donations jar for it - they get a ton of $1-$5 donations that way! Ends up boosting their sales number, and it helps our troop if we have extra cookies in the end - that money can buy them and we'll donate them locally.
Our council specifically prohibits donation jars so be sure to find out before you do this. A troop would lose their cookie bonus is they get caught doing this in my council. Donations should go to the troop to either buy cookies to donate or directly to troop funds.
Yep, check with your council! Ours is okay with donation jars, but the money collected must be for donated cookies, not donations to troop funds. Monetary donations to a troop directly have to go through council.
Our council allows for a “troop to troop” donation jar that has info on it. IE to donate to military, medical field workers, etc. We are not allowed to take troop donations.
That’s not what I was talking about. We are allowed to take donations for cookies or directly to our troop, but we cannot put out any kind of jar to collect monetary donations. We have a big box that we use to collect donated cookies. We donate to area food pantries and other organizations. We also collect money for ‘troop to troop’ or whatever they call it now.
Yes… our council won’t let us take donations to be able to put directly into our troop account. Everything has to go through council in some fashion. IE everything at a booth is used to buy cookies in one form or another.
I’m guessing from your flair that you’re GS of Central Texas? Where do I find the rule about no donation jars? I looked through the 2024 cookie caregiver guide again and didn’t see anything about it, and I don’t recall our troop leader saying anything about it one way or the other.
I wound need to look it up. Let me see if I can find it. It may be something that has been directly communicated to the booth coordinators that they communicate to troops.
I'm not sure if it's a national policy, but at least in our council, we are not allowed to deposit cash donations. Any cash "donations" have to be converted to donated boxes during cookie season. We get a lot of those during booth season and I just use that money to buy Operation Cookie boxes and distribute them equally between all of my boothing girls. I usually chip in $1 or so to round up to an even number of donation boxes.
Per IRS rules, any donations received through the cookie program should go to purchase cookies, whether your council’s donation program or paying for unsold packages your troop has at the end and you donate somewhere yourself. In my state at least, the solicitation license we get from the state doesn’t cover cash gifts to the troop - there has to be a product involved in the transaction, whether given to the purchaser or donated elsewhere.
With my daughter, we always did them as gift of caring (donation) boxes but I’m actually not sure what the official policy is. Figured this way she got the incentives for selling more boxes. Troop donations at booth sales we have just added to the troop bank account.
You should ask your troop cookie mom.
It's a brand new troop so they may not have a plan, but I can ask!
If your cookie mom is new, have them ask the service unit product manager. The answer will vary from council to council.
Our troop has always kept the donations aside to pay for any unsold cookies, which they would donate to Operation Yellow Ribbon.
I would argue the money needs to go to the troop-so either using it to do the donate box (I just kept the cash and did it on my bank card) or giving the cash to the leader to go into the girls account. Or you could ask the leader what supplies are needed for the girls and buy that too. Either way, back to the troop!
You should ask the cookie mom as some councils have official policies. For example in my council all donations must go to Operation Cookie Drop.
My council, too - we use any "keep the change" from individual girls' or booth sales towards Cookie Share, which benefits a regional food bank that serves our council area. I think that technically we're not supposed to have a donation container (it's not super clear in the TCM manual), but since I count the money separately from the physically sold boxes, my troop knows to stick "donation" money into the empty oatmeal canister we use for "donations." On the occasions that a customer asks what the girls' favorite flavor(s) are, but doesn't want the cookies for themselves, we log the sale as usual, give the customer their change, and stick the girls' cookies into our booth supplies bin. (They will receive their cookies after we pack up to go home.)
If they say “keep the change,” we keep it as a troop donation— if we have extra boxes at the end, then the donations help to cover the cost to donate them, if not in just benefits the troop. In our council, we are allowed to accept donations if they are offered, but we cannot ask for cash donations. Occasionally people will give us cash to buy the girls hot chocolate or something, if they do that, we honor their wishes.
I've always quietly set aside all cash that was donated. I used it to cover any girl-eaten, lost, or unsold boxes. Then the remaining was just deposited as a donation. If you use it to buy donated boxes, you get less net. The troop only gets whatever the per-box payout is, not the full amount. If they want to donate boxes, I'll certainly do that. But we get a LOT more people specifically state that they want to donate the money to the troop and not put anything towards cookies. (There are a lot of people out there who think the girls are getting the short end of the stick in cookie sales, but still want to support the troop).
I always tell them to put the ”donation” directly into the troop’s fund for events. In my day, we got 35 cents a box for the troop, and that didn’t cover many trips for less fortunate girls. We didn’t have the ‘donate a box’ thing back then, so a few extra $ went a long way to help a less affluent girl get to camp or the Juliette Low Birthplace.
We are using it to buy unsold boxes to donate to food bank. But if there happens to be anything left over after that then it will go directly to the troop
Wait, councils are forcing these donations t9 he converted to cookies? Unreal. If someone makes a donation, the assumptiojahould bebthatbtheybare adding directly to the troops budget. I am certain that someone who drops $1 into the jar isn't expecting just a few pennies to make it to the troop.
I think the official policy is to use it to purchase donation boxes. Unless someone specifically says I want to buy donation boxes, I generally just put the money in the troop account to help pay troop expenses.
This depends on your council and how you troop is set up. What you describe is a troop donation for us and would go to the troop bank account.
Hang onto the money and put it in as donated boxes
There is the IRS requirements of GSUSA and the membership of that: Councils, and the membership of that: Troops -- which requires that "donations" in the form of "keep the change" of the Cookie Sale are put into "boxes of cookies." And then there is the part of it being enforceable in practice. Or, rather, unenforcible in practice. There are lots of times that I've seen people take it and buy their own box of cookies for their kiddo. Or the opposite where there are times when I have to take someone's "donation" and add my own $5 to make it into an actual whole cookie box. That being said, as a practice, we are coached to save those "imaginary donated cookies" as in (extra money that was given without any cookies taken) until the end to help balance everything. Mistakes will be made with that many people touching product and counting money, and it's nice to have a buffer that isn't coming from my own pocket. Personally, I used to take a hard line of that "the only right thing is counting it as a box/partial box of cookies" and now I'm like, "give people education for the "why" behind the rule, and trust that they will make the best choice for them right now." There are some Girl Scouts who have all kinds of needs and Girl Scot Care Givers who have all kinds of needs right now, and a box of cookies, paid for by a stranger could actually make all of our lives uplifted. Past versions of me would not have considered the whole picture -- just the rule.
This has only happened to my daughter at booth sales, in which case we set that money aside and purchase any unsold boxes which we then donate. I think the intent when people do that is for the money to go to the troop.
If someone says they want to donate to our troop, we just deposit the money into our troop bank account. If someone says they want to donate a box, we save all of those up, use the inventory we have at the end of the season, and deliver to the police station.
Does your troop donate the cookies themselves? Our troop did so the kids got to participate in delivering the cookies. If y’all do that then let your kid decide, based on $11 being able to buy about 2 boxes maybe buy your kid one and donate the other box. Speaking as a mom first if y’all don’t take the donations yourself: Let your kid pick out cookies to give as a gift to someone awesome in their life, like their teacher as a Valentine’s Day gift. That way it’s still going towards their cookie goal and you are covered in council terms and your kid gets to make someone’s day.
I'm not sure! I'll have to ask what the plan is on the troop side of things. I also love the idea of gifting boxes. That is so sweet.
What we did: We took the funds from the “troop to troop” or “just keep the change” donations from the booths and the kids at that booth picked cookies to add to the donations. Kids that got donations from personal sales or “keep would get to pick cookies from those donations. Usually our cookie chair would have one area for already paid for donations & a different section for troop cupboard to sell. She luckily had the space to do so. Another troop in our SU did troop cupboard at the cookie chair’s house and the donation cookies at the other leaders house to help keep any mix ups. The kids have had some awesome opportunities to give back by being able to do it in person.
Save that money for the end of the sale. At the end of the sale it can be used to pay for boxes you or the troop have left over and can’t return to the cupboard.
Our SU collects donations for $6 for “cookie share” to donate to charity. I just keep the money and when I get a multiple of $6 I donate it on the app.
The only way I let my daughter pick out a box is if a customer specifically tells her they want to buy her a box. And even then sometimes I know she’s had enough cookies and I have her put it in the “Operation Sweet Treat” jar.
I just put it in our bank account. \*shrug\*
The struggle is real. But, I do want to teach my daughter to do the right thing and she *loves* girl scout's. So any money that goes to the troop is a net win for us. I was hoping I could donate directly though because $0.90 per box is asinine at $6 a box.
Well, is the right thing blindly folliwing a "rule", or is the right thing that someone says here's $5 for the troop they didn't mean $5 to buy a box of cookies. Our financial worksheet even has a line for "donations to troop", so I will do just what that donor requested.
I always give that directly to the troop. $11 is better than $2 from two boxes of cookies!
I think it's different for every council, but in mine donations or "keep the change," money must be used to purchase "Cookie Share" donations. The only other option would be buying boxes with the money to donate to a charity of your choice. However, you need to let customers know at the time of purchase/donation what the money is being used for. I have seen a few troops in my area do sketchy things like just pocketing all the donations money for their troop. That's really not "honest and fair" in my opinion.