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Did you know that the Girl Scout Cookie Program is the largest girl-led business in the country, with sales of over seven-hundred million dollars per year for girls and their communities nationwide? That’s right. The Girl Scout Cookie sale is the leading entrepreneurial program for girls: No university has produced as many female business owners as the Girl Scout Cookie Program has. If you have a moment, watch the latest Girl Scout What Can a Cookie Do? video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Wy31SsNPv4 for an inspiring look into just how powerful those treats—and the girls who sell them—can be.

Girl Scout cookies and other council-sponsored products are an integral part of the Girl Scout Leadership Experience. With every season of cookies, another generation of girls learns five important skills:

Goal setting
Decision making
Money management
People skills
Business ethics

And most of all, girls gain a tremendous amount of confidence. It’s not easy to ask people to buy something--you have to speak up, look them in the eye, and believe in what you’re doing—all skills that help a girl succeed now and throughout the rest of her life.

A Sweet Tradition

It has been more than 90 years since Girl Scouts began selling home-baked cookies to raise money. The idea was so popular that, in 1936, Girl Scouts enlisted bakers to handle the growing demand. Two commercial bakers are currently licensed by Girl Scouts of the USA to produce Girl Scout Cookies—Little Brownie Bakers and ABC/Interbake Foods—and each council selects the baker of its choice. Each baker gets to name its own cookies (which is why some cookies have two names) and gets to decide which flavors it will offer in a given year, besides the three mandatory flavors (Thin Mints, Do-Si-Dos®/Peanut Butter Sandwich, and Trefoils/Shortbread). For additional information on cookie varieties, including nutritional details, visit www.girscoutscookies.org.

Fall Product Sale: GS-TOP offers nuts and candy items and magazine subscriptions in the Fall Product Sale. The Fall Product Sale is a “Friends and Family” sale. Girls may offer products to friends, immediate neighbors, family members and other close acquaintances. There may not be any booth sales or door-to-door selling, or any advertising or promotion of this sale.

Product Sales: Financial Literary and the Girl Scout Leadership Experience

Selling Girl Scout Cookies and other products (which may include nuts, candies, and magazines) give girls a chance to run a business and practice leadership skills they can use in their lives. Girls will enjoy all the benefits this important component of the Girl Scout Leadership Experience has to offer: They’ll engage in planning and goal-setting (aiming to achieve their personal best), teamwork, marketing, money management (including the importance of saving for future needs), and the enduring skill of customer service. As girls grow, they will get to know their products (ingredients and calories, for example) and they design innovative and creative marketing strategies and tools. Girls will also be encouraged to share with customers how product sales help their council and their community. Volunteers can help girls develop leadership skills while they engage in Girl Scout Cookie activities by using the Girl Scout processes of girl-led, learning by doing, and cooperative learning. And as they participate in product sales, girls will:

• Discover a strong sense of self and gain practical life skills when they create personal goals, deliver presentations, and find ways to customize a marketing plan. A girl can discover a lot about herself and her values as she makes decisions about money-earning, customer-management, and so on.

• Connect with their group members as they set group goals and develop a list of positions related to cookie activities such as accounting manager, event planner, public relations specialist, and graphic designer. Girls can learn about their communities as they meet families, mentors, and business owners who have worked in these roles. Girls can also use the Girl Scout Cookie Program as an opportunity to talk to customers about ways to improve the community or to solicit ideas for a local take-action idea bank.

• Take action as they learn to map neighborhood businesses and other resources that can help them consider community service needs. Girls use product-sale money to make a difference in their communities, whether through a take-action project or a philanthropic donation. And don’t forget: money that goes to the council from product sales allows councils to take action by serving all Girl Scouts.

Determining Who Can Participate

All girl members (including Daisies who take part in any number of ways - travel, camp, series, events, or troop), are eligible to participate in council-sponsored product sales activities, under volunteer supervision. GS-TOP provides learning opportunities on the procedures to follow during each sale. GS-TOP also establishes guidelines and procedures for conducting the sale and determines how the proceeds and recognition system will be managed.

Knowing Where Proceeds Go

GS-TOP will provide a breakdown of “how the cookie crumbles” in The Cookie Jar and the council website at www.gs-top.org. Share this information with girls and their parents/guardians. Proceeds resulting from product sales support program activities—in fact, council-sponsored product sales are a primary way in which GS-TOP funds itself. The percentage of money to be allocated to participating groups (like yours) is determined and explained to girls and adults as part of the product sale activity orientation.

The income from product sales does not become the property of individual girl members. Girls, however, may be eligible for recognitions and Cookie Bucks that they put toward Girl Scout activities, such as camp, the purchase of merchandise at the Girl Scout Shops, and many GS-TOP sponsored individual girl events. Cookie Bucks may be applied toward many fees for GS-TOP council-sponsored activities that have individual girl registration and occur between April and December. This may include Resident and Day/Twilight camp fees, Summer Extreme and Council or Regional events where the registration is handled by the GS-TOP office.

Girls may earn official Girl Scout grade-appropriate awards related to product sale activities and the achievement of each girl is celebrated through recognition items which may include patches, sales awards and Cookie Bucks. The council plan for recognition applies equally to all girls participating in the product sale activity. Whenever possible, we try to involve girls in the selection of recognitions and administration of money given to girls from product sales.

Click here for some Cookie Bucks FAQs.

Using Online Resources to Market Cookies and Other Products

Girls are texting, calling, emailing, Tweeting, and Facebooking—and those are all effective ways that girls 13 and older can promote cookie and other product sales. The following sections detail how girls can use electronic marketing, social networking, and group websites to gather sale commitments from family, friends, and previous customers. But first, please keep in mind that girls:

• Can market to and collect indications of interest from customers within their councils’ zip codes. Refer prospects that come from outside council jurisdiction to the council finder at www.girlscoutcookies.org. Family members are the exception to this rule.

• Cannot have customers pay online (such as through a shopping cart function on a website the girls create). Girl Scout magazine sales are the exception to this rule.

• Must sign the Girl Scout Internet Safety Pledge (available at www.gsusa.org) before doing any online activities, and all online activities must be under the supervision of adults.

• Cannot expose a girl’s email address, physical address, or phone number to the public. When writing email messages or online announcements, girls should sign with their first name only, along with their group number or name and their council name.

For girls in fifth grade and above, have your group visit lmk.girlscouts.org, a site addressing Internet safety for teens and tweens. Girls can even earn an online award for completing activities on this site!

Daisies: Stay Especially Safe!

Girl Scout Daisies are too young to be marketing online through their group, parent or guardian websites, or social networking sites. For this reason, Girl Scout Daisies are allowed to send out emails only when working directly with an adult. Daisies and their adult volunteers use only blind emails or the online marketing tools provided by GSUSA product vendors on their websites.

Contacting Prospects Electronically

Girls may use phone calls, text messages, IMs, and emails as online marketing tools to let family, friends, and former customers know about the sale and collect indications of interest. Product-related email is not intended to be spam (unwanted texts or emails), however, so remind girls to be sure that their messages will be welcomed by the receiver.

When girls are marketing cookies online, remind them to always use a group email address (such as troop457@yahoo.com), an adult’s personal email address, or a blind address (one that does not reveal the address to the recipient). In addition, be sure to discuss with girls the need to treat customer email addresses from current and past years—as well as phone numbers, IM addresses, Facebook accounts, and mail addresses—with respect; they are private and must be kept so.

Using Social Networks

A girl (or group of girls) over the age of 13 may work in partnership with an adult to market cookies and other products online, using a social networking site (such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, or LinkedIn) of the adult. Social networking sites are fun, fast ways to get out an urgent message, such as, “It’s Girl Scout Cookie time!” Posting or tweeting such a message will get the attention of friends and family.

Before girls use social networks as a marketing tool, keep the following in mind:

• Girls must have parental permission to use social networks.

• Girls must meet age limits set by the provider, which is 13 and above in most cases, as per the United States Child Online Privacy and Protection Act and the Child Online Protection Act.

• Any use of photos requires a photo-release form signed by parents/guardians of the girls pictured and the signature of any adults pictured.

• Any use of online video sharing sites (such as YouTube), where the video is representing Girl Scouts or Girl Scout products, must follow specific requirements for that site, as well as council guidelines. Girl Scout photo release forms must also be signed by parents/guardians and any adults pictured. (In other words, this is not an easy venture, but if you and the girls are willing, it’s worth the investment.)

Setting Up a Group Website

Groups whose girls meet age criteria (13 years or older) and have parental permission may set up a group website or social networking site. This site must be approved by the council prior to publication. Developing a website can be a fantastic way for girls to learn, share information, market Girl Scout products, and talk about their take-action projects.

Before you and the girls design a website, remember that the web is an open forum for anyone, including potential predators. Documented instances of cyberstalkers make it imperative that any information that could jeopardize the safety and security of girls and adults is not disclosed on a website. To ensure the girls’ safety:

Use girls’ first names only.
Never post girls’ addresses, phone numbers, or email addresses.
Never, ever, ever post addresses of group meeting places or dates and times of meetings, events, or trips. (An adult volunteer who wishes to communicate upcoming events with families of girls should use email instead of posting details on a website, unless that site is password protected.)
Always have a parent’s or guardian’s signature on a photo release form before using pictures of girls on a website.
Make yours a site that does not allow outsiders to post messages to the site, or make sure all postings (such as message boards or guest books) have adult oversight and are screened prior to posting live.
Don’t violate copyright law by using designs, text from magazines or books, poetry, music, lyrics, videos, graphics, or trademarked symbols without specific permission from the copyright or trademark holder (and, generally, this permission is pretty tough to get!).
The council has information and tools to help you support Girl Scout trademarks (such as the trefoil shape, logo, Girl Scout pins, and badges and patches).
There are specific guidelines that must be followed for their use. (The Girl Scout trefoil, for example, may not be animated or used as wallpaper for a website.) Check with GS-TOP’s website for complete graphics guidelines and approvals and call the Public Relations department for more information.

Safely Selling Girl Scout Cookies and Other Products

A few other considerations will help keep girls safe:

Volunteers and Girl Scout council staff do not sell cookies and other products; girls sell them.
Parents and guardians must grant permission for girls to participate and are informed about the girls’ whereabouts when they are engaged in product sale activities. Specific permission must be obtained when a girl intends to use the internet for product marketing. A parent, guardian, or other adult must know each girl’s whereabouts when she is engaged in product sales, and if and when she is involved on the Internet.
Girl should be identifiable as Girl Scouts by wearing a membership pin, official uniform, tunic, sash or vest, or other Girl Scout clothing.
Adult volunteers must monitor, supervise, and guide the sale activities of all age levels.
Girl Scout Daisies (in kindergarten and first grade) may be involved in council-sponsored product sale activities, but they cannot collect money in any other way except through group dues or parental contributions.
Girl Scout Daisies, Brownies, and Juniors must be accompanied by an adult at all times. Girl Scout Cadettes, Seniors, and Ambassadors who participate in door-to-door sales must be supervised by (but do not need to be directly accompanied by) an adult. Girls of all grade levels must always use the buddy system.
Money due for sold products is collected when the products are delivered to the customer (or as directed by GS-TOP). Girls will need to know whether they can accept checks and to whom customers should write checks—find out from GS-TOP staff.
Personal customer information should remain private. Customer credit-card information should not be collected by girls and should not be asked for on any form collected by girls.
Girls can participate in no more than two council-sponsored product sale activities each year, and only one of these may be a cookie sale.
A girl’s physical address, social networking page address, IM name, Skype name or number, or cell number should never be revealed to anyone outside her immediate circle of family and friends. You’ve heard it before, but it bears repeating!
Girls can market cookies and other products by sending e-mails to friends, family members, and former customers, as long as they use a group email address, the address of a parent/guardian or adult volunteer, a blind email address (in which the recipients cannot see the sender’s email address), or the online email tools provided by cookie vendors. Girls 13 and older can also use a parent’s/guardian’s or adult volunteer’s social networking site (such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and LinkedIn) to do the same.
Sales may not be transacted on the Internet (for example, through a site that has an electronic shopping cart), except for magazine sales. Girls can, however, receive order commitments for cookies sales via email or the Internet. In other words, potential customers can relay (via email or a Facebook post, for example) that, “Yes! I’d like four boxes of Thin Mints and three boxes of Shortbread cookies.”
Before beginning any cookies or other product sales with your group, refer to the cookies section of Girl Scout Central at www.girlscouts.org/program/gs_cookies and www.girlscoutcookies.org.

Position Statement on Product Sales Programs

Click here for the Position Satement

NOTE: This statement is designed to communicate consistent messages and to give guidance to the management of product sales programs. This statement is not a replacement for Girl Scouts of the USA and Girl Scouts of Texas Oklahoma Plains policies.