Fundraising

Today is Popcorn day - the first day that scouts can sell popcorn in our council. For the next couple weeks, scouts will be looking for new doors on which to knock and new people to help support their scouting habits. It's something I don't especially enjoy but makes it possible for boys to participate in the program.

The familiar theme from my boys is that there are too many scouts out there selling and its too much work for the funds raised. After a little family discussion last night to decide on a quota and set expectations, they are out today working together to see how much per hour they really can make. Our family decided that they would be expected to raise half of the cost of scout trips. So, if they only raise $50, they can go on $100 worth of trips.

It's a beautiful, sunny day and they had already reached 1/5 of their goal by the time they came home for lunch. As long as they can keep getting along, they should be able to finish up by Monday. One scout has historically sold to our church congregation on Sunday, so we don't do that. Two new cub scouts have started down the block, so we don't go down that way. So, they got out the town map and marked off some (hopefully) likely places and are out on their bikes now.

I don't know where you live, but in our town there are 6 troops and 6 packs - most of which sell popcorn and Christmas wreaths at this time. That makes it a challenge to figure out which neighborhoods have been covered, but not oversaturated. If there's just one troop, you can divide the place up, but we don't have cooperation between the different units. Maybe some day. Every year, I'm just sure there's a whole neighborhood someplace where no one sold anything but I've no way to tell.

If you have ideas that work for your pack or troop when selling door-to-door, I'd love to hear from you. And, if you have a really easy, sure-to-be-a-hit way to fund your scouting, please tell me all about it. :-)

Scout On