Volunteer Essentials 2014-15 | Page 83

Product sales are a great way to earn the funds necessary for girls to travel or carry out Take Action projects. If income from the product sale isn’t enough, however, girls have more options available to them. Although you cannot resell products, you can offer services, such as the following: Collections/Drives:    Cell phones for refurbishment Used ink cartridges turned in for money Christmas tree recycling Food/Meal Events:   Lunch box auction (prepared lunch or meal auctioned off) Themed meals, like high tea, Indian meal, Mexican dinner (if girls are earning money for travel, tie the meal to their destination) Service(s):     Service-a-thon (people sponsor a girl doing service; funds go to support trip) Babysitting for holiday (New Year’s Eve) or council events Raking leaves, weeding, cutting grass, shoveling snow, walking pets Cooking class or other specialty class Refer to the Appendix: GSWPA Procedures/Forms for the following:   Additional Money-Earning Activities Procedure-page 182 o Food safety requirements are located in this procedure Additional Money-Earning Request Form-page 185 Girl Scouting is meant to be a low cost activity for all girls who participate. Girl Scout troops are a valuable resource and are meant to be a help and benefit to their communities. As such, please be mindful of your requests to local businesses and organizations. Often times, we repeatedly ask the same businesses to donate resulting in an over saturation of requests which often times can lead to declines of these requests. Be sure when contacting local business you determine their capacity to make an in-kind donation first before sending a request. Please remember that because Girl Scouts and Girl Scout troops are not a 501C3 charity, they cannot request cash donations/gifts or grants of any monetary value. Because of this circumstance, GSWPA cannot provide acknowledgment of any direct donations to troops other than those required by the IRS for unsolicited cash donations above $250. If you have any questions about donations please contact our Fund Development department at 1-800-248-3355 ext. 1008. Refer to the Appendix: GSWPA Procedures/Forms for the following:  Donations to Troops/Groups Exceeding $250 Procedure-page 186 79