From: Mike Walton
Bill Pierce wrote:
I would like to send some of our less fortunate webelos to a full week at summer camp. This can be costly and I was wondering if I can ask corporations for contributions towards this end? I know BSA has strict rules about these issues....can someone enlighten me?
It depends, Bill, on whether you feel it's more important to send those five WEBELOS Cub Scouts to camp over a corporation underwriting cutting the cost for five HUNDRED WEBELOS Cub Scouts to go to camp for the same period. I call the "unwritten policy" concerning this the "Don't Bite the Hand that Feeds You" unwritten policy. Here it is in straight American English:
"Units are STRONGLY DISCOURAGED from seeking funding from anyone that your District Executive has access to and whom has the potential of giving more than $1K ($1000) to your Council."
(you will NEVER see those words or anything like it in any print form produced by any local Council. Please don't ask them for a copy of it.)
Note that the words "strongly discouraged" are in caps. There's nothing that says, on paper anyways, that your unit cannot go to 3M in Cynthiana, Kentucky, meet with the Plant Manager and get a $17,000 check from them to go toward your Cub Scout Pack and whatever it is your Pack wants to do with it. Sometimes, those "gifts" fall from the sky and units do receive unsolicited checks in the mail from corporate leaders or their businesses.
In most cases, they saw a Cub Scout for instance, and was moved by their rememberances of the good times they had and the great things they learned that when they got back to their offices or homes, that they write a check and mailed it to "the Cub Scouts" or "the Boy Scouts" in their hometowns.
However, when you accept that check, it is the BUSINESS's frame-of-mind that "I've just given to the Boy Scouts of America", which we can argue the semantics over and over, but it's NOT the same as giving it to the Cardinal Council, Scouting/USA or the Heart of America Council, BSA or the Greater Lowell Council, Boy Scouts of America.
So when the District Executive comes up there, meets with the Plant Manager and talks about his or her "corporate pride in the community", and the Plant Manager gets red in the face and tells the Executive "I've just GIVEN YOU SEVENTEEN THOUSAND DOLLARS....and you're back here asking for MORE?? GIVE ME A BREAK!!!", the Executive gets that knot in his or her stomach...the one that in a lot of cases, stays there until he or she finished the "trail session" with his or her boss, the Field Director later on that day or the next one.
($17 grand in a lot of District's cases, comes alfully close to meeting 100 percent (or more) of their SME/FOS goals....now, can you imagine the meeting between the Field Director and the District Executive?? Can you imagine the meeting between the District Exec and YOU, as the "person going to 3M" and getting such a larger check?)
That "rule" is unwritten, but no matter what local Council you go to, you'll note that nobody gets bent out of shape when a Pack, Troop, Crew or Ship raises a "grand". But let that amount (or the amount in the unit's treasury) get more than that, and everyone working on that important SME/FOS goal starts coming back to you asking "wouldn't you like to help out ALL of the units in the District by your unit donating, say, $1000 to the SME/FOS campaign??"
And don't stop bugging you until you did. Or wished that you did.
In the past, it was not unusual for a unit to have literally hundreds of thousands of dollars in a treasury....to send Scouts and Scouters to National AND World Jamborees, to make sure that every Scout registered get to go to a week of summer camp, and to make sure that every youth and adult leader gets the training and coaching stuff they need.....
In return, Scouts and Scouters literally work their tail feathers off doing everything from washing cars and painting houses to flipping burgers or pancakes. When people started to ask why was everyone working SO HARD toward a week's worth of camping someplace, those Scouts and Scouters cheerfully replied "A Scout pays his own way", while taking a short break or while continuing to work. Companies interested in local community development gave monies directly to units, because they were small then and in a better position to see exactly where their monies went and to which particular unit it went toward. In many cases, it went to the unit that they chartered and had employees leaders within. And the local Council emphasized program instead of its finances.
Today, local Councils still look after their programs carefully, but they also are being evaluated more and more on the amount of money that comes in and goes outward to develop the Council's programming options. Kids today are living differently than those of our past, and Scouting needs to keep up and provide alternatives to negative programming out there. And that kind of programming costs real dollars -- a lot more today than what a typical Council took in the past!! Add to this, the loss of a lot of "neighborhood units" and units chartered to the corporations and industries of our cities and towns, and put in a large dosage of "dontwannabeinvolved", and you get the picture why Councils are very protective about how, when and who raises monies "for Scouting" in their territory areas.
So for your unit to go to 3M (or any corporation) and ask for a donation to support "Scouting in our community", is like taking away your District's ability to together develop some innovative programming for those kids that want Scouting but can't get to it or can't afford it. It's not neccessarily "treading on someone else's turf", but raising significant funding to help everyone is part of the District's "reason for being."
Others will say here that "it IS treading on the DE's turf". It isn't because WE SHOULD be the ones out there asking 3M for a contribution alright, but one toward the District/Division's SME/FOS campaign...and WE, not the District's Executive, should be making "the pitch" and collecting "the check" and sending it to the Council for recordkeeping and deposit. By US "taking back the program", as our predecessors did before we got involved, we give the 3Ms of the nation a FACE to go with the request.
We can tell the Plant Manager SPECIFICIALLY about our unit, and the fact that with your generousity AND with our kid's hard work, not only will those five or so WEBELOS Cub Scouts get to go to camp, but practically ANY OTHER WEBELOS Cub Scout in our District will get to go to camp....because you cared.
And believe me, they will remember your faces and the faces of those from your unit or District a lot longer than they will the face of someone in a suit and tie bringing a plaque and asking for a check in return.
Check with your local Council, Bill, BEFORE you go out there....it could be that the local Council has not "targeted" them for a donation to SME/FOS. Or it could be that they are not interested in giving monies to the BSA but WOULD be interested in giving monies to a specific unit for programming.
Also, Bill, don't forget that you need to complete a "Money-Rasing Permit" application and also remind those going out there that they SHOULD NOT BE in a BSA uniform when asking for or raising funding for the unit.
Settummanque!
Which was followed up by: Jim Miller Sr.
In a message dated 95-12-07, Joe Olivo writes:
As Troop Committee Chairman, any restrictions from my soliciting and accepting donations ($$) from local corporations (i.e., Coca Cola, United Parcel, etc.) that have a major presence in the community?
Based on my reading of the Finance Policy Manual of the BSA, there are no restrictions on this type of activity other than the fact that you must file a "Unit Money-Earning Application" with the local council and recieve approval.
Keep in mind however that we need to see the big picture in these endeavors.
If the local Coca Cola distributor is approached by units for contributions, he/she may give twenty-five or thirty dollers here or there; if he/she is approached by council for a FOS/SME gift, they may give $1000 gift which will provide camperships to needy scouts or may make a major contribution to build a new facility at camp. If they have already given to a number of units @ $25 each, they may use this as an excuse not to give to the council.
I prefer to have local units do "kid oriented" fundraising. That is, carwashes, spagetti suppers, pancake breakfasts, etc. That way we don't bring in the "big guns" (corporate donors) to meet small needs.
Also keep in mind that all unit fundraising is done on behalf of the unit which belongs to the Chartered Organization. Make sure your donor understands that they are giving to Troop 111, not to the Boy Scouts of America. Otherwise they may misunderstand and get annoyed when District or Council approaches them for FOS/SME contributions.
All of the above is MHO, and I am sure that some of you out there will strongly disagree, but remember it's always important to use your resources wisely and not squander major resources to meet minor needs.