Originally published at: Help a Girl Scout troop battle homelessness | Boing Boing
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If you want to support this troop or any other just send them a tax deductible donation. They’ll get all the money that way. Buying cookies gets them AT MOST 85 cents for a $5 box of cookies.
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Welp. Just ordered 4 boxes thinking I was doing good and adding some excitement to a distant day when they arrive on my doorstep. Saw your comment and now I feel less good and will feel even worse after eating all that sugar just to give this troop less than 4 dollars.
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Also, unfortunately, this troop is in the “Little Brownie Bakers” territory, so the cookies are worse, and only one variety is vegan-friendly, so you’re better off just sending them money directly, anyway. It’s better for both you and them.
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Selling cookies does give the girls valuable experience in face to face interaction with strangers, but yes, direct donation is more efficient for all.
Many people dismiss this aspect for fear of feeling cheap. I disagree: it means you can afford to give X% more than you originally calculate.
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Hey now, don’t be down on yourself for decisions made in good faith. You’ve just got more info now so you can make better educated decisions in the future. It’s the scientific method!
I’d guess that if that is their primary goal then they could find better ways to do it. Lord knows my cub scout days of hawking peanuts door-to-door didn’t give me special life skills that I couldn’t get in other ways.
Unfortunately the 2017 tax code changes made tax deductions pointless for most people to the detriment of the non-profit sector funded by them. My feeling is who care’s if you feel cheap? I’m going to donate either way but I’m sure going to take advantage of every edge the government gives me to make my dollars go further.
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Hey Grinch! nothing saying you can’t do both. Easy links from the source article for either option (some cash and some cookies were my choice).
“the troop still aims to surpass last year’s feat of 32,569 boxes sold” Maybe don’t rain on their goals even if you can logic it to shit? The girls I see hawking these always get happy and excited from sales and that has value in and of itself, especially so in these times when so much of the joys they should be experiencing have been lost.
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I don’t know US tax and barely know Canadian tax anymore. But back when I worked in an office with a social atmosphere, we’d fundraise. I’d “buy” the pooled funds, chip in an amount for the tax credit, then claim it all on my return. It was a win/neutral/neutral. Our Canuck dollars went way further that way.
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One time at a used book sale, the Girl Guides were staked out outside selling cookies. Go where there’s a crowd, and maybe easdier than door to door.
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I frequently see Girl Scouts selling cookies outside the grocery store, same area where you see the Salvation Army Santas around Christmas.
I can’t recall the last time a Girl Scout knocked on my door, would have to be decades ago. They usually set up tables at the exits to supermarkets and/or sell through parents. Many a time Mrs. Xtapolapocetl and I have both come home laden with Thin Mints from respective co-workers.
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The money for the cookies gets divided up several ways, so even if most of it doesn’t go directly to the troop it does go to the parent organization and the programs it supports. A big part of the cookie sales is the pride of knowing they’re contributing to a mission larger than themselves. I imagine that could be a valuable experience for girls who are often made to feel like they are some kind of burden on social resources.
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Meh, your money goes somewhere positive; whether it’s this troop or a local one (which I support via a high school friend), it all helps. Plus you can push off cookies you can’t eat (me:diabetes) onto your co-workers and bring joy to them.
If you want to double-down, donate money to your local food bank.
I mean, I’m super cynical, but c’mon. Life has some joy in it.
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But where we can throw bits in to stop the orphan machine, I think is the goal here. I’d suspect that this is a worldwide problem; not just America.
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This particular machine is invisible to many people because it’s so old, and so normal in so many places.
I don’t know a single property owner who made the land under their house. Nobody builds land (rare exceptions aside). To say to some people, “you have exclusive access to acres and acres all over the world” and to others “you cannot even have a 3x3 patch of concrete under an overpass” is a choice. It’s a choice we make every day, and it is one that is absolutely destroying many lives and families.
These girl scouts and their parents are mostly nice people I’m sure. I don’t have an issue with them. I’ve just seen the horror of the system they’re putting a band-aid on.
Edit: I misunderstood part of the story. These kids themselves aren’t just trying to help homeless people, they are homeless themselves. I daresay that makes this story feel even less good.
I own a home now, having once been classified by the US government as “homeless”. There is so much to unpack with your statement that I do not know where to begin.
So I won’t. There is something for which I am looking forward to today, that I can hardly focus on anything else.
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or…
“Girl Scout troop 6000 comprises over 700 girls in 15 locations”
Such a weird verb.
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