Can I Keep Money In Girl Scout Gold Award?

Question

I am working on my Girl Scout Gold Award. Can I myself profit from the event? Or do I need to donate money?

Answer 1

Ask your mentor, but I think you should donate it. To quote the Girl Scout guidelines:

Remember that the focus of the project should be the community beyond the Girl Scout community.

The full guidelines are at:

http://www.girlscoutstotem.org/Young_Adu...

Answer 2

How would your event make money to begin with?  A Gold Award project is meant to be a community service project, not a money maker, so that on its own confounds me.

But the simple answer is no, you cannot keep any money left over after the event is held.  This is true of any money earned during Girl Scouts, from the cookie sale to a troop money earning activity - the money does NEVER goes to an individual girl (some troops keep track of income on paper and assign an amount to a girl based on how much she brought in, so if Suzy brings in $10 in cans during the can drive and June brings in $20, Suzy gets $10 credited toward their troop trip and June gets $20 credited, but neither can get the amount in cash to keep).

There is a whole section on money and finances in regards to the Gold Award in the Gold Award: Go for It guide that you should be referring to while planning your project, hopefully that should help you - and your Gold Advisor - get everything straight.  Some of it is available online at:

http://www.girlscouts.org/program/gs_cen...

And a bit more on the Gold Award steps in general:

http://www.girlscouts.org/program/gs_cen...

Good luck with your project!