Girl Scouts Approves Membership Fee Hike

Girl Scouts members sell cookies in a file photograph. John Moore/Getty Images

The Girl Scouts of the USA has approved an increase in membership fees after warning that not raising the cost will lead to dramatic cuts in services.

More than 800 delegates from the Girl Scouts’s National Council voted over the weekend to hike the annual fee from $25 to $45. And the cost will increase again in 2026 to $65.

“This investment provides the opportunity to implement initiatives that will have a lasting impact on our Girl Scout councils, volunteers, and the girls and families we serve,” the scouts said in a statement. “We are committed to providing financial assistance to all who need it.”

The council includes both adults and minors as young as 14.

The fee increase is primarily for children. The fee for adults, which is currently $25, will increase to $30.

The Girl Scouts, a nonprofit founded in 1912, has nearly 2 million members, including 1.1 million girls.

The Girl Scouts raked in some $27.3 million from membership fees in 2023, up from $26.7 million in 2022. In its 2023 annual report, the nonprofit reported having around $187 million in net assets.

In a message to members ahead of the National Council meeting, Girl Scouts leaders said that keeping membership fees the same “will require dramatic cuts in services, passing on technology costs to councils, decreasing marketing investments, and delaying enhancements of the systems used daily to serve girls and councils.”

Raising the fee to $45 would enable stabilization but no improvements, while increasing the amount to $65 or more would enable investments in various activities, including marketing, according to an internal presentation.

Leaders also said it would be prudent to increase fees for adults to $45, which did not happen.

The Girl Scouts accepts girls from kindergarten through 12th grade. Some local programs also allow males who identify as female or nonbinary to join.

The yearly fee for the Boy Scouts of America, which also accepts female members, is $85. The fee increased by $5 this year.

Amid soaring inflation, some Girl Scout programs in 2023 hiked the price of cookie boxes to $6, up from $5 per box a year prior. Programs said the increase was approved in part because the costs to the cookie maker were rising.

For every box sold, less than $1 goes to the local troop, $0.37 goes to the seller, and $1.30 goes to the bakery, according to one troop. Other chunks of the $6 go to recruitment, camps, marketing, and services.