Most people who know about the American Girl Scouts know about our cookies, and the outdoor opportunities we offer, but not everyone knows about our commitment to inclusivity. So, when we received a $100,000 donation that came with a caveat to not include transgender girls, we had to refuse it.
Our vision statement for Girl Scouts of Western Washington is that we empower every girl — regardless of her race, ethnicity, socio-economic status, sexual orientation, disability, gender identity or geographic location. We’re an organisation dedicated to helping girls become the best version of themselves, and we do everything we can to help girls overcome barriers to success.
We were overjoyed when we recently received the magical donation of $100,000. The donation was earmarked for financial assistance, so girls who couldn’t otherwise afford to participate would be able to go to camp, pay for a uniform, build a robot, dig up fossils in an archaeology workshop and more.
I say magical because anyone in the non-profit world knows that $100,000 is not the kind of gift that shows up every day. When we received the cheque, our entire office erupted in a chorus of spontaneous cheering. Things were going well for us, but things would be going even better for the 500 girls who would benefit from that money.
Not long after, however, we received a letter from the donor. The letter said the donor had seen a national news story mentioning Girl Scouts’ inclusive stance on welcoming transgender girls. If we guaranteed that the $100,000 gift would not serve transgender girls, we could keep it. Otherwise, we should give it back.
So we gave it back.
It only took about 30 seconds for our chief executive, Megan Ferland, to come to the conclusion that we should return the donation. Thankfully, our board unanimously supported her decision. We could not and would not guarantee such a request.
While it was an easy decision to return the gift, it was heartbreaking to think of the girls that gift would have helped. Last year, we raised more than $350,000 to make sure every girl who needed financial assistance – more than 1,700 girls in all – received the help she needed to fully participate in Girl Scouts. That $100,000 gift was nearly a third of our entire financial assistance budget – a painful loss.
Then, a wonderful Girl Scout colleague of mine, Annie Rose Favreau, suggested crowdfunding as an option. Though we had never done anything like that before, 500 girls needed us to exhaust all our options. So we did.
By the time I awoke on day two of the campaign, we had surpassed $80,000, and my phone was ringing continuously with requests for local, national and international media interviews. #ForEVERYGirl had gone viral.
Did we ever expect to raise $100,000 on our first day? Absolutely not. This was an experimental crowdfunding campaign we didn’t think anyone would notice. We weren’t even sure we’d reach our goal in a month. So far, we have raised more than $310,000 just four days into our campaign. More than 1,500 girls now have the financial support they need to be Girl Scouts, thanks to 6,540 donors who contributed to #ForEVERYGirl. To see all of these donations from our community, our country and the rest of the world is unlike anything we could have imagined.
For more news, opinions and ideas about the voluntary sector, join our community.
