The Girl Scouts of the USA will increase its membership prices by 160% over the next two years, CNN reported. Dues will remain at $25 for 2025 and then rise to $45 for the 2026 membership year. They will increase to $65 in 2027. The recent hikes were approved Saturday by the organization’s National Council Session after delegates rejected an initial proposal to increase dues to $85 a year.
“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,” Girl Scouts said on its website. “We are committed to providing financial assistance to all who need it.”
The higher membership fees will help the organization “make programs easier to deliver for volunteers and make technology easier to use… more turnkey trainings, recruitment tools and programs, and create new experiences, including opportunities to explore new places,” Bonnie Barczykowski, Girl Scouts of the USA CEO, said in a previous video addressed to members. Girl Scouts said keeping its current $25 membership dues would require “dramatic cuts in services, passing technology costs on to councils, decreasing marketing investments, and delaying enhancements of the systems used daily to serve girls and councils.”
Girl Scouts’ major source of revenue is its membership dues, which generated about $38 million last year. The recent hikes also come a year after the organization increased the prices of its most popular cookies by approximately 20%.
“Each of our 111 Girl Scout councils sets local Girl Scout Cookie prices based on several factors,” a spokesperson for Girl Scouts told CBS MoneyWatch in an email last September. “In some instances, councils are faced with the tough decision to raise the prices, though prices have remained steady in many areas for a number of years.”
