Financial GROWTH.
Product Sales Growth
Popcorn
Scouting Adventure / Camp Cards
Card Examples
Friends of Scouting
Distinguished Citizen Dinner
Over the past six years, I have led our Friends of Scouting (FOS/Annual Campaign) Campaign. This campaign raises $450,000 annually. The success of this campaign and its events is directly correlated to the strength of our steering committee, relationships with our donors, and our ability to share our story. Each year we have worked to grow our committee to be more reflective of all communities. This has allowed us to expand our donor base and secure new dollars. While renewing and maintaining our donors is important, just like membership, we should always be looking to grow our base. One of my greatest FOS success examples is was getting a volunteer to go from $0 annual gift to $25,000. Now he is the largest donor in the council.
Family Friends of Scouting / 1935 Society
My first year as a DE, I achieved our highest FFOS target in district history of $40,000. My success in FFOS is directly tied to my relationships with units and their leaders. Later, we developed the 1935 Society, a play on the council’s founding year, to encourage monthly giving over multiple years. Families have warmly welcomed this style of giving.
Small Community Events
During my time as a FD, we reduced our staff. As a result, I covered the Catawba District (Chester/Lancaster Counties). We combined two FOS events to form one new event to cover community FOS, FFOS and the district banquet to highlight local Scouting to our community and donors. This combination is now a successful dinner fundraising model for these rural communities.
Scout Shop
For many years the Palmetto Scout Shop was not productive. Unfortunately, their low performance correlated with our lack of proximity to a large majority of our Scouting population. In an extraordinary attempt to save our council store, we provided a mobile scout store to our units during the recruiting season. This created an additional $40,000 in sales in 2019. In 2020 we became a local council store. We started an online bundle ordering option where we received orders by Wednesday and delivered sewn uniform to unit leaders for their upcoming weekly meeting. In 2022, we grossed $45,000 in online uniform bundle sales. Additionally, we have mobile stores at pack meetings and district events. Our shop grosses over $160,000 annually.
Special Events
During my tenure, I have only been directly responsible for one special event. However, I have supported our Development Director or Scout Executive each year. The Palmetto Council has a history of hosting an annual Sporting Clays event. Over the years, we have also hosted Golf Tournaments and Holiday Auctions. This year, we started a new event that we anticipate growing called Flags for Heroes. It was very well received and has great potential to grow in several of our communities with little additional cost going forward. My biggest contributions have been securing teams and committee members for these events. For our Sporting Clays event this year, I helped recruit the chair and commitee.
Camp/Outreach Partnerships
While lossing our camp to a flood in 2018 seemed devastating, it was truley a blessing. In 2020, the Palmetto Council aquired a 4 acre property in Spartanburg. We then started using this property to provide in-school and after school programing. This allows us to program almost daily versus only weekends and summers. It has also allowed us to have outside groups use our facilites. We now raise over $40,000 annually by offering programs to Kids Club (formerly Boys & Girls Club), local schools, colleges, businesses and more!