Last month, Girl Scouts of the USA announced that its annual membership dues will jump from $25 per year to $65 by 2027.
News of the potential increase was distributed to voting delegates ahead of the virtual National Council session. General news outlets were not alerted until the week of the session.
The announcement came following the first virtual meeting of the National Council, the Girl Scout governing body. Delegates discussed a proposal to raise national dues to $85, the current cost of Boy Scout membership. After debate, the Girl Scout delegates compromised at $65. Adults will pay $30, beginning in 2026.
That when the alarm bells went off.
Fox Business emphasized that $85 would be a 240 percent leap.
Girl Scout fees could soon triple in price. Members say the eye-popping number is out of reach for many families.
Vanessa Yurkevich, CNN
How will the new price affect the Girl Scout movement?
GSUSA–They Asked Us
The fact of GSUSA working through the democratic process in 2024 should not be minimized.
The last dues increase came in 2016, when the national board of directors voted to go from $15 to $25 per year.
Prior to 2016, all increases were authorized by delegates to the National Council, the national governing body that meets every three years (National Council Session/convention) and elects the board.
The GSUSA board’s unilateral move led one council, Farthest North in Alaska, to file a lawsuit that would invalidate the increase. The case was settled in 2021 and the terms are confidential. National dues remained $25 until the current change.
The ABCs of Dues
Girl Scout annual membership dues come in three flavors:
- National dues (now $25) pay for program development, administration, insurance, properties–anything that affects all councils. CNN Business, reports that membership dues are the Girl Scout’s largest source of revenue, generating $38 million in 2023 from its nearly 2 million total members.
- Council dues or “Service Fees” were approved at the 2011 National Council. They are also used on program development, staff, etc. but are confined to the council boundary. They are optional and cannot exceed the current National dues amount.
- Troop dues, not surprisingly, stay within troops. Troop members vote on the cost and use the money for badges, supplies, and field trips.
Membership fees are not the sole sources of income. GSUSA receives funds for uniforms, handbooks, and badge sales, as well as product licensing. Both GSUSA and councils have funds from grants, endowments, events, and private donations. Councils and troops have cookie revenue, too.
Girl Scout Dues over Time
GSUSA has raised dues in the past, each and every time provoking objections, nasty-grams, and much pearl clasping.
Dues were first set at 25 cents in 1915. Founder Juliette Gordon Low could no longer run the growing movement out of her often overdrawn bank accounts. Outrage ensued when dues DOUBLED to 50 cents in 1922. That was still a bargain–Camp Fire charged $1 per year.
GSUSA almost apologized when dues DOUBLED (from $1 to $2) in 1971. A two-page feature, “The Story of Membership Dues–Revisited,” in the December 1970 issue of Leader magazine:
Boy Scout Dues over Time
I’d made my own Girl Scout dues chart for another project, so I added Boy Scout data on top of it.
Dues for both organizations remained consistently low and level for over a century.
The huge jump with the Boy Scouts began in 2017, when annual membership dues jumped from $25 to $33. Subsequent raises came in 2020 ($33 to $60), then to $66 one year later. Dues rose to $72 in 2021, then $85 earlier this year. (See detailed report on these matters by an economist.)
The popular Aaron on Scouting blog compiled a list of other popular after-school activities ahead of the 2017 increase. Boy Scouts look like a bargain in comparison:
In part to grow the number of members paying annual dues, in 2017-2018 girls were invited to join Cub Scouts. Boys and girls would be in separate troops, however.
The Boy Scouts needed the sudden dues increases for three reasons:
- General Liability Insurance costs to protect volunteer leaders, staff, charter organizations, units, and youth.
- Scouting America restructuring costs.
- Enhanced Criminal Background check processes and investments in youth protection and safety programs.
The Boys Scouts filed for bankruptcy protection in February 2020, due to costs associated with some 80,000 claims for sexual abuse by adult Boy Scouts.
Because We’re Worth It.
To all who insist that parents won’t pay $65 for Girl Scouts, consider how many are already paying $20 more to enroll their children in Boy Scouts.
Remember also that the new $65 Girl Scout fee is only 76 percent of the Boy Scout dues.
Women still face a wage gap with men, earning only 84 cents for each male worker’s $1.
We can’t close the wage gap until families close the investment gap.
We must invest in girls today to have strong, confident, and brave women in the future.
Everything costs, including empowering girls. But Girl Scouts should not be the discount option for girls.
We want parents to sign their daughters up for Girl Scouts because the program is the best for girls–not the cheapest.
© 2026 Ann Robertson, writer, editor, Girl Scout historian, but NOT a Girl Scout employee.
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