Local Girl Scout Cookie Program Goes Digital!

Great news! Girl Scouts of Northern Illinois (GSNI) announced today that local girls will now have the ability to switch to an online system to take Girl Scout Cookie orders and turn in their orders to volunteers. No longer will girls rely solely on the familiar cardboard order card!

GSNI is one of just twelve councils in the nation using a digital Girl Scout Cookie Program through an enhanced website called Cookie Club: Next Generation. Every local Girl Scout family can create an account with this password-protected website.

Girls can send specially designed emails asking for orders. Customers place orders by returning an online form that automatically registers in the girl’s account. If a girl takes orders using the traditional order card, she also records those in her account. Parents review orders for accuracy and submit the final online order for Girl Scout Cookies. In keeping with rules set by Girl Scouts of the USA, girls will still deliver the cookies and collect payment in person.

Also in Cookie Club, girls will set goals that inspire them and track their progress as they watch the virtual cookie boxes stack up and become safety certified for using the Internet.

“The Girl Scout Cookie Program teaches girls relevant business and technology skills, and Cookie Club will now play a key role in those leadership lessons,” says Vicki Wright, CEO of GSNI, “Cookie Club is fun for girls, and they can readily see how technology can help them reach high goals.”

The Cookie Club was created by Little Brownie Bakers, one of two bakers licensed by Girl Scouts of the USA. Little Brownie Bakers has been baking Girl Scout Cookies since 1973 and is licensed by Girl Scouts of the USA. Little Brownie Bakers’ mission is to provide cookies and support services of the highest quality to Girl Scout Councils so that the annual Cookie Sale activities will help build a wide range of life skills for girls and generate income for Girl Scout troops and councils.

Girl Scout Cookie orders will be taken from January 2-22, 2012. If not approached by a Girl Scout, interested customers can e-mail cookies4you@girlscoutsni.org, and a cookie order will be passed on to a local Girl Scout. Proceeds from the Girl Scout Cookie Program directly benefit girls in northern Illinois, supporting Girl Scout programs, camp scholarships, volunteer training, membership assistance, and outreach programs. Each troop receives a portion of the proceeds as discretionary funds for troop activities.

In fact, the Girl Scout Cookie Program is one of the few youth-oriented programs in the country providing its participants the ability to decide how to direct the proceeds generated through their business activity.