Amid Unrest and Membership Losses, Girl Scouts Seek High Energy CEO

The next chief executive of Girl Scouts of the USA must be someone with extraordinary business smarts and the ability to generate excitement about the organization and its mission, said board president Kathy Hopinkah Hannan.

Those characteristics will be crucial for an organization suffering from a precipitous membership decline, unrest at the grass-roots level, and financial pressures on multiple fronts.

“We need more volunteers who are motivated to start and lead troops, because they see the value in helping girls unlock their potential,” Ms. Hannan said in an email. “In order to be successful at this, we have to get people excited.”

The new CEO also would benefit from being technologically savvy, because he or she will arrive as the Girl Scouts are adjusting to a new centralized software system that is changing the way the organization operates from top to bottom.

The leadership change comes after Anna Maria Chávez announced in mid-June that she was stepping down as chief executive after four and a half years running the nation’s most recognizable charity dedicated to girls’ leadership. Ms. Hannan declined to state when the board would name a new chief executive but suggested it could be next spring — not long after the inauguration, perhaps, of the nation’s first woman president.

‘Baffled’ by Leadership

Regional council and volunteer troop leaders will be watching the executive search process closely. A few are still seething about the consolidation of regional councils from 312 to 112, and the closure of campsites, among other things. Ms. Chávez was criticized for her management style, with some former employees alleging age discrimination and bullying.

“I am baffled by the leadership we have put in place,” said Suellen Nelles, executive director of the Farthest North Girl Scout Council and vocal critic of the former chief executive. “There is going to be a new CEO. They have got to get it right this time.”

Perhaps best known for its annual $800 million cookie sale that brings green-clad girls knocking on neighbors’ doors and appealing to parents’ colleagues, the Girl Scouts has 2.7 million members — 1.9 million girls and 800,000 adults. In 2000, the nonprofit counted 2.3 million girls as members.

Ms. Hannan and Sylvia Acevedo, who in June was named interim chief executive, declined multiple telephone interview requests from the Chronicle, although they agreed to respond to questions by email.

Ms. Hannan said volunteer troop leaders are the “lifeblood of Girl Scouts.” She did not detail how the organization would get people excited but said that people need to “feel the enormous sense of gratification they will derive from knowing they have helped a young girl to realize her potential.”

Digital Cookie

One of Girl Scouts’ biggest investments as it works to keep itself relevant to the modern girl is a technology overhaul that cuts across the group’s business operations and member programming, Ms. Hannan said. On the business side, Girl Scouts is in the middle of rolling out a new management software system that will host all councils’ websites and email systems. Previously, each council had its own website, and the national office supported about 100 email systems. By the close of the nonprofit’s fiscal year at the end of September, Ms. Hannan said, more than 60 percent of the councils will be on the centralized system.

She also highlighted Digital Cookie, the online sales system the nonprofit introduced in 2015 that lets scouts ditch old-fashioned paper order forms and log sales digitally.

“Perhaps the most representative, programmatic, and foundational change is digitizing our largest and most well-known program — the Cookie program — with Digital Cookie,” Ms. Hannan said. “With close to 90 percent of councils participating last cookie season, Digital Cookie represents a continuing evolution toward one seamless platform and experience for all councils.”

Financial Challenges

Pension obligations and personnel costs will be among the challenges for the next leader. Girl Scouts of the USA currently employs 350 people, compared with 448 a decade ago. Ms. Chávez earned a salary of $419,733, according to the organization’s 2013-14 tax fillings.

When asked about the financial stability of the organization — which had total revenue of $94 million in 2013-14, according to tax fillings — Ms. Acevedo said things are sound.

“The pension is being appropriately managed,” she said. “It’s also important to remember that following the financial collapse of 2008, many nonprofits, businesses, and other organizations have endured similar difficulties, and on the whole, our movement weathered the storm pretty well.”

By the end of the current fiscal year, the organization will have raised $650 million toward a $1 billion goal for its ToGetHerThere fundraising campaign, which kicked off in 2012, the interim chief executive said.

Last year, Girl Scouts saw a 22 percent increase in donations compared to the year before, she said.

“Even more exciting is our planned giving,” Ms. Acevedo said. “Planned giving is flourishing. The number of known planned givers has more than quadrupled in the last four years. The number of major-gift donors at the $25,000 level or higher has increased by 87 percent over the last four years.”

The organization has also created an office to focus on fundraising strategies aimed at Girl Scouts’ 59 million alumnae, according to Ms. Acevedo.

Seeking Feedback

Ms. Hannan said she and her colleagues are soliciting feedback from volunteers and scouts via social media about their next leader. On a July 29 post on the Girl Scouts’ Facebook page, the nonprofit asked its community members, “What would you do if you were the CEO of Girl Scouts?”

In more than 157 comments, volunteers and others involved in the organization suggested reversing the consolidation of councils, stopping the sale of Girl Scout camps, and offering more, and more varied, badges for scouts to earn.

“I am beyond optimistic for the next five years of Girl Scouting,” Ms. Hannan said in an email. “Right now, the world is looking for, and very much needs, courageous leadership in all forms.”