November 13, 2011 | Read Time: 3 minutes
Girl Scouts of the USA is one of the most successful charities in the nation. But as Kathy Cloninger, the chief executive who is retiring this month, writes in a new book, Tough Cookies: Leadership Lessons From 100 Years of the Girl Scouts, the organization has had to struggle to prove its relevance in the last decade. In an interview with The Chronicle, Ms. Cloninger discusses how the group is overcoming the problem and its plans for a $1-billion fund-raising drive.
Why did you write this book?
I want more awareness for the issues we have in this country due to a gender imbalance in leadership. When we look at any industry in the U.S., from government to finance and media, less than 20 percent, and often much less, of the top leaders are women.
Why is Girl Scouts still relevant?
Even though a lot of people say we’re kind of done with single sex—there are fewer and fewer single-sex spaces for girls or boys—there is still compelling data that says when women have some of their social time in an all-girl setting, it is very empowering and gives girls a chance and a safe environment to try stuff out that they would not do in front of boys. We don’t advocate at all that the entire world should be single sex, we just believe that there is a huge need for some of girls’ growth and development time to be in a single-sex environment.
How has the organization moved beyond its primary image of girls selling cookies?
We’re the largest organization for girls in the country; we have about 3 million girls and a million volunteers, so the brand has been very successful. Where we fall short is that we’ve not been able to convey the real story of who Girl Scouts are, so we still get associated with the cookie sale, which we believe is the strongest entrepreneurial and business-skills training program for girls in America. But people don’t think about it that way. So we’ve not done a good enough job describing what the brand really is, but we have huge brand recognition.
What progress has the organization made so far toward an overhaul?
Through the nationwide merger of our local affiliates, we went from 315 to 112. We wanted to create stronger, more regional entities, each of them with a CEO and chief funding and marketing officers. So now that we’ve put that in place, we are just on the brink of the launch of our first unified campaign for girls in which every single local affiliate and the national organization will be joined together in a case for girls. We’re launching a 100th-anniversary campaign with a very high number goal. We’re looking at a billion dollars for girls, and that would be over a five-year period. There’s not ever been in the U.S. a campaign of that size for girls specifically, and certainly it is charting new territory for Girl Scouts of the USA.
You’re critical of grant makers for not working more for the cause of women and girls. Why?
There’s an avoidance in recognizing that girls are not doing well either in the U.S. or internationally. Women are still stalling in terms of economic success and top leadership. I think foundations and corporate donors and individual philanthropists have to ask, Why is that a problem? Men leading alone are not doing so well. They need to get better educated about the issues facing girls and the impact of not paying attention to girls.
