Who Pays for Scouting?

    Youth Members, from personal savings and participating in money-earning projects, buy uniforms, handbooks, personal equipment, camp fees, and special program costs.
    Their Units, through membership dues and special money-earning projects, purchase camping equipment, pay for registration fees and Boys' Life magazine subscriptions, buy advancement  insignias, and pay for special events and program materials.
    The Charter Partners, through their budgets, provide meeting rooms, lights and air
conditioning for the units.

     The East Texas Area Council's revenue sources include 11 United Ways and United Funds, as well as trust funds, our Friends of Scouting campaign, project sales, special events, and bequests. We use this money to serve existing units, organize additional units, train leaders, maintain and operate the George W Pirtle Scout Reservation, maintain and operate the Arthur Squyres Council Service  Center where we maintain records and information, operate a retail store, and provide professional staff supervision of the program over a 17-county area.
      The National Council, Boy Scouts of America, receives its revenue through members' registration fees, magazine subscriptions and ads, supply division uniform and equipment sales, grants, and  national service fees. With this funding, it is able to provide local council assistance, program research and development, program materials, professional training, communications, and local council insurance and benefits.

Friends of Scouting -- Supporting Council Operations

       Our many, many friends -- corporations, small businesses, and individuals -- provide a significant source of operating income for the Council. We conduct our Friends of Scouting fundraising campaign each spring and are as grateful for every gift we receive as we are for those who conduct the campaign and those who support it.

       During 2007, these Friends will provide up to 36% of our total operating support.

Matching Gifts

     Many companies, including some surprisingly small firms, have decided to dedicate a certain amount of their charitable budget to match their giving with their employees' interests, and giving. They are thus ensuring that their employees' interests are the companies' interests.
     This matching support may be directed through a related foundation or directly through the   company. It may also be related to actual volunteer hours worked or only related to a request for  support submitted by the employee. Some support only higher education, others put other limits on how the support may be used. In almost all cases, these gifts may only be made to BSA or the local Council.
      Please contact the Human Resources/Personnel department of your company for assistance.

Endowment

     An Endowment is a cash fund where the interest earned can be used for general or special         purposes. Funds remain in East Texas and are used for our youth.
     Donors can make a current gift or a deferred gift representing the ultimate expression of their  feelings about Scouting and what it does for our youth. You can designate how your gift is to be used and what programs are to benefit.
     The objective is to provide resources to help our youth build good character, receive citizenship training, and become mentally and personally fit.

James E West Program

   The James E. West Fellowship Award is a national recognition for individuals who contribute $1,000 or more in cash or securities to their local council endowment trust fund. This contribution is in addition to, and does not diminish or replace, the donor's annual gift to the council's Friends of Scouting Campaign.
     Organizations or individuals may contribute an award in honor of someone - an Eagle Scout, a Silver Beaver recipient, council president, or district chairman, or in memory of a departed loved one, business associate, or special Scouter.
     
  The James E. West Fellowship Award is an attractive 8-by-10-inch certificate, personalized with the donor's name, date of gift, and council name. In addition, there will be a distinctive lapel pin/charm and an embroidered square knot for uniform wear. While it is a national recognition, the James E. West Fellowship Award is authorized and presented by the local council. Appropriate national      recognition will be given at a special reception held in conjunction with the National Council Annual Meeting.
     
   The award is named after the first Chief Scout Executive of the Boy Scouts of America who          exemplified Ralph Waldo Emerson's observation that "an institution is the lengthened shadow of one man." Scouting today is the "lengthened shadow" of more than three decades of the farseeing and dedicated leadership of Dr. James E. West.
               
     Those who are recognized by the James E. West Fellowship Award will cast their own "lengthened shadow" as they help ensure the Scouting legacy for future generations of young people and create the financial stability of the program in the twenty-first century for the East Texas Area Council.