BSA News {News for Scouts}

Boy Scout Troops 718 and 799 of Thousand Oaks, California are hosting a Monopoly Tournament to raise funds. The goal of the first annual tournament is to benefit the Ventura County Council's Endowment Fund and to create a Scholarship Fund for Disadvantaged Scouts. This scholarship fund will be used to help supplement the costs of Scouting for those in need. Visit the BSA Monopoly Tournament website for details.

I think that this fund raiser serves as a real example of the type of creative and innovative fund raising that is necessary to be successful. I can remember back to the early 90's when my troop (Troop 354) first started selling fruit. At that time, no one in the area was really doing it and we were really making a solid profit. My father and I didn't pay for week camp for a number of years because we (mainly my father) had sold enough fruit to cover our costs. A few hurricanes and the growing popularity of this fund raiser (and thus competition among non-profits) caused our profits to decrease. While we still do the fruit sale for our loyal customers, we are at the point where we need a new idea for raising troop funds; perhaps an east coast monopoly tournament might be it.