The Importance of Friends of Scouting (FOS) Donations
When the Boy Scouts of America first started chartering local councils, the BSA left it to each council to secure its own local funding. This historic 110 year-old arrangement permits BSA to have exceptionally low national membership fees for youth and adults, by prohibiting councils from "surtaxing" members with local member fees, and instead directing all Scouting supporters to make voluntary donations to support the local programs.
So the quality and quantity of local Scouting services and programs is directly dependent on Friends of Scouting donations and the other forms of voluntary support that BSA members, friends, businesses, and organizations provide. Your Friends of Scouting donation, along with others, makes up the largest source of annual income for local Scouting.
Friends of Scouting donations support (and subsidize) all volunteer training courses, Scouting activities and camps, membership efforts, leader meetings, the council service center, the BSA Scout Shop, insurance coverage for volunteers and chartered organizations, and numerous essential services to BSA units and their leaders.
You can be sure that your fellow volunteers and small but dedicated staff budget carefully for all annual income and expenses. With your support, Redwood Empire Council can continue to serve over 1,200 youth and 700 adult volunteers, and reach out continuously to recruit additional youth, families, and volunteers.
he Redwood Empire Council conducts a Friends of Scouting (FOS) campaign to raise unrestricted operating dollars to cover, in part, the annual expenses involved in the operations of our council. We have known for years that there are individuals, businesses, corporations, and trusts that desire to create and maintain a connection with the council through the giving of financial resources to Scouting. The unrestricted financial gifts are given with the understanding that the council will use these dollars as needed to ensure the continuation of a quality Scouting program for the youth of our area.
The dollars raised through the FOS Campaign allow us to...keep activity costs to a minimum, operate a Service Center to support our youth and leaders, and provide trained professional field staff who work directly with our Scout and District leaders.