Girl Scouts have been an American staple for as long as many of us can remember, and so many await the time when they can buy their delicious cookies each year. Though, there has to be things that live underneath the surface away from the public eye. Where does all of that money go?

With each cookie box, and every troop around the nation, annually this phenomenon brings in around 800 million in sales. Jenkaplan from the media site, Medium, reports that as each box costs around five dollars, the troop itself only receives 75 cents, or in other words 15 percent of the profit. Then around one dollar goes to “costs of goods sold.” Some other money goes to the bakeries that made the cookies, while 60 percent of the sales goes directly to Girl Scouts headquarters for “programs and support.” 

The real question narrows down to who the money should go to. While the girls and perhaps their parents do the work of going out and selling the cookies, and coordinating all sorts of minute details needed to go into such a task, undeniably the overarching effort is run by Girl Scouts. 

The money from each box and the 60 percent that it takes with it goes towards learning activities for the girls, and other functions offered by the corporate branch of the Girl Scouts. These little things here and there might seem small from the outside, or in the moment but contribute towards the girls’ lives in the long term. 

According to a story published by Vox, half of all American female entrepreneurs can trace their roots back to the Girl Scouts. Even more, a majority of females elected to Congress were once part of a troop as told by the director of communications, Stewart Goodbody. These statistics take the local Girl Scouts that seem like merely a fun way to get involved in the community around you, and transform them into opportunities that open doors and inspire young women. Additionally girls who are part of a troop can look up at the many women who have their badges too. For example, Queen Elizabeth II, Taylor Swift, Martha Stewart, and Sandra Day O’Connor just to name a few. 

So there it is, which turns out to be more than just cookies and how the money flows from them. Rather, a network of people building up the next generations in order to improve society from the fowl plays of the past.