Girl Scouts Financial Analysis

For the purposes of this assignment, I have performed a financial analysis on the Girl Scouts of the United States of America (GSUSA). Because GSUSA is a very large and well known organization, I knew they would follow best practices for nonprofits on transparency and have all of their financial information easily accessible for my review. Although I have searched financial information from years prior to 2016 to corroborate noticeable trends, for the most part, the following analysis is focused on 2017 and 2016, which was reported using Generally Accepted Accounting Principles and granted an unqualified opinion by the reporting independent auditor. Significant changes between those two years included an increase in net assets, increase in

The GSUSA is a nonprofit organization that acts as the headquarters for all local Girl Scouts Councils throughout the United States, with the mission statement, “Girl Scouting builds girls of courage, confidence, and character, who make the world a better place.” GSUSA is part of a worldwide scouting organization with a hierarchical structure. For clarification, the following chart shows GSUSA’s placement among the work of Girl Scouting.

GSUSA classifies their program services into four key categories: (1) service delivery to local councils, (2) program development and volunteer learning/training, (3) marketing and communications, and (4) international services. According to GSUSA’s Consolidated Statement of Functional Expenses, all of these program services account for $87,016,000, with $31,816,000 going to service delivery to local councils, $36,536,000 going to program development and volunteer learning/training, $16,353,000 going to marketing and communications, and $2,311,000 going to international services. Meanwhile, the rest of GSUSA’s functional expenses fall under supporting services, which account for $12,776,000, with $3,715,000 going to fundraising and $9,061,000 going to management and

The rest of the operating revenues come from royalty income ($8,559,000), gift, grants, and bequests ($15,459,000), training/meeting revenue ($4,711,000), investment income allocation ($6,125,000), software maintenance ($4,672,000), and other