Eagle Scout project fundraising auctions

An Eagle Scout service project fundraiser is not unit fundraising, and the most common avoidable error a unit makes is treating it as though it were. The funds are raised for a project that benefits a specific beneficiary organization, and they are restricted to it.

As everywhere in Scouting, the specifics vary and change. Work from your council's current guidance and the current project workbook rather than from what a previous Scout did.

Separate approval

Project fundraising typically requires its own approval, distinct from the unit's money-earning approval, and often has its own form and its own questions — including who the beneficiary is and what happens to funds that are not spent. Start it early; it sits on the critical path with everything else in the project timeline.

The unit-level process: the council approval process.

Separate accounting, always

Do not run project funds through the unit account, do not mix them with a unit auction, and do not credit them to a Scout account. If a unit auction and a project auction are both happening, they are two auctions with two goals, two descriptions and two sets of books.

The reason is simple: a donor to an Eagle project gave to that project, and the funds are restricted to it. Everything else follows from that.

Leftover funds

This is the rule that catches units out. Funds raised for a project and not spent on it generally do not belong to the Scout or the unit, and there is usually a defined answer about where they go — commonly the beneficiary organization. Find out what your council's guidance says before you set the goal, and say so on the auction page.

Saying it up front also helps the fundraiser. A donor told in advance that any surplus goes to the beneficiary is being told the project is well run.

Running the auction

Name the project and the beneficiary. Publish the materials cost from the project plan. Describe what the project will produce, with a photograph of the site or a drawing. Then, when it is built, post the photograph of the finished thing and thank every donor by name.

On promotion: this is a Scout's project and a Scout is a minor. Youth protection and media guidance applies to how the Scout appears in the fundraiser exactly as it applies anywhere else. See youth protection and auction rules.

What to auction

Community goods and services, family donations, and skilled work by adults. Be careful with items requiring the Scout's own labour: the project itself is the Scout's leadership work, and adding auctioned labour on top can complicate both the timeline and the supervision picture.