Girl Scouts Return $100K To Transphobic Donor, Then Raise $124K In One Day On Indiegogo
(CBS SF) -- Girls Scouts celebrating a $100,000 donation to send 500 girls to camp quickly turned bitter after learning it came with a catch: it could not be used to support transgender girls.
According to the Seattle Met, the Girls Scouts of Washington returned the money after getting this note from the donor in May:
"Please guarantee that our gift will not be used to support transgender girls. If you can't, please return the money."
On Monday, the troop launched an Indiegogo fundraiser called #ForEVERYGirl, asking the public to "help us raise back the $100,000 a donor asked us to return because we welcome transgender girls."
The campaign spread like wildfire. In one day, the troop received nearly $125,000 from over 2,500 people.
"THANK YOU for sending the loud and clear message that Girl Scouts is for EVERY girl!!" the troop wrote on their fundraiser page."With that support girls can join a troop, go to camp and participate in a multitude of other life-changing Girl Scout experiences even though their families can't afford to pay for them."
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Girls Scouts USA Chief Girl Expert Andrea Bastani Archibald said in a statement last May the nonprofit would continue to support diversity, especially around transgender issues.
"There is not one type of girl. Every girl's sense of self, path to it, and how she is supported is unique," she wrote. "If a girl is recognized by her family, school and community as a girl and lives culturally as a girl, Girl Scouts is an organization that can serve her in a setting that is both emotionally and physically safe."
