January 6: Access to Digital Cookie
January 11: Digital Cookie Online Sales Begin
January 11-18: Cookie Techie Week
January 25-February 1: Service Unit Cookie Deliveries
March 9: Cookie Program Ends
Month of May: Incentives Arrive
Cookie Techie Week: January 11-18 Earn the cookie techie patch by doing the following:
• Set up Digital Cookie sites
• Upload a photo/video to DOC
• Send 18 unique emails through DOC
• Sell 25+ packages through DOC
All Troops will earn $1.20 per package and can earn an additional $0.05 a package if the troop reaches a per girl average of 225+.
Troops with a majority of Cadette, Senior or Ambassadors have the option to opt out of rewards to earn an additional $0.10 per package. Opt-out troops can earn all patches and troop initial or final rewards.
• 21% of the funds goes toward troop proceeds, troop rewards and girl rewards.
• 24% of the funds goes toward the Girl Scout Cookie Program and the baker cost.
• 55% of the funds goes toward investing in girls through programs, properties, volunteer support and training, financial assistance and council services.
Before Digital Cookie opens on January 11, your troop should be hosting a Troop Cookie Meeting to go over what the plans are for the cookie program.
Here are a few important items your troop cookie meeting should cover:
• Any special cookie dates the troop may have outside of the ones provided by Council.
• When and where caregivers and girls are able to pick up cookies.
• How the troop plans on selling cookies, such as any planned booths.
• What assistance is needed from the troop leader? (This is a BIG one! The Cookie Program is a great deal of work for one person to handle on their own. Ask how you can help your troop with cookie pickup, booths, rewards, etc.)
• What are the troop’s ultimate goals and plans for earned cookie proceeds?
• What is the return/exchange policy within the troop?
In January, the troop leader will place an order for cookies to start out the program. These cookies can be sold at booths and door-to-door sales or used to fulfill girl delivery orders through Digital Cookie. Once the cookies arrive, troop leaders will distribute the cookies out amongst the girls to sell!
When the time arrives that a Girl Scout is about out of cookies, the caregiver will request more cookies from the leader. Always make sure, you as a caregiver, are aware of the leader’s availability for picking up more cookies.
In order to pick up additional cookies from the troop, your balance due from previous pickups must be paid. If cookie money is not turned in at this time, troop leaders can withhold distribution of more cookies. Ensure you have signed receipts anytime money or cookies exchanges hands. This is also a good time to check in with your troop leader to confirm that your Girl Scout’s total sales matches on both ends.
At the end of the program, on March 9, troop leaders will enter in all the cookie rewards that a Girl Scout has earned. If your Girl Scout has reached any levels of rewards where there is an option, let the troop leader know which item your Girl Scout has chosen.
If a Girl Scout earns the Adventure Bucks, the caregiver will receive an email by April 1 with instructions on how to redeem the credit. Adventure Bucks can be used to register for any event listed on our gsEvents calendar. Adventure Bucks will have an expiration date of March 1 of the following year.
Troop Leaders should receive all rewards by the end of May.
There are many ways a Girl Scout can sell cookies.
Here are some of the promising practices:
• Walkabouts around the neighborhood
• Lemon Up Stands
• Troop Cookie Booths
• Digital Cookie Online Platform
With all cookie sales, Girl Scouts can accept any form of payment listed:
• Cash
• Checks - please ask your troop leader how they would like checks to be handled. Some leaders will ask the caregiver to have the check written to the caregiver or the troop. Never accept a check from someone you do not know.
• Credit Cards - Girl Scouts and caregivers should use the Digital Cookie App to accept all credit card payments. You will choose the cookies in hand option for this transaction, if selling the cookies in person.
For additional details and guidelines on how to sell, check out our website.
Digital Cookie is the online platform in which the Girl Scout can sell cookies.
The primary caregiver contacts that Girl Scouts of Southern Illinois (GSofSI) has on file is the caregiver that will get the registration email from Digital Cookie. GSofSI can only have one caregiver on the Girl Scouts account for Digital Cookie, so if you would like to change it to a different caregiver, please contact our customer care team to make the change.
1. From the registration email, click the “Register Now” Button. 2. Create a password.
3. Watch the online safety video and take the Girl Scout safety pledge.
4. After you accept the pledge, you will be taken to a screen to activate your Girl Scout, and then you can access the site.
1. Log in to digitalcookie.girlscouts.org.
2. Click the “Site Setup” on top.
3. Enter in the Girl Scout’s cookie goal for online and offline sales. (Caregivers can update the offline sales, if they wish, throughout the program.)
4. Enter a statement of what the troop plans to do with the cookie funds and then what she has learned from the selling cookies. Click Save.
5. Girls can choose to upload an informational or fun video.
6. Click see your site and publish.
7. Preview the site and approve.
8. Once all approved, you are ready to set up customer emails.
1. Click the “Customers” tab.
2. Click “my customers” - here is where you can add or import a customer to send emails to. If your Girl Scout had customers from the prior year, your customers will carry over in the system.
3. Click send Marketing Email- there will be 3 choices of emails to send.
- Open for business
- There’s still time to order cookies
- Thanks for your support (This email does not count towards the 18+ email requirement for the Cookie Techie Patch.)
4. After you chose the email type, click the send button.
5. You can also send customers a link to your online store or generate a QR code. On the home page, you will see an area where you are can copy the link to share.
6. Girl Scouts are not allowed to sell cookies on any online storefront or websites like Craigslist, eBay, Amazon or Facebook buy and sell sites. Digital Cookie storefronts may be deactivated if GSofSI learns that girls are selling cookies in ways that are unsafe.
Digital Cookies are coming in, now what?
Donated Orders: nothing needs to be done!
Direct Shipped Orders: nothing needs to be done!
Girl Delivery Orders:
• These orders need to be approved within 5 days of the customer placing the order. An email will be sent out to the caregiver at midnight each night if there are orders that need to be approved. It is recommended as a promising practice to log in on with your Girl Scout every couple of days to double check.
• When you get logged in, click the orders tab. On this tab, you will see all the orders that are needing approval. You will see the customer name, address and order. If you are unable to deliver the order for any reason, you can decline it. Ex: Out of state address.
• When customers place a girl delivery order, they have to choose a second delivery option and those are “cancel my order” or “donate the cookies”. If the order is not approved within the 5-day time limit, their second choice goes into effect.
• Before you approve an order, always double check your cookie inventory. If you are short on a variety, check with troop leader to make sure they can get more. Ex: Closer to the end of the season, troop leaders might not be picking up more Toffee-tastic cookies for the troop.
• Once you have confirmed you can deliver the cookies and that you have the cookies, click the approved button. That order will then move to the section of the page called Orders to be delivered.
• Don’t forget to go back into Digital Cookie to mark that order as delivered, once completed. Doing so, will keep you organized on what still needs to be filled.
• Download the Digital Cookie App on your phone.
• Log in like you would on the Digital Cookie website.
• If your troop leader has set up a troop site, you will see the troop site and your girl’s name. Make sure you click you girl’s account (unless at a booth and troop leader says to use troop site).
• On the home screen, click the “New Cookie Order” button, then enter in the variety of cookies for the order and click check out.
• Toggle the button on the next screen to “Give cookies to customer now”.
• For these orders, all the information you need is the customers name, email and zip code. After this information is entered, click review order. (These three items are important to capture in the case of an order discrepancy surfaces. It makes it easier to look up an order for the customer.)
• You will now be at the payment screen, where you can either manually enter the credit information or you can scan the card. Then click Place Order! The customer will receive an email with the order information.
NOTE: Turn off varieties of cookies when the troop leader reports they are no longer available.
What if I didn’t receive a registration email?
• In order to receive a Digital Cookie registration email, Girl Scouts must be registered for the current Girl Scout year, and Council will need the correct email address on file for the caregiver.
• Check your junk/spam/promotions inbox one more time for an email from “Girl Scout Cookies”.
• If you do not see the email there, go to digitalcookie.girlscouts.org and click “Need help to log in” link. You will get a screen of steps you can use to try and get registered for Digital Cookie.
A direct shipped customer received a damaged package, or their order is incorrect, who do they contact?
• The customer will need to contact the email/phone that is on their Digital Cookie order confirmation email.
My Girl Scout’s total sales in Digital Cookie are not correct. How do I fix it?
• It may be the case of your troop hasn’t input all sales yet for your Girl Scout. Always check with the troop leader to make sure package totals are correct on their end. Ultimately, what shows up on the volunteer’s side is what the rewards will be based off of.
Can my Girl Scout have more than one login/site set up?
• No, Girl Scouts are allowed one login and site. In the case of separated families, an agreement will need to be made on whose email to be used.
• We suggest setting up a joint email account that both sides can access and that way both can approve orders.
Will I get an email reminder to approve girl delivery orders?
• Yes, if your Girl Scout has a girl delivery order to be approved, you will receive an email reminder at the end of each day.
• You will not receive an email for each order, so it is important to make it a routine with your Girl Scout to login to Digital Cookie and check that there are no outstanding orders.
Why do I have access to the troop site in the Digital Cookie app?
• Each time you log into the Digital Cookie app, it will give you the option to choose from your Girl Scout or Troop site, if the troop has a site set up.
• The troop site can be used at booths to take credit card payments for the troop. No login information or transferring of money needed!
• Please ensure you are selecting the correct account for each order.