Comments on: Profiting from a Non-Profit. Ethical or Rotten?

By: Personal Carnival No. 6 » The Weight of Money

Personal Carnival No. 6 » The Weight of Money — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 03:02:16 +0000

[...] Profiting from a non-profit, ethical or rotten? – Somewhat related to this post, we’re selling lots of things on ebay and have wondered if were getting money when we should. There are some machines that the partner owns that he got for free or from an education shop closing — should we sell it and donate the cash or try to off load it somewhere else? I think it boils down to mostly that we’re just trying to make things go away and selling things is the umbrella strategy we’re using and will simply keep using. [...]

By: Linda

Linda — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 04:37:25 +0000

It’s not like you were plotting this from the very beginning (to make a profit), so it’s perfectly fine. This isn’t a bad idea either…HMMM… (j/k)

By: moneysmartz

moneysmartz — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 03:23:08 +0000

Thanks everyone for your feedback, I feel vindicated! If the cookie Nazi ever comes back around I’ll point her to your comments. Thanks!

By: jim

jim — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 15:27:32 +0000

No one is hurt in your situation and it’s not like you’re buying pallets full such that you can corner the market. Would I stockpile the cookies and sell them in the off season? I wouldn’t but it’s hardly unethical.

By: Blaine Moore (First Time Home Owner)

Blaine Moore (First Time Home Owner) — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 15:25:22 +0000

You’ll keep getting complaints, but now you have a link that you can email back to these people in response and not bother trying to defend yourself.

By: Michael Chantrel

Michael Chantrel — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 12:28:58 +0000

I’m with the majority: where’s the harm? In fact, you have highlighted a selling opportunity for the Girl Scout organization — selling all year long! Now, I wonder if any plucky Girl Scout mom will start the push to a website to sell and generate money to the operation on a constant basis, or if you’ll just get more complaints.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 12:22:40 +0000

I see no problem either. If the Girl Scouts would even let you order cookies online, when the little scouts aren’t selling them I’d buy them. But I often long for the cookies when I can’t find them. Let alone having to hunt down a girl scout these days. (They don’t sell door to door anymore, and finding the dates they are selling in front of stores is impossible.)

By: Ellen

Ellen — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 04:00:36 +0000

As a former Girl Scout, I’m totally on your side on this one. If people are willing to pay for out-of-season cookies, and you don’t want to eat them, there’s no problem. If the GSA wanted to capture 100% of the potential profits, they’d sell year-round, and at a higher price. Instead, they sell only once a year, and at a decent but not obscene mark-up. They make money, you make money, some guy who likes cookies has cookies. I see no problem here.

By: Flexo

Flexo — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 03:10:30 +0000

It seems like your sale was innocent and not unethical. The real crime is that Girl Scout troops get very little of that $3.50 the boxes sell for around here. If I remember right, they only get something like $0.25 a box. You’re better off making a donation to your local troop and getting cookies elswhere. But they are quite tasty.

By: MoneyDummy

MoneyDummy — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 02:16:43 +0000

I’m with you on this one, for all of the reasons you stated. You’re not hurting the Girl Scouts’ profits, and you’re helping them out by buying their products while they ARE selling them.

As for the mother . . . she was just suffering from MamaBear syndrome. I’d be very surprised if she were able to articulate how you were actually HURTING the poor little munchkins.