Baking a Brighter Future: Girl Scout Cookie Bosses Learn Lessons in Financial Literacy
3/6/2025 - Stories & Insights
Girl Scouts are known for delivering cookies to every sweet tooth on their order sheet. While these future leaders know how to sell their delicious product, SouthState wants to ensure their entrepreneurial spirit is fostered by fellow women in business and bolstered by the financial acumen to make them successful in life.
Enter SouthState Women Connects – a newly launched networking group focused on shared experiences, discussing and solving issues important to women, and community service. Members of the group began a partnership with Girl Scouts to teach financial literacy and help Scouts earn badges.
Enter SouthState Women Connects – a newly launched networking group focused on shared experiences, discussing and solving issues important to women, and community service. Members of the group began a partnership with Girl Scouts to teach financial literacy and help Scouts earn badges.
Closing the Gender Gap
Closing the gender gap of financial knowledge is important to SouthState Women Connects volunteers. Recent studies show financial literacy among women continues to lag behind that of men, up to 10 points. Gen Z is also lacking – only 37% of participants answered questions correctly in a 2024 financial literacy study.SouthState Women Connects volunteers seek to close this gap by offering in-person financial literacy events tailored to each Girl Scouts level.
These girls are already prepared for what is ahead and I am proud of the knowledge they learned.
“The Girl Scouts do an awesome job with their own cookie businesses, and it is important for them to understand and learn more about money and finances than just selling, earning and spending,” says Kenzie Burks, commercial banking business analyst and Girl Scouts service unit director in Atlanta.
Girls walked away with a sense of confidence after learning about budgeting, saving and the importance of having good credit, topics that are critical for financial independence.
“These girls are already prepared for what is ahead and I am proud of the knowledge they learned,” says Corporate Social Responsibility Officer Delpha Bartley-Jones. “The insight they gained helps to close the gap of women being exposed to financial education and stability, which can impact their future choices and decision-making in careers, managing their finances, entrepreneurial aspiration, and much more.”
Women's History Month
In celebration of Women’s History Month, volunteers gathered with Girl Scout troops across the South to engage the girls in fun games and activities. They also met several women in leadership positions at SouthState and local business owners.Girls walked away with a sense of confidence after learning about budgeting, saving and the importance of having good credit, topics that are critical for financial independence.
“These girls are already prepared for what is ahead and I am proud of the knowledge they learned,” says Corporate Social Responsibility Officer Delpha Bartley-Jones. “The insight they gained helps to close the gap of women being exposed to financial education and stability, which can impact their future choices and decision-making in careers, managing their finances, entrepreneurial aspiration, and much more.”
