Bold and Brave

She was at a music festival — primitive camping, no electricity, no running water — when an executive search firm for the Girl Scouts managed to reach her by cell phone. Kathy Cloninger had heard the group was extending its search for a new CEO, but she hadn’t applied. “I was happy running a Girl Scout council in Tennessee,” she says. But the caller was direct: “Please apply.”

“Computer-savvy campers helped retrieve my résumé from my home computer, update it and e-mail it to the Girl Scouts,” says Cloninger, “all in a tent in a Texas meadow of bluebonnets.”

Cloninger, once a Girl Scout herself, got the top job in 2003. Her mission has been to “revitalize a 95-year-old tradition-bound icon,” best known for camps, crafts and cookies, as the nation’s premier leadership-development organization for girls.

Cloninger’s career with the Girl Scouts began in 1983 when she answered a blind ad in a Denver newspaper. The position was with the Mountain Prairie Council, a group of 3,000 that was part of the national organization. She was impressed by its history of being at the forefront of social change. Founded by Juliette Gordon Low in 1912, the Girl Scouts was dedicated to offering girls the chance to develop mentally, physically and spiritually. Cloninger calls Low a revolutionary. “Her original Girl Scouts were bold and brave.”

They tended children while their mothers voted for the first time in the 1920s, led relief efforts during the Depression, supported the civil-rights movement of the ’60s and launched a national environmental program. Alumnae include Laura Bush, Hillary Clinton, Katie Couric and Eileen Collins, the first woman space shuttle commander. Cloninger rose to head Girl Scout councils in Colorado, Texas and Tennessee. She initiated the first global poverty summit, took a creative approach to programs and raised the organization’s visibility.

“It’s a Girl’s Life”

Before moving to New York for the top job, as CEO, Cloninger was asked to identify her three biggest priorities. They came to her during dinner with her husband at their favorite Mexican restaurant. “We munched chips and sipped frozen margaritas, talking about what the new job would entail,” Cloninger says. “At one point I mused, ‘You know, more than any other person, I’m going to be the voice for girls.’ ” Mike grabbed a napkin, borrowed a pen and wrote, “Be the voice for girls.” “Okay,” he said, “that’s one.”

“Midway through our first margaritas, as I was speaking of how Scouting helps girls discover their potential as leaders, Mike wrote, ‘Find the leader in each girl.’ ”

The couple thought about the Girl Scout slogans: For every girl, everywhere, and Where girls grow strong. “As the enchiladas arrived, we looked at each other and said, ‘Help each girl stand tall.’ And that was it.” Her top priorities then, and now.

As an organization, says Cloninger, “we were frustrated for decades about the fact that the only thing the public thinks about when it comes to Girl Scouts is cookies. But if we weren’t about cookies, what were we about?” She put together a strategy team to determine their strengths. “That led us to ‘We are the best leadership experience for girls.’ We hadn’t thought about it in that way.”

Cloninger wrote up a five-point blueprint for revitalizing the Girl Scouts: more flexible ways in which busy volunteers can serve, a new funding model to tap external sources like the 40 million alumnae, a relevant and reinvigorated brand, a leadership-development model with measurable results, and an effective and efficient organizational structure and governance system.

For a more nimble operation, Cloninger is downsizing local affiliates from 312 to 109. “It’s a bold move, but we can divert some of that money to direct service to the girls.” There are programs to encourage interest in the sciences, build self-esteem and help girls with moms in prison. “The whole nonprofit sector is watching us because it’s challenging to take grassroots community organizations and merge them.

“We are also turning our volunteer system upside down. We’re still looking at moms, but we’re also looking at the 18- to 29-year-old who may not have started her family but who could be a great mentor.”

The changes were difficult for some, but Cloninger sought input from all, and she kept reminding everyone, “It’s all about the girls.”

A new mission statement proclaims, “Girl Scouting builds girls of courage, confidence and character, who make the world a better place.” That message is backed by a new ad campaign: “It’s a girl’s life. Lead it.”

“The posters are great,” Cloninger says. “One has a cute African American girl leaning on a sign that reads ‘I am your future President.’ ”

Motivating 2.8 million girls, nearly 1 million volunteers, 400 professionals and 40 national board members is a challenge. So is attracting girls whose attention is lured by a wide option of activities, healthy or otherwise. “Luckily,” says Cloninger, “I love what I’m doing.”