Updated:
Girl Scouts of the United States of America Retirement Plan
The Girl Scouts of the United States of America Retirement Plan operates as the dedicated defined-benefit vehicle for employees of the national organization...
Girl Scouts of the United States of America Retirement Plan
The Girl Scouts of the United States of America Retirement Plan operates as the dedicated defined-benefit vehicle for employees of the national organization and its local councils, headquartered in New York. CEO Bonnie Barczykowski and CFO Ken DiStefano oversee a plan structure that must answer to the National Board of the Girl Scouts of the USA, currently led by President Noorain Khan. The sponsoring organization, founded in 1912 by Juliette Gordon Low, today supports roughly 2.7 million girl and adult members, creating a pension obligation that spans a diverse, geographically dispersed workforce of career professionals. The plan deploys a conservative, multi-asset-class strategy anchored in buyout-oriented private market exposures. Allocations span hedge fund investments, collective trust funds, and commercial real estate funds across the United States. While the portfolio is modest by institutional standards — Altss research estimates total assets at approximately $85 million — the fund maintains a fiduciary structure typical of larger corporate plans, including participation in pooled vehicles and an emphasis on capital preservation. Specific underlying managers and fund names remain undisclosed, consistent with the plan's private fiduciary posture. The retirement plan does not maintain a standalone public profile or additional physical offices beyond the national headquarters in New York City. Investment governance flows through the CFO and the National Board's oversight committee, with board membership representing the broader Girl Scouts movement. The sponsoring entity maintains corporate partnerships with organizations such as Fiserv and General Motors, though these relationships focus on programmatic and volunteer engagement initiatives rather than retirement plan operations. The plan also exists alongside several philanthropic and restricted funds within the Girl Scouts ecosystem, including the Lifetime Membership Fund, the Macy Scholarship Fund, and the Movement Growth Fund. The plan's structural differentiator lies in its mission-aligned governance: a retirement pool for a century-old nonprofit that must balance actuarial funding requirements with the values of an organization devoted to girls' leadership development. This creates an investment mandate that is inherently long-term, risk-averse, and sensitive to the reputational implications of manager selection — a governance burden that commercial plans of similar size rarely face. The absence of a dedicated chief investment officer suggests either an outsourced model or direct board-level oversight of the small number of fund relationships that constitute the bulk of the portfolio.
General information
Firm type
Pension Fund
Location
Region
North America
Country
United States
City
New York
Corporate office
New York, NY, United States
Principals
Bonnie Barczykowski
Chief Executive Officer
Ken DiStefano
Chief Financial Officer
Noorain Khan
National Board President
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
Who oversees investment decisions at the Girl Scouts USA Retirement Plan?
Investment governance rests with the CFO, Ken DiStefano, and the National Board of the Girl Scouts of the USA. The board's fiduciary committee provides oversight of asset allocation, manager selection, and actuarial funding levels. There is no disclosed dedicated chief investment officer, indicating a lean governance structure or reliance on external consultants.
Is the plan a defined-benefit or defined-contribution structure?
Publicly available information identifies the vehicle as a retirement plan with characteristics consistent with a defined-benefit structure, serving employees of the national organization and its 111 local councils. Full plan documents are not publicly filed, making precise classification difficult without direct access to the organization's Form 5500 filings.
What is the plan's exposure to illiquid assets?
The plan allocates to commercial real estate funds and hedge fund investments — both carrying varying degrees of liquidity constraint. The Altss research record also notes buyout strategies as a recurring allocation theme, suggesting a strategic tilt toward private markets. However, without public manager names or vintage-year data, precise exposure levels remain undisclosed.
Does the plan maintain any ESG or mission-related investment screens?
No explicit ESG screens or exclusionary policies have been publicly disclosed by the plan or its sponsoring organization. Given the Girl Scouts' mission of building girls of courage, confidence, and character, reputational alignment is a reasonable expectation, though the extent to which this is formalized in investment policy remains unconfirmed.
How is the plan funded — employer contributions, employee contributions, or both?
The exact funding mechanism is not publicly detailed. As a nonprofit-sponsored retirement plan, employer contributions from the Girl Scouts of the USA national body and local councils likely represent the primary funding source, but without access to actuarial valuation reports or Form 5500 data, the precise contribution structure is unknown.
Profile maintained by Altss using OSINT (open-source intelligence), regulatory filings, licensed data partners, and verified direct submissions. Read the methodology. Last updated: . Continuous refresh with full update cycles at least every 30 days.
Need institutional-grade insight on pension funds?
Altss delivers:
Prefer a guided tour?
We’ll walk you through: