How To Write An Eagle Scout Project Report (With Examples)


If you’re looking for help on how to write your Eagle Scout service project report, you’ve likely already finished, or are close to finishing your epic Eagle Scout project. Time to celebrate — the hard part is over! Now all that’s left is to write a summary of what you did. While writing an Eagle Scout service project report can seem daunting at first glance, with help from my trusty guide, it should be a piece of cake. 😀

Still preparing or carrying out your Eagle Scout service project? Check out some of my articles on successfully planning, budgeting for, and leading an impactful community-serving Eagle project!

In this article, I’ll walk you through each part of the Eagle Scout project report and give you some tips on how to complete it thoroughly, even providing you with a few examples you can follow! This is the final part of your project, so you’ll want to avoid missing sections or needing revisions. That way, you can end on a high note and reflect on all of the good your Eagle project has accomplished!

P.S. This article is a collaboration between Eagle Scouts, Chandler M and Cole K 🙂

In order to complete this report, you’ll first need your Eagle Scout project workbook. You likely already have this partially filled out, but just in case, you can find it on the official Scouting website in PDF format. On page 26, you should find the the Eagle Scout Service Project Report section, but if you don’t see it just reference the PDF’s table of contents. Once you have that handy, you’re ready to start using this article to get your project report finished!

1. Your Eagle Project Description

The first big chunk of the report is the project description. This is pretty open-ended as you just need to explain what you did and how it supports whatever organization you chose to do the project for. You’ll also need to record the dates that your project started and ended.

There are two parts of this section that we’ll go over:

  1. Please provide a brief description of your project and the impact it will have.
  2. Describe what you did after your proposal was approved to complete the planning of your project.

Most of this involves just recording what you did, how you did it, and when you did it, but it’s good to add some other information to help “sell” your project to the council that’s approving your completion.

1.1 Explain Your Eagle Project and its Impact in Your Own Terms

This is probably one of the easiest portions of your summary report. In this section, just go over what your project was about, what you accomplished, who you helped, and how you helped them. To make this feel even easier, imagine you’re proudly telling a friend about your Eagle project!

It’s best to give a brief summary of events — 1-2 paragraphs max — as you’ll have plenty of chances to go into detail later on. You should also consider including quotes from the people or group you did your project for. This can include them thanking you at completion, talking about how this project helped, and anything else that you feel could be important.

Example: For my project, we re-landscaped a major portion of the church where many cars drive by. This area had been neglected for many years, so by re-landscaping it we were able to beautify a portion of the church that everyone sees.

There is no word count for this or any of the following sections, so don’t feel like you have to limit yourself or overexplain. However, I would suggest writing at least a paragraph in each one of these boxes. Years into the future, you’ll very likely look this report over to remember your Eagle Project, so make sure to describe the work you did to the best of your abilities! 😀

1.2 Describe the Plan That Took Your Eagle Project From Approval to Completion

This section is all about the steps you took after the initial approval of your project. Think back to everything you did once you got the go-ahead from your council. This part will include brainstorming an execution plan, setting up a schedule, gathering materials, fundraising (if necessary), and the actual work.

This section can be a step-by-step walkthrough of your process, or just a paragraph detailing the events as they took place. You should be descriptive in this section and include any important events that took place after your approval.

Example: After the approval of my proposal, I contacted a landscaping company to acquire flowers and bushes as well as mulch for the area we were targeting. I set up a date and time to carry out the project and recruited Scouts as well as church members to bring the tools they had to help carry out the project.

2. Observations

This section is all about detailing the good and the bad of your project. Every Eagle project has its ups and downs, so don’t feel bad about admitting what didn’t go well. These challenges are just opportunities to learn and make improvements when leading future service projects! There are only two boxes you need to complete for this section:

  1. What went well?
  2. What was challenging?

This section should be pretty straightforward to complete, but make sure to give it some thought. After all, you’ll likely be reiterating your project successes in college essays or future interviews! With that being said, feel free to keep your answers concise and to the point.

2.1 What Went Well?

This section is pretty self-explanatory. In this box, go over everything that went according to plan or even better than expected. You can be detailed, but don’t worry about trying to hit a word count for this section. You can even consider making a bulleted list of highlights and “big wins” from the project day.

You may want to ask others who helped you complete this project what they thought went well, as they may have a better on-the-ground perspective on it than you if you spent most of your time leading others. See what they enjoyed doing the most, and maybe even ask them for a few quotes to include in this section.

Example: Our efficiency in completing this project far exceeded our expectations! We had a large turnout of volunteers and finished in only 75% of the amount of time we had expected! I also heard several comments from church members expressing their opinions on how wonderful the area looks.

2.2 Share the Obstacles You Faced, and How You Overcame Them

This section may be hard for some — it was for me! It can be tough to talk about the negatives of your project without getting too down on yourself. Just remember, an Eagle project is a learning experience in service and leadership. You’re not going to get it 100% right on your first try, and that’s ok! 🙂

Besides listing what didn’t go to plan, talk about how you overcame these challenges and what you learned from them. This will look really good to your council and will show that you’ve learned from this experience.

Example: We were not expecting the area we were landscaping to be as rocky as it was. This led to a little more work clearing out rocks and making sure that plants could thrive in that area. However, by delegating that task to the stronger adult volunteers and moving the current landscaping volunteers to areas better suited to their talents, we were able to overcome the unexpected challenge successfully! 

3. Changes

“Many successful projects require changes from the original proposal. What significant changes did you make and why did you make them (be brief)”

This is a really brief section (the only section that explicitly asks you to be brief). Here, you’ll go over what changed between the proposal and the actual execution of the project. While I’d recommend listing out your answers, you’ll definitely want to list out the most significant changes first.

The easiest way to complete this section is to create a bulleted list and highlight the main changes made. You should also explain why you made those changes. Again, stick to the broad overview and keep your explanations brief. One or two sentences per point is ideal. Here are a few bulleted examples:

  • We were originally hoping for trees to be planted but could only afford bushes.
  • We originally planned to fundraise for this project but received donated supplies and were able to forgo fundraising.

4. Leadership

One of the biggest takeaways from an Eagle Scout project is leadership. Since organizing your own project is the culmination of all the leadership skills you learned during your time as a Scout, you should definitely take the time to reflect and feel proud of all the growth you’ve accomplished! This will be the longest section of your report, so make sure to fully think it through.

  1. In what ways did you demonstrate leadership?
  2. What was most difficult about being a leader?
  3. What was most rewarding about being a leader?
  4. What did you learn about leadership, or how were your leadership skills developed further?

If you’re like me, it can be hard to reflect on what you did during your project. You were likely more focused on getting things done, and that’s okay. This could be a good opportunity to reach out to the people who helped you and ask for feedback on your leadership skills!

If you haven’t completed your project yet, it’s not too late to make this section easier for yourself by keeping a record of things as you go. Check out my guide to preparing your Eagle Scout Binder for some tips on things to collect for your final Eagle rank application!

When writing your responses, pay special attention to note down the instructions you gave, the challenges you faced, and what you enjoyed or found tricky about the experience. Part of being a great leader is assessing your successes, failures, and opportunities for improvement — which is exactly what you’ll be doing here! 😀

4.1 Talk Through How You Were in Charge Without Bragging

For this box, you want to explain how you demonstrated leadership during your project. If you had people come and help, explain how you delegated duties, explained the goal of your project, oversaw the operation of your project, and anything else you can think of. Consider, In what ways did you demonstrate leadership?

Be detailed in this section. Councils are always looking for good leadership examples from Eagle projects, so go into detail about how exactly you carried out your leadership. You don’t need to explain everything, though, as you’ll go over that in the next sections.

Some people find writing these sections uncomfortable as they don’t want to feel like they’re bragging about what they did. That’s an understandable concern! By stating your actions and being objective about the results, you can avoid sounding boastful, while still detailing the awesomeness of your project. 😉

In the example below, you can see that I simply explain what I did without saying anything like “I demonstrated amazing leadership” or “I was great at delegating who did what.” As a general rule of thumb, avoid adjectives when explaining your project. Let your actions speak for themselves!

Example: I demonstrated leadership by gathering volunteers to explain what we would be doing, and what work that entails, and then delegated who did what. I continued by overseeing and participating in much of the work, teaching and helping others who struggled with some of the labor.

4.2 Own Your Mistakes and What You Learned From Them

Once again, you’ll need to go over what didn’t work during your project. A lot of what you write here can piggyback off the previous section (2.2) where you explained what was challenging during your project. You’re being asked, What was most difficult about being a leader?

You can also go over any more general difficulties here. These can include having trouble getting people to listen, having a tricky time explaining things to others, struggling to delegate rather than just do the work yourself, and so on. 

If you’ve had experience in leadership and know you struggle in some areas, write them here. Also note that people tend to remember the bad more than the good, so it can be easy to write negatively about yourself and your project. Remember, this was a learning experience and you surely did a ton of things right, so include the lessons you picked up on too!

Example: When I had to correct others on what they were doing, I often felt a bit mean. I didn’t want to disparage their work but also wanted to give constructive criticism so that the work was done correctly. I gradually learned to find the right balance between encouragement and direction.

4.3 What Did You Enjoy About Being in Charge?

As I said above, it’s usually easier to remember negatives than positives, so this section may be a little more difficult. You don’t need to get too much into specifics here; just explain what you enjoyed about the experience of leading your project. The question to answer is, What was most rewarding about being a leader?

This can be as simple as watching a plan come together or teaching others new skills. There is a lot of room for introspection in this section, but it doesn’t need to be long-winded. Keep this section brief and to the point.

Example: The most rewarding part for me was seeing all of the work I had put in for months planning this project come together and everyone having a good time working on it. It was amazing seeing my idea come to fruition and having other people enjoy the end product of all our hard work.

4.4 Talk About the Lessons You Learned and Your Personal Growth

This is another portion where you need to get a little introspective. You can even piggyback off what you wrote in the challenges section, further explaining what you learned from those challenges and how you can improve. Answer the question, What did you learn about leadership, or how were your leadership skills developed further?

If you made any improvements to your leadership ability during your project, you should also explain those. You want to spend a good amount of time on this section as this is the part that the council will really care about. Who knows, they may even ask to use your answer in their materials to inspire future Eagle Scouts! 😀

Example: My leadership skills throughout the process of taking this project from ideation to completion. Following this project for so long made me realize the work that goes into leadership and helped me understand my role better. My communication skills also improved as I talked to different people and adapted to their ways of working together.

5. Materials, Supplies, Tools, Other

“Were there significant shortages or overages of materials, supplies, tools, and other” If so, what effect did this have”

This section may not apply to you as it asks if you had any shortages or overages for materials. If you didn’t have any, that’s great! You’ll only need to explain that you had the right amount of materials and everything went according to plan.

However, if you had overages or shortages, you’ll want to explain what you had too much or too little of and how you handled it. You may have gone ahead and used your surplus materials to build something a little extra, or you may have had to order more materials. Either way, this is your opportunity to reflect and explain how you handled the situation!

Example: For my project, we ran out of mulch earlier than expected. Thankfully, one of the volunteers offered to go to the hardware store and pick up a few more bags, allowing us to complete our landscaping project, on time, at an extra cost of $35.

6. Entering Service Project Data

“The BSA collects information on the hours worked on Eagle Scout service projects because it points to achievement of our citizenship aim. To assist with the data collection, please refer to your list of people who helped and the number of hours they worked. Then please provide the information requested below. Include hours spent doing planning under Total Hours Worked.”

This is the only section where you don’t really need to write anything, but you’ll still be required to fill a few things out. For this section, you’ll need to list:

  • Planning Hours
    • How many hours did you spend planning your project?
  • Execution Hours
    • How long did it take to complete your actual project?
  • Registered BSA youth members
    • How many Scouts showed up to help you complete your project?
  • Other youth
    • How many other youth that aren’t part of Scouting showed up to help?
  • Registered BSA adult Scouting volunteers and leaders
    • How many Scout leaders and Scouting adults showed up to help?
  • Other adults
    • How many adults helped that are not affiliated with Scouting?
  • Grand Total of Hours
    • Add up all of the hours worked.

Make sure to also include in this total the number of hours you worked. While it’s important to accurately log your hours for your project, there is no minimum requirement for time volunteered. Don’t worry if you feel like you didn’t spend enough time on it; your hours will still be accepted! 🙂

7. Funding Summary

This is a really important part of your summary as it explains how money was collected and spent. If you didn’t fundraise, you still need to complete this part as you likely still bought materials for your project. There are four sections to this, but they’re not very long.

  1. Describe how you obtained money, materials, supplies, and other needs (including donations) for your project.
    • How much was collected?
    • How much was spent?
  2. If your expenses exceeded funds available, explain why this happened, and how excess expenses were paid.
  3. If you had money left over at the end of your project, did you turn it over to the project beneficiary? If “No,” when will that be done, or if your beneficiary is not allowed to accept the leftover funds, which charity will receive them?
  4. How were the donors thanked?

Many of these parts are just ensuring that you’ve properly spent money, thanked everyone who donated, and returned money if need be. If you did a lot of fundraising, this section may look quite impressive, and be something you can reference during future interviews!

7.1) Outline Your Fundraising Process and the Totals Raised and Spent

If you fundraised, you’ll need to explain how you did that here. You could have set up a booth at a church, asked family members, or fundraised through a website like GoFundMe. Either way, that needs to be explained in this section. If you didn’t fundraise, explain how you got materials and supplies for your project.

Still in the midst of fundraising? Check out this helpful guide to getting what you need to support your project!

If someone donated supplies, credit them. If all of the materials came out of your own pocket, you’ll also want to explain that. You’ll then need to fill in how much money you collected (if you fundraised) and how much of that money was spent. Ideally, those amounts should be equal, but if you have any funds left over like I did, you can gift it to your project beneficiary organization or expand the scope of your project with additional materials.

Example: For my project, I did not fundraise but instead received the supplies as donations from my church. I collected no money for any of these supplies.

7.2) Explain How You Covered Any Shortfalls

“If your expenses exceeded funds available, explain why this happened, and how excess expenses were paid.”

This may have not happened to you, and if that is the case, just say that it didn’t apply to you! If this did apply to you, you’ll want to go into detail on what you didn’t have enough of, why you ran out, and how you got the extra supplies.

If you fundraised and went over the amount you raised, explain how you paid for the rest of the supplies. This could be as simple as “I paid for it myself” or “I asked for further donations”. All of that needs to be explained here, but shouldn’t take too many words to explain.

Example: While I did receive donations, I ran out of mulch midway through the project. One of the volunteers offered to buy these extra supplies for me during the completion of the project and did not want repayment (in this case I marked the supplies purchased as a donation).

7.3) Be Clear About Where Any Leftover Funds Went

If you had money left over at the end of your project, did you turn it over to the project beneficiary” If “No,” when will that be done, or if your beneficiary is not allowed to accept the left over funds, which charity will receive them”

This section may not apply to you or your answer could be a simple “yes.” If you have money left over, the best practice is to give it back to the organization you were doing the project for. If they can’t accept the money, you can purchase more materials for your project or find a charity to donate it to!

7.4) Explain How You Thanked Donors

“How were the donors thanked”

If you didn’t have donations, just say that this didn’t apply. However, if your project did have donors, make sure they’re sincerely thanked for their amazing contribution. This could be as simple as sending cards and making phone calls, or you could also invite the donors to your Eagle Court of Honor and thank them by name.

Once you’ve thanked them, explain how you did it here. This doesn’t need to be extremely detailed, just a sentence or two. However, if some person or organization went out of the way to support your Eagle Project, it’s very important to make them feel appreciated and aware of the impact of their generosity.

Example: After the completion of the project, I individually called up each donor, sent a card with pictures showing the finished results, and later made an announcement at church thanking donors by name.

8. Photos and Other Documentation

“If you have them, submit photographs taken before, during and after project completion on a separate document. You may physically attach letters, maps, handouts, printed materials, or similar items that might be helpful to your board of review.”

This is the final part before you sign and get your report approved. If you have any pictures, attach them here! These pictures should include the before, during, and after of the project. Any other documents, such as handouts, posters, and so on, should also be attached.

Completed Eagle Scout Service Project Report Examples

Now that you know everything that goes into writing your Eagle Scout Service Project report, it’s time for some examples! Here’s a fantastic Eagle Project report, uploaded by a fellow Scout. The project report section begins on page 24. Also here’s another example that’s a bit shorter than typical, but should still give you a great idea of how your report should be outlined. Happy writing! 🙂

Conclusion

Give yourself a big pat on the back, Scout — once you’ve written your report, you’ve cleared the last hurdle and crossed the finish line of your Eagle Scout project! This project most likely took a ton of time, energy, and perseverance, and you’ll very likely look back on it with pride for years to come.

Thanks for reading! Next up, be sure to check out any of the following articles if they catch your interest:

That’s all for now! You rock for helping out our country through your contributions in Scouting, and I couldn’t be prouder to have helped you on your path to Eagle through this article. Until next time, I’m wishing you all the best on your epic Scouting journey!

Cole

I'm constantly writing new content because I believe in Scouts like you! Thanks so much for reading, and for making our world a better place. Until next time, I'm wishing you all the best on your journey to Eagle and beyond!

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