The state was the home of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) founder, William D. Boyce.

In 1946, the National Order of the Arrow Lodge Meeting was held at Chanute Field.

The 1963 and 1971 National Order of the Arrow Conferences were held at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign.

In 2007, Lincoln Trails Council ran a Scoutreach program in inner city areas.

[2] The Lincoln Trails Council had its headquarters in Decatur, Illinois, and was served by Woapink Lodge #167 (founded in 1955).

The Illowa Council serves Scouts in western Illinois and eastern Iowa in the Quad Cities area.

Lincoln Heritage Council serves Scouts in Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois (Hardin, Massac, and Pope counties), and Tennessee.

Mississippi Valley Council, headquartered in Quincy, Illinois, is served by Black Hawk Lodge 67.

Ma-Ka-Ja-Wan also operates a nationally accredited high adventure base that offers units 11 trek opportunities.

[8] Each of the predecessor councils have been reorganized as "Communities" with each maintaining their service centers as well as event and training schedules.

Prairielands Council serves Scouts in east central Illinois and western Indiana.

The council used to own and operated Camp Theakiki(sold 2023) near Kankakee, Illinois.

The W. D. Boyce Council serves youth in central Illinois, from Lincoln to Ottawa, and Peoria to Bloomington.

Regions: Girl Scouts of Eastern Iowa and Western Illinois serves 20,000 girls and has 5,000 adult volunteers in Eastern Iowa and Rock Island, Mercer, Henderson, Warren, Knox, Henry, and Jo Daviess counties in Illinois.

The council serves Kane, Kendall, McHenry, DeKalb, Boone, Winnebago, Stephenson, Ogle, Lee, Jo Daviess, Carroll and Whiteside counties.

There were Belarusian Scouts in Exile in Chicago through the 1980s, and Lietuvos skautų sąjunga still exists there.