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Posted: 05 October 2006 at 9:03am | IP Logged

We run around 80 kids per week with an annual budget of $23,000.  That makes it about $290 per kid.  I woud say the same applies here as above.  It includes a lot of outreach and big events.  The older the children the more it would be per child, though not a huge difference.

I just came from a church with about 50-60 kids per week and their annual budget was $6,300.  That comes to about $105 per kid.

My first church had about the same budget for only 30 kids.  That comes to about $200 per kid.

The per child idea is very interesting.  Let us all know the results!

Posted: 05 October 2006 at 9:29am | IP Logged

We have about 150 kids and our Children's Ministry budget is $10,000.  Which comes out to about $67 a kid.  Which after looking at many other children's budgets, we are definitely on the low end. 

Although, this makes me feel better about asking for a bigger budget!

Posted: 05 October 2006 at 1:36pm | IP Logged

I had a $1000 buget this year, and we have about 10 kids. Thats $100 per kid.

It could be very differant next year, as we are growing.

Posted: 05 October 2006 at 2:02pm | IP Logged

Very interesting.....

We average about 160 kids per Sunday.  We do have mid-week ministries for kids also, and that averages about 100 kids.  The total budget for everything from Nursery to 6th grade is 30,000.  We average out to 185 per kid.  Also note, that my budget isn't all used.  I would expect about 5-6,000 to be unused this year.

I find this more than sufficient but not extravagant.  And it did pay for myself and two of my leaders to go to a conference at the cost of about 2,500.

But.....We are in the process of building a 2.6 million children's wing and expanded Foyer.  I think that would put me off the scale.  It is slated to be done Jan 1st.

Posted: 05 October 2006 at 8:31pm | IP Logged

To answer I would need to know what you expect as children's budget. Does it include Pay, Copies, facilities, events. Second to compair apples to apples we would also need programing. Wednesday night special events and income. I can tell you we spend between 1200 and 1300 a child in total however we also have income of around 1000 a child so do we spend 1300 or 300?

Second this is a very dangerous way to look at budgeting. For example there are many aspects of children's ministry that are money drains, Nursery and Preschool take a HUGE chunck of many children's ministry budgets without adding much to the bottom line in income. To compair across departments EG youth VS Children you have to in my mind remove "required ministries"

Lastly this is a very dangerous way to look at what you are spending. There is a church in town that does a VBS which cost them between 40 and 50,000 each year. To include that in the figure would place their $ per kid price much higher than mine. However they spend less the rest of the year on kids than for this event. Too many factors enter in to the equation to compair.

Posted: 05 October 2006 at 8:59pm | IP Logged

The budget per kid includes actual costs for your mainstreamed kids plus those you are reaching out to.  This is not the only way we budget.  Many of times we plan a specific outreach and will add a line item for that cost.  I'm talking about the nuts and bolts of your ministry (no salaries, no benefits, etc.)  Just the cost to run the ministry.  The average is based on your normal attendance just to keep it simple.  This has helped us in the past keep our elders up to date.  Our cost right now is around $150 per kid and we average around 300. 

I'm not critiqing anyones way of budgeting just asking the question that my Exec Pastor would like to see.  Thanks for all your input.

Posted: 06 October 2006 at 9:22am | IP Logged

We average about 80 kids per week and I have a budget of about $14,000 per year.

This doesn't include my part-time salary which should be going full-time next year sometime.

Good Question, though! It helps me out alot.

My question, however, for those that have answered...are you paid staff?

Posted: 11 October 2006 at 6:56am | IP Logged

If I take out my VBS budget and just stick to program planning. I have $12000.  This covers birth - 6th grade and doesn't cover salaries or paid childcare.  We have an average attendance of 195 for this same age span.

Our church is very much opposed to independant fund raising, and budget lines for program areas are very fluid.

Posted: 11 October 2006 at 9:54am | IP Logged

To those of you who are against this thread I want you to know that my Exec Pastor has huge heart for kids.  He is working with Elders who do not always know the cost of running a ministry.  It is only ONE of the tools we use to help keep them up to date on what other churches are spending.  In no way did I ever intend this to be a place of comparison to dissatisfy anyone.  God has always blessed me and given me the right amount needed to reach others, but it is always good to see if you are somewhat "in sink" with others.  Maybe it's because I come from an HR background and checking with others was always a great way to do this, but my desire in coming to this forum was just to help our leadership have just another tool.  Sorry if it has concerned any of you or even offended you.  Use this thread as you will, I know my Exec Pastor has enjoyed reading your responses (all of them) and it has helped us in our process. My vision is what will incur me a larger budget (if needed) but your input has also helped educate.  Thanks again to all of you who posted!