What I don't love about the event is the price tag. The event is organized by the local youth ministry network I'm a part of, and because of the number of churches and students involved, we actually get a great price for all we get to do and eat. Because of the number of students that our church usually brings, we rent an additional bus for the night, and so when all is said and done, we charge $25/student if they register two weeks ahead of time, and $30/student for those who register after that. That price adds up when you consider that it's a 6th-12th grade event, and some families have two, three, or even four kids in that age group. We don't do a lot of events this expensive--this is by far our most expensive event that's not a trip or a retreat. There are some events that we subsidize because we think they're really important for students to attend (such as our retreats), but this one we just pass along the cost to the families.
We do offer some ways for students to pay for events, such as working the "Snack Shack" at our church's huge craft fair each fall. In addition, we make it clear that money is never a reason someone should not be able to attend an event, especially new guests. However, as one parent I went to for advice on this topic pointed out to me, many parents will not ask for a scholarship--not because of pride, but because they just pick and choose what activities they want to do based on their budget, and sometimes $25 or $30 per kid just isn't in the budget.
Even though we offer scholarships, I just didn't feel that great collecting checks from parents for $60 and $90 this weekend for a church event.
What are your thoughts on charging students for events? How do you usually decide how much to charge and how much to pay for out of the youth ministry budget? Do you usually offer scholarships for guests or those who can't afford a pricier event?
7 comments:
I think there needs to be a charge for events, but with that said it should deter people away from the event. I'm not sure what the quick fix is, but I do know promoting giving from the teens during worship is one way of going about it. Something else that helps is to see where our ministers are with their giving...if they aren't tithing we need to address that with them, if you can (with the pastors permission) have them give specifically towards the student ministry...this way you can budget for events like this to cut the costs.
I like the idea of teens working their way there, but amping up the habit of tithing is essential.
Chris,
That's a great point about teaching on stewardship and tithing with students. I'm grateful to be at a church that believes in funding the YM budget from the general budget (which means we don't need to do endless bake sales to fund our day-to-day stuff), but there's a part of me that wants students to understand they're part of a larger body and that part of following Jesus is being generous with what they have, even if it's just a $10/wk allowance. Thanks for your comment!
I agree with you, and also hate the feeling of charging for events. I like Chris' point about showing the kids the importance of Tithing, but I feel many kids would then use the excuse of "I can't afford to go because I always give money in the offering at youth, cant some of that pay my way" at least here in my context.
I usually consider the cost of all the events we are doing for the next year when planning and try and budget it into our budget that at the most, Parents can expect to pay x amount of dollars per kid to go to every event. Like this last year ending soon, Parents knew since two months before it started that for each kid to go to every event it would cost $100 for the year. I also went to specific families with multiple kids and told them after the first one it was half the price for the rest of the kids.
this is a long comment, im going to stop typing now haha
Ben:
That's a great idea to let parents know what the total cost will be for a year of events. Thanks for the input!
I actually am lucky enough to have a budget that covers most everything that I want to do each year. so I always have students pay if they can, and then I offer them to be able to come in and work off however much the activity or event is. And I try to use as much discretion as I can if I think someone is trying to doop me at all.
Jay:
I'm also blessed enough to be at a church that believes in fully funding the youth budget, but that doesn't mean I have a blank check, and I'd be willing to bet you don't either. How do you determine what to charge and how to do scholarships?
We work on a case/need based basis for scholarships. I have a portion of my budget alloted for even scholarships each year.
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