In this article, I will share my personal experience as a director and my thoughts about budget, finances, fund raising, partnerships corporations and investing in your staff and yourself.

Often when it comes to budgeting, finances, fund raising, it seems that there is so, much to do and so little resources to accomplish them.  As directors we need to move out of the crisis mode and into planning ahead. It’s important to look at how to make your resources, and support network work for you. 

Budgeting was never my favorite but I was fortunate to have an assistant who was marvelous at what I called, “creative finances”. She really was very good at budgeting and keeping me on task and in the black as much as possible. Child care is a dicey business with little income and being a cash business made it difficult to plan for the future and to have supplemental resources. We based our annual budget on what each classroom was generating in revenue and figured out what percentage that was of the total budget. And each year we would increase the expenses for a cost of living at about 10%. We also figured our average daily attendance to project our monthly income and took the average from the past year to predict the upcoming year. Of course we under estimated so that we looked better than projected.

Now of course all of our income was not from tuition paying customers. We had a few generous donations from parishioners and we did fund raising. I have done almost every imaginable fund raising endeavor without much success. I hate to say it but we didn’t pursue a fund raising event unless it generated at least $1500 (1997). It just wasn’t worth our time and energy. The two that generated the most money were an annual auction and candy bar sales. The candy bars were easy for the parents to take to work and watch them disappear and then bring the money back. The auction was started by a parent and each year it grew to where it ended up with all sorts of door prize donations, auction items were homemade crafts and baked goods. We even did a raffle as part of the auction. My cook (chef) made the food that she sold so that people could come for dinner, Sloppy Joes, chips, coleslaw etc. When we did fund raising we had a goal in mind of what the money would be used for and made that public to help motivate the parents.

We continually reviewed our expenses and the vendors we dealt with to explore ways to better meet the needs of the center in a more economical way yet maintain quality standards. We did cold call mailings to paper manufactures and printers asking for donations of their end rolls of paper. We got lots of paper and all sorts of paper this way. You just have to be willing to pick it up. I networked with my center director friends to exchange our donations for some of there donations. For example, I traded envelopes and sticky pads for cardboard redbrick blocks. This way both centers win and we build relationships.

I worked with area business people to create the North Main Business District. Through stepping out side the child care field I began to learn other techniques valuable to promoting and growing a business. We have to look at different ways in ECE to be creative and innovative business persons.

These businesses networked with me and some of their children attended our center and we utilized their services. It was a win-win partnership.

Over the years I have thought that with child care being on limited resources: tuition, fund raisers, county contracts for children, food programs, and donations that we should be thinking outside the box. We need to find corporations who would adopt a child care center. What is $50,000 to a big corporation? But, for child care it’s huge! Think what you could do with an extra $50,000 a year. You ask, what’s in it for the corporation? Well, this would purchase them X amount of spots for their employees or future employee’s children. You would subtract the cost of the slots from the money donated and you would have additional revenue. Now, I just made up the $50.000 but you get the picture.

A major goal for funds raised was staff development. Investing in me and my staff was critical to the continued success and growth of the program. As I saw it, my job was to nurture my staff and take care of them which I did regularly. We had a budget for professional development and they were encouraged to attend trainings, workshops and conferences. I paid as much if not all of their fees to attend these functions. We also would pay for formalized education at a local college, one class per semester/quarter.  My view is that investing in my staff helped to solidify their commitment to our center, grow professionally and becoming a better teacher with the children. When my staff accomplished a degree they received a raise. Teachers need to be committed to the pursuit of life long learning.

Part of my budget was also dedicated to paying for workshops, in-service training, conferences, and college classes. I also allocated money for perks, gifts and acknowledgment of accomplishments and successes. I viewed my responsibility as nurturing my staff and taking care of them so that they in turn could take care of the children and their families. Sometimes the money isn’t readily available but there are creative ways to reward and support your staff. In a future article I will talk about one of my favorite topics “perks” for staff. Stay tuned and remember you need to set the tone and create an open environment that is supportive and nurturing.