Money Talk part 2: Where the money comes from

In Part 1 of our Money Talk series, we broke down all of the expenses we anticipate this year for our programs and services. You know that our mission is to provide, through service and faith, an engaging learning environment for all of our children, regardless of their family’s ability to pay. We offer a sliding scale for families to pay our weekly fees based on their income and we accept certificates for government reimbursement. Last year, 30% of our families used state-funded childcare vouchers.  Each week, our preschool families paid (on average) $104  (true cost of care was $203) and our infant and toddler families paid, on average, $190 (true cost of care was $265).

This might have left you wondering, how does a non-profit childcare center pay for a full-time staff of 22 people? How do they provide food and supplies for breakfasts, lunches, and a heavy snack every day for 79 children?

Here’s our breakdown of anticipated revenue for this year:

Yes, you read that chart correctly. Our families (with and without government assistant) pay for about half of the actual cast of care. For the rest of our revenue, we are grateful to a three year grant from the United Way (designated specifically for our literacy efforts), some investment income, and the rest (40%) comes from fundraisers, grants, and donations from local businesses and individuals like you!

Here’s a detailed breakdown of our fundraising plan for that 40% of our budget this year:

We’re beefing up our efforts in Special Events and gifts from Individuals this year. We’re currently accepting applications for a part time Development Specialist/Fundraising Coordinator (if you are qualified for this position or know someone who is, please click here for more information!). Sidenote – we’re also hiring classroom educators, so if you have any fantastic people in mind, please let us know or send them this link!

Your donations are critical to our ability to provide our wonderful service to our community – EXCELLENT and AFFORDABLE childcare. Committing to a monthly recurring donation is particularly helpful as we are able to more accurately project our revenue for the year if we know we have monthly gifts we can count on.

Can we count on you? Click here to donate now and check the “Make this a monthly contribution” option when you complete your online transaction! Thank you so much for your support. We cannot support our community’s families and help our children flourish without your help!

A full history and current financial and government documents are always up to date on our Giving Matters profile (here) if you are looking for more information!