Budgeting Tips for Volunteer Community Leaders
How to Develop a Budget for Newsletters

As part of the process of planning the editorial calendar for the newsletter, you should also develop a budget to make sure that you have adequate funds to cover the anticipated expense of publishing the information. One of the largest problems in managing newsletters, in fact, is the failure to accurately budget for programs or the failure to budget at all.

The budget includes two elements: expenses and income.

Expenses

Expenses are the costs for preparing and publishing the newsletter.

Typical expenses for a printed newsletter include:

• Desktop publishing software, such as Quark Express or Microsoft Publisher .
• Writing expenses (if any), such as the cost of sending a reporter to an event. Usually these expenses are negligable.
• Photography expenses, such as the cost of film, and developing and printing photos
• Printing expenses. Printing expenses include:
• Number of pages in an issue. The number must be even but should be divisible by 4 (printing 2- pages is often almost as expensive as printing 4 pages)
• Number of copies per issue
• Special printing requests, such as a second color ink or an unusual page size
• Folding (almost always needed) (usually a nominal cost per copy)
• Binding (such as stapling) (usually a nominal cost per copy)
• Mailing expenses. Mailing expenses include:
• Postage, which varies by class
• Handling, if you hire someone to affix mailing labels to the newsletters and take them to the post office
• Promotional expenses. Costs of advertising a program in local newspapers.
• Other costs.

Typical expenses for an online newsletter include:

• Web publishing software, such as Macromedia DreamWeaver or Microsoft Front Page.
• Writing expenses (if any), such as the cost of sending a reporter to an event. Usually these expenses are negligable.
• Photography expenses, such as the cost of film, and developing and printing photos
• Web hosting expenses.
• Promotional expenses, such as the cost of any printed materials used to promote the website or e-mailing services to send announcements about a new edition.
• Other costs.

Top

Income

Income refers to revenue generated by the newsletter. Generally, income from newsletters comes from:

• Subscription fees. Although most organizations provide their newsletter free to members as a benefit of membership, some organizations allow non-members to receive copies by subscribing to the newsletter.  For most organizations, such revenues are negibible.
• Advertising. Organizations can receive fees in return for providing organizations with space on a page to promote their products, services, or other messages.  Usually, organizations that accept advertising have a policy indicating from whom they accept the advertising. Rates for advertising vary, depending on the number of subscribers and how closely the demographics of the readers match those sought by the advertiser.
• Treasury. The treasury of your organization can provide funds for newsletters. Note, however, that if the treasury funds significant expenses for every newsletter, it might   not have enough money for other activities, such as programs. .

 

Top

Sample Budget

Following is an example of a budget for newsletters:

Top

Committee chairs | Managing volunteers | Treasurers | Newsletter editors | Program and education chairs

(c) Copyright. Saul Carliner. 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002. All rights reserved.