Our series on planning for bigger events continues today with a focus on budgeting for events.

Whether you have a generous budget or no budget at all, you’ll find this post super practical for figuring out the cost of your events.

Why You Need an Event Budget

The very first women’s ministry event I planned was a ministry kick-off. There had been no active women’s ministry for close to two years. I was so excited to share our vision and plans with the women in our church. I can’t remember who catered the event, but we had a picnic theme – fried chicken and sides. (This was before I discovered I needed to be gluten-free.)

It’s been a long time, so many of the details are fuzzy. Did we ask women to register? I don’t recall. How many attended? I can’t remember.

One detail has been burned into my brain. My income and expenses did not match. I was $400 short. At my first women’s ministry event. Pastor Mark was very understanding, all things considered, but he also impressed upon me the importance that this not happen again. It was a humiliating and sanctifying experience. One I want to help you avoid.

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How to Create an Event Budget

While it may be tempting to choose a nice round number, or just go with what’s typically been charged in the past for a similar event, doing so can throw a major wrench in our women’s ministry budget and you might get called into the pastor’s office too.

As good stewards, we need to calculate the actual cost of the event and determine a price per person that doesn’t fall short or far exceed those expenses.

Today, I want to help you set your event budget. In the next post, we’ll walk through how to set the price for your event price.

At the same church where I blew out the budget, I received a Special Event/Project Budgeting Sheet when it was time to submit our ministry budget request for the year – and not just because I blew it with the kick-off event. Every ministry leader had to complete these sheets.

This sheet was to be filled out for every event, activity, or project we were going to put on our calendar during the next fiscal year.

It’s a detailed sheet that forced our team to get specific about our budget request. If we wanted budgeted money, we had to show on paper how it would be used.

In cases where we were going to host a zero-budget event (where you charge a fee to balance out the cost), we had to put that on paper too.

Thinking through the nitty-gritty details helped to ensure we didn’t overlook a large expense or a bunch of smaller ones.

Knowing how helpful it was for our team, I’ve tweaked and recreated this form for you to use. You’ll find a free PDF file of the Event Budget Form here. It’s also one of the free resources in my book, Women’s Ministry Essentials.

To give you an idea of what’s on the Event Budget Form, I’ll quickly walk through the categories. You’ll find the complete form here.

What’s on the Event Budget Worksheet?

Pre-Event Planning: Flyers/Signs/Banners, Advertisements/Social Media, Other Promo items

Planning Supplies: Food/Beverages for Planning Team, Meeting Supplies, Books/Other Resources

Event Site: Meeting Room Rental(s), Group Lodging, Childcare, Equipment Rental, Decorations, Clean-up Fees, Tech Team

Transportation: Gas & Mileage, Van/Bus Rental

Guest Speakers: Fee/Honorarium, Travel & Transportation, Lodging, Meals, Welcome Gift

Worship Team/Musicians: Fee/Honorarium. Travel & Transportation, Lodging, Meals, Welcome Gift, Food

Meal(s): Food/Beverages, Snacks, Servers/Serving Fee

Other Expenses: Activity Fees, Programs & Pens, Door Prizes, Goodie Bags/Favors, Name Tags, Scholarships, Miscellaneous

Before you start plugging information into the event budget form, I have 10 tips to share with you.

10 tips for Using the Event Budget Worksheet

1. If your expenses do not equal the amount you’ve budgeted for the event, you’re going to need to charge a fee, fundraise, or secure donations. Talk to your Pastor about what is appropriate at your church.

2. If your ministry has no budget (I know that’s the case for a lot of smaller churches) hold your planning team accountable for taking every expense into consideration so no one spends money out of their own pocket to cover the cost. This means you need to share the information with your team.

3. Many of the items may not apply to smaller events. Just leave them blank and move on.

4. Utilize the empty spaces for expenses not already listed or place them in the miscellaneous category.

5. Submit a copy to your pastor and/or Finance Committee along with your annual budget request. Keep a copy for yourself and team leaders in your women’s ministry binders or files.

6. Consider adding a small miscellaneous line item to cover large events such as a retreat or conference. There’s a bigger chance you’ll underestimate or forget a necessary expense.

7. Allow the team flexibility to move money from one category to another if everyone is in agreement when the planning begins in earnest. Here’s a great example. You might stumble upon an amazing item for the retreat goodie bags that costs $1/per person that the team is willing to purchase if another line item is decreased to make up the increased cost.

8. Keep copies for future planning. It’s a lot easier to pull out an event budget from two years ago and tweak it rather than creating a new one from scratch. At the same time, attach any notes or a copy of your Post Event Evaluation Form (a freebie you can access here) that will be of assistance in the future. You may discover you greatly over or underestimated an item or two.

9. Don’t forget your servers and childcare volunteers. If you’re hosting an event during a mealtime, you’ll need to communicate with the parents and your volunteers if you are providing a meal for them.

10. Track each and every expense. If you’re going to be over budget, for whatever reason, let your pastor know as soon as possible.

Event Budget Worksheet (Click to access free PDF file.)

Here are today’s Toolbox Tasks:

1. Download the free Event Budget Worksheet.
2. Complete the Event Budget Worksheet for your next event.
3. Don’t forget to take into account deposits for lodging, event space, and speakers that you may need to make before any money is collected.

As funny as it may sound, I’m thankful for that first budget buster. It made me much more aware and careful about how I budgeted for our women’s ministry events going forward.

Be sure to subscribe to my email list, so you don’t miss the next post. I’ll be talking about deciding what to charge for events.

You may also want to read:
The Ultimate Women’s Ministry Event Timeline: When to Book, Plan, and Prepare
Building an Effective Event Planning Team
Building Prayer into Every Step of Your Women’s Ministry Event
Seven Benefits of Hosting Big Events in Your Women’s Ministry
Planning Purposeful Events for Your Ministry
Rethinking Fellowship: How to Host Meaningful Women’s Ministry Events
Everything You Need to Know About Planning a Retreat
Women’s Ministry Essentials: How to Build and Sustain a Thriving Christian Community