Sequestration Constipation

cutting the budget

What happens when you have a budget sequestration that causes constipation?  Your money gets backed-up in the pipeline.

All of this nonsense I have been reading about a sequestration made me think about the possibility of having a walkathon budget cut. What happens when you are told that you still need to have a walk, and you need to do it for less money?  You have a goal to raise a certain amount of money  – money that researchers, survivors and staff are depending on.  What to do?

Ideally, most walkathons have expenses of less that 20%.  Trimming money will be hard.  Where do you cut the walkathon budget?  I would start with the three largest budget items. Budget Busters – The three P’s:

Postage, Police and Printing.  Here’s how:

Postage

Hopefully you have had a meeting with your local Postmaster, so you can make sure that you are mailing at the least expensive rate.  There is also a company called Postal Advocate that can audit your postage expenses and make sure your are being efficient.

Police

If you are having your walk on City property, you may be stuck with City Police as your only route and site security options.  You may also want to check if the County Sheriff’s department offers security detail for less money.  If your event is on park property, you may be able to have Park Rangers be your route security – for ALOT less money.  Some Park Rangers do not pack heat, and you need the heat around the Registration Tent and Banking areas.

Printing

T-shirts are a huge money-suck on an event.  My feeling is that if you are giving a shirt away for free, then it should be short sleeve white with a one-color imprint on one side.  If you are selling t-shirts, then order less and sell out early.  Cost-cutting options are to buy short sleeve instead of long sleeve.  Two color imprint instead of four.  One-side imprint only. 

Same idea with printing collateral.  Use black and blue instead of four color.  Put a screen on the black and blue in some areas to make them lighter so it looks like you have four colors.  Ask your printer about using less expensive paper.  Maybe there is a less expensive standard size that you can adjust your artwork to fit.  Your graphic designer can help.

It is frustrating to be told to do the same for less.  Budget cuts are no fun, but it is a good exercise to see where you can offer the same services for less money.  I doubt anyone would notice if any of the above suggesstions were actually used.  If they do, you can tell them that sequestration frustration made you do it, and you would rather see the money raised go toward the mission.

who knew?