Charging $$ for VBS...?

[Tina]

Has anyone ever asked for a donation for each child attending VBS? Last year my children were asked to pay $10 apiece for the week at another church's VBS and I didn't like it... I guess it seemed tacky to me. However, now that I am a VBS director, with a very low budget, the idea is looking better and better! However, I don't want to turn people off - especially newcomers to our church. We are in a relatively nice area - not low-income or anything like that. I'm just not sure what to do. Any advice on this?

[kimbak]

We charge $10/child at our VBS, but nobody is ever turned away if they can't afford it, especially if they have several children. They get the t-shirt and cd free with their registration, so the fee doesn't cover the cost of VBS, but helps a little. We have other churches in our area who charge $20-$30/child for VBS, and others who don't charge at all, but the t-shirts are optional.

I know it's an outreach, but people are usually grateful to have a positive activity for their kids for a week for only $10.

[sara2002]

We only accept donations. There is not charge for VBS because we want everyone to be able to come to VBS. Since we only accept donations we receive more money that if he had set a price. It has worked out well for us.

[jruckman]

I think we touch on this issue every year. I feel strongly about not charging fees for Bible School. We wouldn't think about charging for worship or Sunday School, so why this? I publish lists of craft supplies, snack needs, and decorating materials for folks to donate, and I gratefully accept monetary donations which, along with the VBS line item in the church budget, covers the costs. (and if it doesn't, anyone who complains gets to be my co-director next year!)

Our community is also overwhelmingly upper-middle class, but you never really know about someone else's finances. Who hasn't heard of home foreclosures in even the nice neighborhoods? I would not want anyone to hesitate for even one second about enrolling their child in VBS due to financial embarrassment. I absolutely believe that it's one of those "stepping out on faith" things. On more than one occasion we've had someone who has been helped financially by our church or its food pantry return the favor by helping back in a big way. That absolutely reinforces the faith of all involved.
(stepping down off soapbox)
Janet

[MissElle]

We don't charge for our VBS either. I guess I can see doing it if it's an all day VBS, but ours is an evening program.

The kids get a t-shirt and a CD. The donations for all of that come from people in the congregation, as do snacks, etc.

The budget is used only for those things we can't get donated. It works out well. We also have a VERY low budget, so I understand your concern, but if you can at all afford it, then don't do it!

[TrinityJen]

We also have local churches that charge $20+. Another sends offering envelops home each day, but doesn’t do missions collection. What our church has settled on is a voluntary donation of $5 per child. I do not keep track of who gives what. On my printed registration form I ask for parents to help out in some way, volunteering, praying or sponsoring a child. A lot of people give more than the $5. This year we are starting on-line registration, I am not sure how this will work with donations. I will probably set up a box by the registration table. I am not worried at all, I am also going to ask the congregation to sponsor a child, I will strongly suggest that the people who don’t believe in charging help to support the ministry so we don’t have to ask at all. We do also ask for a lot of donations, this year isn’t going so well. You would think no one has every heard of poster board.

We also give out cds (donated from w/in the church) and the kids bring in there own white shirt to paint for crafts. We have a few extras available.

For missions we are going to ask for $1.41 from each child. Pennies on Monday, nickels on Tuesday, then dines, quarters, and finally dollars. We might even make it a competition. We will also be collecting paper items for our local food pantry (or school items).

[nana]

We are another church that doesn't charge for VBS. It is another ministry, our little congregation of about 25 people donate hundreds of dollars for VBS, and we are all elderly and on limited funds. We have 6 children in our Sunday School, but this ministry reaches about 50-60 kids in the community. We are blessed!
Nana

[Mari-Jo]

We do charge for VBS. Since our church does not financially support the VBS, I have to charge something and pray for additional donations to try and offset the cost. Last year I foot the bill for over 50% of the program out of my own pocket.:eek: We had about 75 kids last year! We only charged $10.00 per child, free if you were a volunteer. Almost half the kids were volunteers' kids. This did not even come close to covering the cost of VBS! We had some additional financial donors and a neighboring church gave us their leftovers, that was awesome! :) This year our VBS is early and won't have that. We are charging $20 for the first child, $10 for the second, and a family max of $50. Sadly, we are responsible for funding VBS if we want it. :( I know charging isn't ideal- but if the alternative is that one person pays for the whole thing out of pocket or it won't happen- then you might consider charging, too. :( I agree, I think that it should be free and the church should pay to support the program and budget for it. The children are the future. They should be receiving that message.

Also, we give each family a music cd, each child and volunteer an iron-on, the student book and nice crafts and snacks each day. You can't get childcare for 10-20 dollars for 15 hours! Besides, people send their kids to the YMCA day camps and spend a couple hundred dollars for a week! VBS is cheap even for $20!

[Tina]

This has given me good food for thought. I really prefer not to charge (especially since we will also be asking kids to bring money each day for missions) but the reality is that we have a very small budget to work with. Lots to think about! Thanks, everyone.

[youthgumc]

I have never heard of a church charging for VBS - this is all news to me! I am blessed to have a budgeted amount for VBS. In the past I have also posted supply lists and people donated supplies. In lieu of a snack each night, we provide a healthy meal first thing and skip opening assembly. Kids learn much better if they have full bellies. For those struggling, I posted a list of our leftover supplies in another thread - maybe you could use some of them.

[Teresa Peters]

We also do not have a budget for VBS. We run a full day program, serve lunch and two snacks. The children take home crafts each day and a cd at the end of the week. We charge $30 for the whole week. Even with the $30 from each child, I still end up putting in hundreds of dollars myself.

[Josh1]

I personally don't charge either for VBS because I think it's wrong to charge kids to hear the Gospel but I can understand churches who have low budgets and need that extra money to fund VBS.

For SonForce Kids last year, I spend $600 and the rest was donated so we spent about $800. I don't do a VBS in a church but it's about the same format and set-up.

If I was a VBS Director in a church I would have one VBS fundraiser around December - January to get people ready and into the theme. If anyone wanted to donate their money to VBS from the congregation, that would be the time. Donation bulletin boards would go up before VBS so if anyone wanted to donate supplies for snacks, crafts, etc. they could. Anything that isn't donated would come out of the VBS Budget. Finally, families could donate money to VBS if they wanted to during the week.
God Bless,
Josh

[JessicaTanner]

I've always been uncomfortable charging the kids for VBS, especially since we do it on Sunday mornings instead of during the week. Instead, we have a suggested donation of $15/child, with a maximum of $50/family. Each child gets a t-shirt for free, so any of the donations help to offset that cost, which usually eats up over a third of our budget. We don't start planning our summer program until around the end of May, so it's hard to be able to fundraise or get stuff donated. But this seems to work well enough.

[Mari-Jo]

Our VBS usually runs around $2800 for around 75 kids. :o This is because I need to buy almost everything. We also have crafts that we hope will be keepsakes or useful and not just end up in the trash by Friday. We try to stick with around a dollar a craft. But that ends up being $400-500 just for crafts for a week. We have to have crafts for 100 kids just in case. I always try to return items I don't use. I keep trying to get people to donate items, food, etc- but our church is not very good with that. We get about 10% of what is listed as needed items. There is no money in the church budget for this program. Our pastor believes it is an "extra" that we can do without. I am not allowed to have a second collection at church, and if any fundraisers are done- I will be the only one doing them :eek: as my helpers don't start coming around until a couple months before we start. My husband is not really on board with me paying for the whole thing so- I have very little choices. We have asked different groups within our church for donations and have gotten $1200 so far!! :D The rest will come from the parents. By the way- the church does keep track of what each person pays for VBS, and it is added into each family's tax donation statement. I wish this part was a lot easier!:o Last year I charged everything on my credit card and even after all the donations came in- I had paid out $1500 out of pocket. That isn't right either. :( Some churches are awesome about donating just about everything, we're not there yet. I love VBS and believe it in! That is why I do this. My goal is to get to where at least half is donated and the rest comes out a church budget. Each year it does improve! :)

[kimbak]

I can remember when I was a kid paying a dollar a night to attend VBS.
We don't feel we're charging for the kids to hear the gospel. We find that in our area, most parents are looking for things to keep their kids busy during the summer and many of the kids who attend go from one VBS to another as their summer activity. For most paying a few dollars for their kids to have a fun, positive activity during the summer is no problem. We always have a good number of kids who accept Christ during the week, so we feel that they intended to sign up for a week of fun, and receve much, much more.
We also have several who are going through tough times and they are always free, no questions asked. Our worker's kids are always free too.

[jruckman]

Oh, Mari-Jo! I am so sorry! We expect right at 100 kids to attend our VBS (some regular attenders, some not), and our church has a line item for $900 for VBS, with much donated in-kind for craft supplies, decorating, and all the snacks. Are the parents of your 75 attendees aware that you're paying for so much of your VBS? How much influence might that block of members have on your church leadership to create a line item for VBS? Ok, and I'll go ahead and say this: How can anyone think of VBS as a "extra"?!!?!!!! Please!!!! The time the kids are in VBS equals about 4 months of Sunday school! What is 1/3 of your annual Sunday School budget? Before you go any more into your own pocket, do yourself and your congregation a favor and get them financially behind this! They will have greater ownership of the program if they are more invested in it.
Janet

[Mari-Jo]

Just this year it "leaked" that one person spent $1500 out of pocket to pay for VBS. It also has come to the attention of some that there is no money budgeted for VBS. They were outraged. I am so busy preparing for VBS, which starts in less than 3 weeks, that I can't even worry about it anymore this year. Thank you for your support and ideas. I share your belief that VBS should NEVER be thought of as an EXTRA! I never thought about the time being equal to 4 months of Sunday School. That is going to be a great tidbit to use for our cause. You have a point- VBS should be 1/3 of the budget! After this summer, I will approach the finance committee. I have no idea what is in the budget now, I only know what's not. My budget of $2800 includes buying all the food, decorating items and craft supplies. Our budget could be lowered IF the congregation would get behind this. Pray for us!! Thanks for your moral support!