Let’s talk about money

This is an area where some Leaders find it hard, and if this is you, you’re not alone.

First and foremost, we are here for the girls. The young members, the Rainbows, Brownies, Guides, Rangers and Young Leaders. But as each unit’s initial source of funding is parents, we sometime forget that these matters should not be directly linked and girls are at risk of losing amazing opportunities as a result.

Every unit should have a budget, sounds scary doesn’t. Too complicated, I wouldn’t even know where to start. Well, it doesn’t have to be. All it means is having a think about how much the unit will spend on things like activities, books & badges, rent, leaders unit form & training, and the annual subscription in a year. Last year’s accounts are a really good place to start with this. Once you have a rough idea of the annual unit cost, you then need to figure out how you are going to fund it.

The normal case is to divide it by the average number of girls in your unit and ask the parents for a donation to cover the cost (aka subs). But what happens if some parents are not able to make the suggested donation?

Did you know there are lots of other sources of funding available to units? Such as Gift Aid, grants, workplace support or fundraising events.

Girlguiding Bedfordshire has a number of grants available to help units give girls the best experiences. So, if you find that despite your best efforts at budgeting, ends are not meeting, maybe more parents than anticipated have not been able to contribute to subs or the unit has welcomed some new volunteers which were unbudgeted for and now the unit can’t afford the annual subscription, why not see what other support is available like the Girlguiding Bedfordshire sustainability grant (insert link).

Don’t worry if you don’t know where to start with any of this or it’s become a little too overwhelming, speak to your Commissioner for support. She will be able to put you in touch with someone who does “do numbers” and together you’ll be able to make this monster less scary.