Pricing Public Programs

Use this worksheet to price programs you want your policymakers to invest in to create genuine and lasting community safety.

Pricing Public Programs Calculator

Use this tool to create a budget proposal and calculate the costs of community programs you wish to propose. It will total the costs and calculate the reduction in your city’s PD budget that would be needed to pay for the proposed program.

There are 3 ways to calculate the cost — just click on the one you want to use:

1. Analogy
Use this method if you want to expand an existing program, such as to serve 25% more families through an existing recreation program.

2. Parametric
Use this method if you know the unit cost to provide a service, such as providing emergency shelter to families at a cost of $25 per family per night.

3. Bottom-up
Use this method if you want to price out each component of the program, such as a job placement program that would need a staff of 25 and a budget of $1M per year.

Costing estimate prepared using the analogy method

Expansion %

Enter the amount you want to expand the program.

200% would double the program.
150% would increase the size by half.
100% keeps the program the same size.

Project Narrative

Describe your project, its goals, and its purpose in the box below

Cost Summary

Quick. Use this approach to estimate based on the overall program budget.

Annual budget of existing program	$
New budget
Increase

	Cost	% of total
Personnel
Services
Equipment
Supplies
Subgrants
Facilities
Total

Possible arguments to justify program expansion include demonstrating the program is:

oversubscribed
very popular
successful in other cities
restricted to certain geographic or demographic groups
has too few locations to be easily accessed

Detailed. Use this approach to estimate based on each component of the program budget if each component needs a separate expansion of funds.

Category	Existing Detail Budget	Expansion Factor
Personnel	$	%
Services	$	%
Equipment	$	%
Supplies	$	%
Subgrants	$	%
Facilities	$	%
TOTAL

	Cost	% of total
Personnel
Services
Equipment
Supplies
Subgrants
Facilities
Total		100%

Costing estimate prepared using the parametric method

Number served

Overhead costs %

Project Narrative

Describe your project, its goals, and its purpose in the box below

Cost Summary

This section updates as you fill in the calculator to provide you an overview of the costs of each component of your program.

Component of the program budget	Cost	% of total	Cost per recipient
Personnel
Supplies
Services
Equipment
Subgrants
Total (detailed, budget for components)		100.00%
Total (quick approach, cost per service)

Calculations

Quick

Use this approach to estimate based on the cost per service of an existing program.

Detailed

Use this approach to estimate based on each component of the program budget if each component needs a separate expansion of funds.

Existing Program		Unit
Annual budget of benchmark program	$
Number served by benchmark program
Estimated cost per service		$ per

Proposed Expanded Program		Unit
Number to be served
Estimated cost per service		$ per
Total cost
Cost of expansion

Components of Unit Cost
Staff time per unit served	$
Supplies per unit served	$
Services per unit served	$
Equipment per unit served	$
Subgrants per unit served	$
Overhead percentage
Subtotal

Estimates of Total Cost
Number to be served
Total cost

Costing analysis prepared using the bottom-up approach

Use these controls to guide the calculations. The sticky note provides some guidance to help you pick values.

Item		Detail
Staff inflation factor		The amount of additional staff you need to be fully staffed while allowing for vacation, sick leave, weekends, and turnover
Staff members per leader		The number of employees (staff + administrative support) working for each person in leadership
Staff members per administrative support		The number of staff members per administrative support staff
Hourly wages
Hourly wage for staff	$	Hourly wage for staff members
Hourly wage for administrative support	$	Hourly wage for administrative support for the program
Hourly wage for leadership	$	Hourly wage for leadership positions
Benefit rates
Benefit rate for staff		The value of benefits, as a percentage of salary, for full time staff members
Benefit rate for administrative support		The value of benefits, as a percentage of salary, for full time administrative support staff
Benefit rate for leadership		The value of benefits, as a percentage of salary, for full time management and leadership
Mileage costs	$	The reimbursed cost per mile for fuel and maintenance on a car

Useful Cost References

$100,000 salary = $48/hour
$50,000 salary = $24/hour
$31,200 salary = $15/hour

$0.56 = federal mileage reimbursement rate (2021)

1.4 staff inflation factor allows for 4–5 weeks of leave per employee while maintaining staffing levels

Project Narrative

Describe your project, its goals, and its purpose in the box below

Cost Summary

This section updates as you fill in the calculator to provide you an overview of the costs of each component of your program.

Cost components	Cost	% of total	Cost per recipient	Cost per appointment
Personnel ( )
Supplies
Services
Equipment
Facilities
Subgrants
Total		100.00%

Cost Components

Recipients	Measure the service provided to each person

How many people do I want to serve?		people
How often do I want to serve them per week?		times
How long do they need assistance from staff?		hours
Staffing hours per week:		hours
How many weeks do I want to serve them per year?		weeks
How many sites do I want to see them at?		locations

Personnel	How many people are required to carry out the service?

Hours staff spend serving recipients each week
Minimum staff needed
Total staff needed including holiday, leave, sick pay, weekend, and other coverage
Administrative support
Leadership
Total Staffing

Compensation	How many people are required to carry out the service?

Staff salary and benefits total
Administrative support salary and benefits total
Leadership salary and benefits
Total compensation costs

Supplies	What supplies are needed to provide the program?

Cost of supplies per recipient per appointment	$
Cost of supplies per staff member	$
Staff Supplies
Recipient Supplies
Supplies Total

Services	What external contracts are needed to support this work?

IT support contracts	$
Transportation contracts	$
Community organization contracts	$
Other contracts	$
External service provider contract totals

Equipment	What equipment is needed to support this work?

Computers

Computers per staff member		computer(s)
Additional computers		computer(s)
Price per computer	$
Replacement period		years
Startup computer costs
Average annual computer costs

Vehicles

Vehicles needed
Average cost per vehicle
Annual mileage per vehicle per year
Mileage costs
Vehicle lifespan		years
Annual vehicle cost of ownership per vehicle		mileage + purchase cost
Average annual vehicle costs

Specialty Equipment

Annual cost of any special equipment
Equipment Total

Facilities	How much space is needed to provide services and maintain operations?

Square footage per staff member
Square footage per program recipient
Program recipients per site on average at any time
Total staff square footage		ft²
Total recipient square footage		ft²
Staff square footage per site		ft²
Recipient square footage per site		ft²
Average cost per square foot	$
Monthly square footage rent
Annual square footage rent

Subgrants	Scholarships, grants to community organizations, or other funds you will give out

Recipients
Award amount	$
Award subtotal
Additional funds to disburse	$
Total subgrants

Cost Summary:
Recipients
Personnel
Compensation
Supplies
Services
Equipment
Facilities
Subgrants

About the Tool

The Pricing Public Programs worksheet empowers members of the public to use a Google Sheet to “cost out” – or find the price of – public programs.

Using the spreadsheet the user can select among three different costing methodologies depending on the information and time available to conduct the costing analysis. The costing approach in the worksheet is designed to be flexible to a wide variety of social service programs, and users are encouraged to consult the User Guide for details on how to choose the right methodology for their purposes.

The cost estimates created in this tool can then be incorporated into the The People’s Budget Calculator to craft a proposal for submission to local officials.