CharityComms

Q: What’s your top budgeting tip?

A: Befriend your Communications or Fundraising Director and your accounts department so they understand why targets and actual expenditure for different projects can vary so enormously. For example, we might budget for an overseas trip with a celebrity that doesn’t happen, but that money is not dead and buried – we can allocate it to a different story, maybe a PR stunt in the UK. Flexibility is very important in PR. Also, remember to budget for miscellaneous celebrity expenditure – these costs can quickly add up, especially for a photo shoot.
 
Q: Are things set in stone at the start of the year, or is there a lot of flexibility?

A: Things have to be allocated to particular codes before the financial year starts, and with a quarterly breakdown. This is very hard to do as stories for the coming year may not be developed by that stage or may be dependent on external factors. Stories crop up which cannot be anticipated in advance so have no budget. Flexibility is needed throughout the year as stories progress and invoices are coded accordingly. As long as the PR department has a good explanation for why a budget code has overspent or under-spent, that’s accepted.
 
Q: Are there things that always take up a larger chunk of the budget than you expect?

A: Cutting agencies and external media evaluation agencies. We don't know how many cuttings we'll get per month, or whether we'll get a lot of broadcast coverage in a particular month, which is an extra expense. Also trips overseas – we don't always know whether they will happen or fall through, or how big the press trip will be. If there’s an unexpected story overseas, say related to a crisis or disaster, we may need pictures or footage and that will be an extra cost, or a PR person may have to go overseas. Again, we can't predict whether something like this will happen and there’s no room in the budget for contingency.
 
Q: What areas give the best value for money?

A: Further PR training for staff. Also cuttings – they can vary in cost but are very important to prove we're achieving results (the same applies to evaluation). And when you get the coverage you want, it's worth every penny
 
Q: Anything you consider a waste?

A: Nothing is a waste – everything is an opportunity, even if it doesn't generate sufficient coverage. Just be prudent and spend money only on the most necessary stories. We have taken calculated budget risks at the Brooke with our PR strategy – two in particular during the course of 2007. One, which involved photo shoots at beaches around the UK, didn't work in terms of coverage, so was dropped half way through and the story evolved into something else. Another involved taking a film crew to India and filming people on one of our overseas challenge rides, which got lots of regional TV coverage. Both required a budget, but one got more coverage than the other.
 
Q: What would you like to spend more on if you could?

A: Photography and filming overseas, video news releases – more money for taking footage overseas and editing.
 
Q: Do you get the budget you need?

A: With current resources in the press team, yes. There is only so much a press team of three can do (and spend) throughout the year.
 
Q: Anything you’ve learnt the hard way?

A: A company was supposed to invoice us by the end of the financial year, but hadn't, and the PR team had forgotten about it. So we got a large invoice in the next financial year, which hadn’t been budgeted for, even though it was the company’s error.
 
Q: Any other advice?

A: Be brave when commissioning work. Some things may seem expensive, but you can find ways to cut costs, by negotiating with production companies and so on. And take (calculated) financial risks – not the same as rash decisions, which are NOT advisable. Sometimes it's the only way to get the required coverage. 

The Money Advice Trust is a charity offering free, independent money advice to people with debt problems. Ian Witcombe, Deputy Chief Executive, offers some advice on budgeting to charity PR teams.
 
• Focus on the charity’s objectives. Ensure you are fully conversant with your aims and objectives and focus the allocation to the areas which will achieve the greatest benefit to the end user. Is your business plan fit for purpose and will it help you achieve the objectives for the year? 
 
• Are incoming funds guaranteed? If not, then it is wise to build a budget that can be scaled down at relatively short notice. Consider the full cost implications of any expansion plans.
 
• Ensure ownership of the budget at a working level. Ultimately the governing body are accountable however on a practical level you should allocate responsibility and ensure sound financial procedural guidelines are understood. These include who can authorise expenditure and to what amount.
 
• Agree regular budget reviews. Monthly management information should include a year-to-date update, a year-to-date comparison against the budget and a revised forecast for the remainder of the year.

Ends.