cost

cost estimates

cost analysis

cost-benefit

cost-effectiveness

Most programs and projects have more than one program cost associated with them. There may be the cost of building rental, supplies, staffing, and other costs. The overall cost of a program can be analyzed in terms of the various costs required to implement that program. This is a cost analysis.

For example, one might produce a thorough description of the type and amount of resources used to produce a service such as violence prevention education in the local schools. Cost analyses are quite useful when deciding how to allocate (or shift) funds among budget categories within a program, and also for understanding the relationships between costs and outcomes.

Many programs use bookkeeping and accounting services that provide regular – quarterly or monthly – reports. These reports are cost analyses in that they report on the costs at various levels of program operation, from the total cost of the program for the entire time period to the cost of each part of the program each month, week or day. Some cost analysis accountings go into another type of detail, figuring the cost per person served during each time period being analyzed.

This form of analysis allows a program to say something like this:

• For $85,000, we have served 1,000 students in this county with our program’s violence prevention education this year, at an average cost of $85 dollars per student served; or

• For $100,000, we have trained 1,000 doctors this year, who together see a total of 400,000 patients a year, to recognize the signs of domestic violence and to know community domestic violence prevention and response resources, at a cost of $100 per doctor trained or $4 per patient; or

• This year, we have produced, tested and distributed a domestic violence prevention video at a cost of $20,000:

1. We first showed this video to 800 college students. Were we to stop there, this video project would have cost $25 per college student (of the initial 800) shown this video.

2. However, this showing resulted in these 800 students placing orders for another 368 copies of this video.

3. We estimate that these 368 copies will be viewed by a minimum of four more students per video ordered this year, totaling 1,472 students.

4. Adding the first 800 students to the additional 1,472 students, we have a minimum of 2,272 students viewing this video this year.

5. Dividing the original $20,000 by the total number of students, we find that the (estimated) cost per student viewing this video has dropped from $25 to just under $9!