Charging for Youth Group

After 19 years of leading a weekly youth group, I've finally started charging kids to come. Our youth group meets on Sunday nights from 6-8pm and we've developed a rhythm of beginning our time with dinner together. It's typically cooked by Papa John, but sometimes we go homemade or catered.

In the past, I've asked folks to bring $5 whenever they come, to help cover the cost of pizza and drinks, but most kids forget and don't have cash on them. They say "we'll bring money next week" but then never do. In the spring, it took a toll on the youth budget, so this fall I decided to attempt a different approach.

I asked parents ahead of time to budget and plan to pay $75/kid for the semester. We're meeting 14 Sunday nights this fall, so it's about $5/dinner. 

It might feel strange to charge for youth group, but parents would be paying for their child's dinner either way and $5 is pretty cheap to feed a growing teenager. Also, parents are used to paying for their children's activities: school, sports, etc... and many of them appreciate not having to remember cash each time. 

To borrow a poker term, the biggest advantage has been that kids are "pot committed." Now that they've made a financial investment, they're less likely to miss each week. If you're paying for a piano lesson, you're less likely to skip- same principle. This semester, our attendance has been the highest and most consistent ever. I think a big reason is that kids are literally bought in. 


*I contacted a few specific parents ahead of time who I knew might have trouble paying. I told them I didn't want this to be a financial burden, so just to pay what they could, when they could.