Cheryl, the forumla I have always used includes:

• event expenses that are not donated - printing, postage, police, room, food, entertainment, rentals, premuims given out (shirts, champagne glasses etc)
• staff salaries and wages - number of hours each staff person worked on the event (tracked starting day one of planning the event and ending with the last task completed for the event).  So, number of hours worked x calculated hourly rate for that employee)

I do not go as far as to track insurance expenses for employees.  Including staff salaries give me an more accurate report of what it  really cost us to raise each dollar.  It also helps me justify whether or not an event is worth doing - are we making enough money doing this event?

I also ask staff to think about the "opportunity cost" associated with their work on an event - what COULD they be doing instead of working on the event to bring in more money, recruit more volunteers etc (based on what their job is).  I talk about this in regards to the importance of using volunteers whenever possible.  For example, one time I walked in to the YMCA where I was the director and found my six highest paid staff members stuffing goodie bags for a golf tournament - they had been stuffing bags for three hours EACH - those are expensive goodie bags compared to having volunteers fill them.

Hope this helps.  Let me know if you want to talk more about it.

Jim

We use all expenses (That includes all those 'donated things' GIK's are technically counted as expenses on the financial side) Salaries are definitely included in our expenses. I could list all the ledgers that our expenses go into, but that would make a pretty big post. Expenses include our rent, utillities, phone, depreciation on assets, Salaries, FICA, pension, supplies, banking fees, advertising and promotion, contract fees, consulting fees, etc. Anything that contributes to the cost of doing business.