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Resources · Cost per Boy
Cost per Boy
What it costs to run Let Me Run for one boy for one year, and what is pushing that number up · 2014–15 through the 2026–27 budget
How it’s worked out: everything Let Me Run spent in a fiscal year (July–June), divided by the boys served that year. Fall and spring are added together, so a boy who ran both seasons counts twice. Spending comes from QuickBooks; 2025–26 is not yet audited; 2026–27 is the board budget divided by this year’s boy goal.
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Spending and Cost per Boy, by Fiscal Year
Bars = total spending (left scale): staff pay at the bottom, everything else on top · Line = cost per boy (right scale)
Staff pay
Everything else
Cost per boy
Budget, not yet spent
2019–20 and 2020–21 are left out: COVID cut spring 2020 short and no season ran in 2020–21, so spending per boy those years says nothing about the program.
Revenue vs Cost per Boy
Bars = what came in per boy: registration fees at the bottom, gifts, grants and sponsors on top · Line = what it cost per boy · where the line is above the bar, that year lost money
Registration fees (after scholarships and discounts)
Gifts, grants & sponsors
Cost per boy
Budget
Break-even at Full List Price
How many boys paying full list price it would take for fees alone to cover a year’s spending
Boys served
Boys needed at full list
What’s Driving the Rise
How much of each change in cost per boy came from staff pay, and how much from everything else
| Comparing | Cost per boy | Share from staff pay | Boys | Staff pay | Everything else |
|---|
“Share from staff pay” = the change in staff pay per boy ÷ the change in total cost per boy. Boys, Staff pay and Everything else are the change in the yearly totals.
Year by Year
QuickBooks totals by fiscal year (July–June) · per-boy columns rounded to the dollar
| Fiscal year | Boys | Staff pay | per boy | Everything else | per boy | Total spent | Cost per boy |
|---|
What the Money Went On
Pick a year · every QuickBooks expense account, grouped · click a group to see its accounts · “Change” is per boy against the year before it on this page
| Group / account | Spent | Per boy | Share of the year | Change per boy |
|---|
The groups are only for reading; the accounts add up exactly to the year’s total spending. Staff pay here is the same five accounts as the charts above.
What Counts as What
Staff pay — everything that pays people who work for Let Me Run: salaries, payroll taxes, employee benefits, staff appreciation (the QuickBooks 800 Personnel group) and contract staff paid as non-employees (80050).
Everything else — every other expense: race fees, shirts and supplies, shipping, processing fees, travel, software, insurance, rent, fundraising costs.
Boys — fall plus spring registrations in the fiscal year, from Historical Stats. 2026–27 uses the boy goal: 2,452 this fall + 2,532 next spring.
Checked — QuickBooks’ 2024–25 total ($993,466) matches the audited financial statements to the dollar. 2025–26 is unaudited and may move a little when the audit closes.
Not the same as the “program” cost per boy — this is the fully loaded number (fundraising and admin included). The audit’s program-only figure for 2024–25 was $182.