The total cost of a project is an important number to know. But it’s also important to note how many people were impacted by the project. And, how many hours they were engaged in the activity.
All together you get this metric: dollars per hour per person. So if a project cost $1,000 in total, and it served 10 people for 2 hours, then the cost was $50/hour/person.
I think this is an important benchmark to hold as nonprofits, educational institutions and other organizations that seek to serve people.
Doing some quick numbers, if a state spends $18,000 per pupil each year, and there are 180 days in the year and about 7 hours during each school day, the number is about $14/hour/student.
For months I thought a project we did felt like it was less expensive and more efficient than our typical projects. I talked about it as such and truly believed it was the future of our work. But when I broke down the cost using this metric, it turns out this project was actually much more expensive than past projects.
I wish this number were more widely available for all organizations. I imagine places that can accommodate large numbers of kids for long periods of time probably do pretty well on this efficiency metric. But I can also see programs who have a number but it’s well worth the price for the concentrated and specific impact.