Identify Program Budget

The budget for your obesity prevention and control program can be developed in collaboration with your Planning Committee. Think about considerations; such as

• Salaries for staff that will implement the program or work with worksite health program vendors.
• Fees for space and equipment.
• Independent vendor costs.
• Program publicity materials (i.e., flyers, brochures, newsletters, photocopying, etc.).
• Budget to purchase incentives (i.e., pedometers, gift cards, t-shirts, water bottles, etc.).
• Other program materials (i.e., educational, marketing, promotion, incentives, rewards).

Developing an accurate and comprehensive budget will make it easier for you to evaluate your program later because it will help you break down per-person costs of the program and help you share cost and savings data with senior management, including return on investment (ROI) results.⁴⁰

When figuring out your budget, make sure you consider costs that will be fixed for the year and those that may vary. Examples of fixed costs include rent and standard maintenance costs, while variable expenses can include staff time or flyers. Consider the following:

• Piggyback on other activities that can be implemented together. For example, if you are planning to start a Weight Watchers group and a walking club, consider introducing them to the organization together to reduce internal marketing costs.
• Only include activities that achieve your program objectives to justify the budget to senior management.
• Make sure to keep track of program data to demonstrate the effectiveness of these activities.
• Integrate your obesity prevention ideas with other departments' or programs'. This can help share costs, maintain or increase your budget, and enhance the visibility of your program.⁴¹

Keep in mind that once your initial budget has been set and approved, you will need to justify the cost of sustaining this budget over time. The best way to do this is to regularly evaluate the program.

If you are looking to increase your budget over time, make sure to stay on top of emerging issues within the organization. For example, if there has been recent concern over rising absenteeism, you can make a case for using your worksite obesity prevention and control program to address this. You can set it as an objective in your mission, goals, and objectives and develop specific steps to target it.

You can use the sample Budget Template (DOC-106k) to guide you through this step and modify it according to your program needs.

Also in This Section

• Conduct a needs assessment
• Gain support from senior management
• Form a committee
• Develop mission, goals, and objectives
• Expert Interview

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