Creating a Nonprofit Event Budget thatMaximizes Impact
A.J. SteinbergQueen Bee Fundraising
Inside Look...This guide will cover the following topics:
01 Why You Need an Event Budget
02 Terminology You Should Know
03 Getting Started with Your Event Budget
04 Figuring Out the Line Items
05 Calculating Ticket Prices and Sponsor Levels
06 Trimming the Fat from Your Event Budget
Introduction
When I produced my first nonprofit event twenty years
ago, I had never heard of the term event budget. I didn’t
know they existed, so of course I had no clue as to how
to prepare one. But boy, it sure didn’t take long for me to learn the
value of having an accurate idea of the projected expenses and
revenues of any nonprofit special event. I quickly understood that if I
was to succeed with my events’ goals, I needed to start my planning
off with a budget.
Through the years I have learned that each event’s budget is unique,
as costs and revenue fluctuate region to region and event to event.
But whether hosting a gala, festival, or house party, organizations
need to identify their particular event’s budget in order to properly
plan and execute each event.
While there are loads of examples of event budgets available for you
to review, whether online or from your organization’s past history,
you will need to channel both your inner accountant and sleuth in
order to accurately understand the costs you will be faced with when
producing each of your events.
OVERCOMING YOUR FEAR OF EVENT BUDGETS
As a person who has struggled with math, doing a nonprofit event
budget was initially daunting. Not only are there a ton of numbers
and figures, which typically make my pulse race, but also there are
so many budget items to figure out and include. At the start of
my event planning career I felt nervous about messing up on the
budget, especially when guessing about expenses and revenue.
Eventually my fears about nonprofit event budgets subsided and I
began to enjoy the process of penciling in numbers and evaluating
an event’s potential profitability. I gained confidence in my ability to
anticipate both expenses and revenue.
I want you to feel confident with your budgeting skills too, so in this
eBook I am sharing with you my event budget worksheets and strat-
egies to help you succeed.
01. Why You Need an Event Budget
An event budget is an important evaluation tool for goal setting. A
nonprofit event has five goals – fundraising, raising awareness for
the organization, raising awareness of an organization’s programs,
cultivation, and appreciation. The event’s budget plays into the profitabil-
ity portion of those goals. A nonprofit fundraising event is supposed to do
exactly that – fundraise. You can bet your bottom dollar that any fundraising
event that ends up losing money can trace its failure back to miscalculations
on their event budget.
Your event budget is the first step in your event planning because it lays
out your projected expenses and income. If your projected income doesn’t
match the projected cost of your proposed event, that spells trouble and you
had better go back to the drawing board and figure out a different type of
fundraiser to host.
5
6
As I said, when I began planning events, I knew nothing about budgeting. In order
to help you avoid feeling lost and confused like I did, here are some definitions for
you newbies to get you started out right with your nonprofit event budget.
EXPENSES:
Any item for which you pay money. This includes things like food and beverage,
florist fees, and bank charges.
INCOME:
Any money which is received in relationship to the event. This usually includes
sponsorships, ticket sales, tribute book ad sales, auction revenue, paddle raise
revenue, and any donations made at the event. If you receive donations from
guests after the event, that is still considered event income.
LINE ITEM:
This refers to any one specific item listed on your nonprofit event planning
budget. That line item will list that particular income or expense, and also the
monetary amount.
02. Terminology to Know
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IN KIND DONATION:
If an event item is donated or paid for by someone other than your organiza-
tion, it is considered an “in kind donation.” Examples of this would be donated
wine or underwriting of the valet costs. In order to fully understand your event
expenses you will need to note the value of the donated or underwritten
item in your expenses, and then offset that by adding that same value in your
revenue list with a notation of “in kind donation.”
FAIR MARKET VALUE:
Fair Market Value (FMV) is what something would typically cost if you
went out to purchase it at a store or online. You will need to figure out fair
market value for your ticket pricing, as your guests will be able to claim a tax
write-off for the amount of the ticket which is above the fair market value. For
example, if your tickets cost $200 and the cost of the food, beverage, rentals,
and other event-related costs come out to $150 per person, then the tickets
are priced $50 above the fair market value. This means the ticket purchaser
can claim that $50 as a tax-deductible
donation for tax purposes.
EXAMPLES OF IN KIND DONATION
This would be donated wine or underwriting
of the valet costs.
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Getting Started with Your Event Budget03.
I am not a whiz at accounting, but Excel spreadsheets even make me look
like a superstar numbers cruncher. On the next page there is a sample of a
simple budget done on Excel. Your budget worksheet may have even more
details and line items than shown here, as everyone keeps track of their costs
and revenues differently.
This is the basic structure of your nonprofit event budget. The expenses are at
the top, the income follows below.
There are several ways to do these budget spreadsheets, but I like to have
details broken down into sections for easy review. In this example, the first
expense group is venue costs and you can see that it lists food, beverage and
tax/service. It is easy at a glance to see the total costs of the venue, as well as
a breakdown of per-person costs noted in the right-hand column.
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ITEM: EXPENSES:
Venue $10,200$34 per person x 300 plus tax and service fee
Food Included in venue cost
Beverage Included in venue cost
Tax 9% and Service
22% $3,162
Rentals
Specialty linens &
tableware $1,000
Staging $1,500
AV
Screen & projection $2,500 Through venue vendor
Extra wireless mikes $300
Delivery Fee $200
Entertainment/Band $1,000 Band bringing own equipment
Auctioneer $1,500
Videotapping Donated
Photographer $500
Printing and Graphics $2,000 Invitations, programs
Sponsorship Signage $1,000
Public Relations $1,000 May be donated
Online Permit $140
Security $400
Step & Repeat/Red
Carpet $800
Swag Bags $500 May be donated
Misc. $1,000
TOTAL EXPENSE: $28,702
HONEY BEE BALL Budget based on 300 people
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For income, we separate the sponsorship income from ticket and other
revenue sources. This makes it possible to see our budgeted income projec-
tions at a glance.
QUEEN BEE’S SUGGESTION:
Be realistic with your projections of income. Look at your past events as a
guideline for income generation and use that as a basis for this year’s pro-
jections. It is good to aim high for your fundraising goal, but you need to be
realistic about your event’s capacity to raise money.
Next comes the tricky stuff – filling in the line items that are specific to
your event.
INCOME:
ANTICIPATED INCOME Level $
Presenting Sponsor(s) x4 10,500.00 $40,000
Queen Bee x6 5,000.00 $30,000
Honey Bee x6 2,500.00 $15,000
Bee Keeper x8 1,000.00 $8,000
Hive Helper x10 500.00.00 $5,000
TOTAL SPONSORSHIP $98,000
TICKET SALES:
$150 x 200 $30,000
Raffle Ticket Sales
$20 x 400 $8,000
Fund A Need Revenue $50,000
GROSS INCOME $186,000
EXPENDITURES: -$28,702
PROJECTED NET: $157,298
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Let’s start with the revenue portion of your nonprofit event budget since it is
much simpler than the expense portion of your spreadsheet.
Your revenue items are things like sponsorships, ticket sales, auction and raffle
sales, paddle raises and donations. List the pricing of each item (i.e. tickets are
$150) and anticipation of how many will likely be sold. If we anticipate selling
200 tickets at $150 then that would give us a revenue estimate for ticket sales
of $30,000.
Remember, this is a budget, which is basically an estimate of costs. You will fill
in the real costs and revenue after the event. The biggest costs, such as venue,
audio visual crew, and rentals are easy to identify, and the biggest costs go at
the top of the expense line items.
The smaller costs are just as important to identify, and a little trickier as it
is easy to overlook some of the smaller costs. To avoid omitting necessary
expenses, take a look at your organization’s past nonprofit event budgets and
see what line items exist on that document. Those will definitely be costs you
will want to include.
04. Filling in the Line Items
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Next, to help define expense line items, you can use visualization to help identify
hidden costs. When I do this, I actually go step-by-step to recreate the entire
guest experience, from the “Save the Date” being received, to the post-event
thank you letters, and write down each cost I identify down as a line item.
For example, I identify that invitees receive a “Save the Date” card, which
means we need to have a graphic artist prepare the card, we need to get
a printer to print them, and a mailing house to mail them with postage
attached. I mark each of those costs as a line item on the nonprofit event
budget worksheet under Save the Date.
Then I identify that the guest will receive an invitation, which means graphic
artist, printer, and mailing house once again get put on the budget sheet
under Invitation.
Go through each moment of your event and every item that a guest sees,
touches, or experiences is something that you must pay to create.
Just to make your life easy, here is a general list of all the line items that could
potentially be a part of your nonprofit event budget.
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TYPICAL FUNDRAISING GALA EXPENSES:VENUE PRINTING GRAPHIC ARTIST SERVICESFood Save the Date cards Save the Date
Beverage Invitation suites Invitation suite
Tax Pledge cards Tribute book
Gratuity Tribute books Posters
Rentals from the venue Napkin inserts Seating cards
Hotel Rooms Posters Thank you cards
WiFi Seating cards Post event infographic
Security Thank you cards Miscellaneous
Miscellaneous Miscellaneous
AUDIO VISUAL PHOTOS & VIDEOS CENTERPIECES & DECORLighting - décor Honoree video Floral
Lighting - stage Run of show video Containers
Screens Day of photography Floral materials
Sound system & mikes Day of videography Candles
Pipe & drape Purchase of photos Props & stage elements
Miscellaneous Backdrops
Miscellaneous
AUCTION COSTS MISCELLANEOUS COSTS (ALPHABETICALLY)Auction software (registration & cashiering)
Coat check Rentals (other than venue)
Auctioneer Comp tickets Security
Consignment items Emcee fee Social media and public relations
Display frames Event committee food Sponsor perks (ice luge, logo napkins, etc.)
Clipboards Event committee gift Step and Repeat
Pens & highlighters Event insurance Transportation
Auction wrapping and baskets
Event Planner (overseeing the actual event)
Valet costs
Miscellaneous Guest gifts Vendor meals
Honoree gifts Volunteer gifts
Honoree trophies & awards Volunteer meals
Parking validations
Rental trucks & equipment
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If you are hosting a golf tournament, here are some more examples of
revenues and expenses to consider:
GOLF TOURNAMENT REVENUE CATEGORIES:
GOLF TOURNAMENT EXPENSE CATEGORIES:
Players Golf Green Fees
Title Sponsor Cart
Presenting Sponsor Range Balls
Gold, Silver, Bronze Sponsors Meals
Hole in One Sponsor Beverages
Putting Contest Sponsors Player Gift
Long Drive Sponsor Team Prizes
Closest to the Pin Sponsor Signs and Banners
Breakfast or Lunch Sponsor Website
Reception Sponsor Marketing Materials, Printing, Postage
Player Gift Sponsor Committee Meeting Expenses
Awards Sponsor Golf Course Service Fees and Gratuities
Hole Flag Sponsors Contests
Pin Flag Sponsors Event Team Photos
Mulligans Volunteer Shirts
Raffle Sponsor Thank You Gifts
Silent Auction
Donations
Guest Tickets
RaffleDonations
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If you are producing an event at a private estate, outdoor venue or unique
space, here are some extra costs to consider:
• Permits for “conditional use”
• Fire department permits (traffic flow, open candle, tents, etc)
• Portable restrooms (also known as “Honey Wagons”)
• Electrical generators
• Traffic control
• Off Site parking lots and shuttles
• Tenting (including subflooring, heaters, etc.)
• Site manager fee
QUEEN BEE’S TIP:
Even though your organization is a nonprofit, you are still responsible for col-
lecting and paying taxes on your auction items. Auction items are considered
purchases rather than donations since purchasers of auction items actually
receive goods or services for the money they give you. On the other hand,
your paddle raise revenue is considered a straight donation, so there is no tax
charged on this revenue stream and a letter noting the guest’s tax-deductible
donation should be sent after the event. Remember, even if you do not charge
your guests tax on their auction items, you are still responsible for paying the
tax to the government. The tax rate is determined by the city your event is held, not the city where your organization’s offices are located.
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Once you have filled in your spreadsheet, it is time to really figure out
what revenue needs to be raised to make this event worthwhile. This
means you need to figure out how much your organization wants
to net gain from your event. You figure out the net gain by subtracting the
money raised from the expenses incurred.
There are no official guidelines stating best practices for fundraising events,
especially when it comes to return on investment. This means it is up to your
organization to determine in advance what you would consider financial
success. Does your nonprofit want to realize a $10,000 profit, or a $500,000
profit? You need to figure out what money needs to come back into your
hands to make the expense of time, money and resources you spent
producing the event worthwhile. Of course, fundraising isn’t the only goal of
a fundraising event, but it doesn’t make sense to produce a fundraiser that
makes little or no money for your organization.
05. Calculating Ticket Prices and Sponsor Levels
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QUEEN BEE’S SUGGESTION:
Be optimistic, yet realistic when assessing what you want to earn from your
event. If you are a small organization in a rural town, your ability to raise money
is more limited than a large, well-established non profit in a big city.
USING YOUR BUDGET TO PRICE TICKETS AND SPONSORSHIPS
Once you have determined how much money you want your event to make, it
is time to use simple math to figure out how your various revenue streams will
work to help reach this goal.
As you saw in our earlier summary of event revenue, typical events bring in
money through the following:
• Sponsorships
• Ticket sales
• Tribute book ad sales
• Silent and live auctions
• Raffles and games
• Paddle raises
• Donations associated with the event
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Here is the formula you need to achieve your events financial goals:
FINANCIAL GOAL + EVENT EXPENSES = AMOUNT YOU NEED TO RAISE
For example, if you want to make a net gain of $100,000 at your upcoming
fundraising event, and your expenses will total approximately $50,000, then
your event will need to take in $150,000 in order to reach your goal.
$100,000 GOAL + $50,000 EVENT EXPENSES = $150,000 EVENT REVENUE
Now you have determined that you need to have $150,000 raised through
various revenue streams to make your goal. The next step is to figure out a path
to achieving that by assigning each revenue stream its own revenue goal.
This is also simple math, along with estimating the earning potential of each
revenue stream.
So, let’s say we are aiming to make $150,000 at the event and we know we
have the revenue streams listed above, we just need to assign a revenue goal
to each of those items.
An example of this would be:
• Sponsorships - $55,000
• Ticket sales - $25,000
• Tribute book ad sales - $3,000
• Silent and live auctions - $20,000
• Raffles and games - $7,000
• Paddle raises - $35,000
• Donations associated with the event - $5,000
TOTAL ANTICIPATED REVENUE: $150,000
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The above example would give an organization a roadmap as to how they
anticipate they can reach their event’s financial goals. Remember, these are
estimates and you will likely fall above or below those projected numbers.
A little note about ticket sales and sponsorships – often sponsorships
include tables of 10 guests as one of the sponsor perks. You need to realize that
the more sponsorships you sell, the fewer tickets are available for purchase
by regular folks. Often the sponsors really don’t care about attending the
event since sponsorships are actually a marketing opportunity for businesses.
I always give sponsors the opportunity to “gift” back their tickets to the event
so that we can either resell them or offer them as complimentary tickets to
friends of honorees and others who we want to be at the event but who may
not be able to afford a ticket.
QUEEN BEE’S SUGGESTION:
I always aim to cover the costs of the event through sponsorships and ticket sales.
This way all the money that is raised during the event is profit to the organization.
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When you are charging $200 or more for a ticket, you need to make the event
feel upscale and elegant. Sure, the ticket price goes toward raising money for
a good cause, but the old saying “it takes money to make money” really does
apply to higher end events.
There are, however, places where you can use creativity to replace higher costs.
Even when I work with high-budget events, I try to keep the expenses as low
as possible in order to maximize the funds that go towards the organization’s
mission.
Here are examples of how I save my clients money on their events:
AUCTIONEERS:
I am a huge fan of professional auctioneers. The good ones are invaluable
for keeping audiences engaged and wrangling every cent possible for live
auctions and paddle raises. They are, however, a pricey bunch. There are lots of
fees and clauses snuck into auctioneers’ contracts that eat into your budget.
Beware of auctioneers who demand you offer fifteen live auction items. That
only serves to line the auctioneer’s pocket and a live auction that long bores
Trimming the Fat from Your Event Budget06.
21
most of the guests. Also, you can negotiate with most auctioneers. If you note
that they want a percentage of your paddle raise, negotiate that point, and
offer them a higher set fee in lieu of them taking a portion of the proceeds
from your paddle raise. This can save you thousands of dollars if your paddle
raise is successful.
AUDIO VISUAL AND LIGHTING:
This is one of the most expensive line items for most events. While we all want
amazing lighting, large screens and good sound systems, not everyone can
afford a $20,000 price tag for these things. I always work closely with my AV
team to maximize my dollars spent with them. We start with a wish list that
includes all my dream lighting and décor, and then I ask them how we can
achieve that for less money. Also, I am never shy about asking nicely for things.
Typically, an AV company owns all the equipment you could ever need, and it
is sitting there unused much of the time. If I want a few extra lights or some
free pipe-and-drape, I ask them nicely if they would consider just tossing those
in our order at no extra charge. I let them know I would love to pay them full
price for everything, but it is a fundraiser, so could they find it in their hearts to
give us a little extra. Almost always they will say yes, and I always thank them
by bringing them chocolate chip cookies. Everybody ends up happy!
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CENTERPIECES:
You don’t have to pay a local florist a king’s
ransom for gorgeous centerpieces. Beautiful
centerpieces can easily be created by any
event committee. From the simple to the
elaborate, all your volunteer team will need
is one sample of what they are supposed
to be creating, and one knowledgeable
person to walk them through the process
of putting the flowers together. Talk to a
local florist who will design a centerpiece
sample for your event and be on site while
your volunteers assemble the creations. Offer
them title of Centerpiece Sponsor for their
efforts, which is a valuable enticement to get them on board. You can ask them
to order the flowers wholesale for you or you can order wholesale online at a
site like https://www.fiftyflowers.com/. Volunteers love working with flowers and
learn a lot about floral design in the process. Here are some samples of beautiful
low-cost centerpieces my committees have created:
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WINE AND CORKAGE FEES:
Almost all events serve wine during the meal, and this beverage can really add
cost to your nonprofit event budget. If your venue allows you to bring in your
own wine, jump at the chance. If you are lucky you will find a winery who will
provide the wine as an in-kind donation. If this is not an option, go to a large
beverage store like BevMo, who have a huge selection of good wine and often
will offer you a discount. These wine stores also will deliver the wine to the
venue for you and will take the unused wine back for a refund after the event.
Your venue will most likely have a corkage fee if you want them to serve your
own wine, and I always ask if they will waive that. Most often they won’t totally
waive the fee, but they always lower the per bottle corkage cost. Also, to save
money on wine, do not put bottles of wine on the dining tables. Guests not
only tend to drink more wine and go through your inventory faster when open
bottles are set on their table, but you have lots of left-over wasted wine since
each table may have half a bottle of wine left at the end. Instead, opt to have
waitstaff offer wine to the guests twice during the meal, which is the standard
number of pours for a sit-down meal.
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DONATED ALCOHOL:
Many organizations serve alcoholic drinks to their guests during the cocktail
portion of their event, and while a little alcohol
can loosen up a crowd it can be pricey to serve.
I always try to get an alcohol company on
board as an in-kind sponsor. This is a win-win
situation, as they supply us with ample
amounts of their product, and we give them
sponsorship recognition and a great marketing
opportunity to have their alcohol tasted by
our guests. To find a potential alcohol sponsor,
you can go online and see what beverage
companies have sponsored other similar events in your area. Most alcohol
companies have online forms that you can fill out requesting the donation.
POSTER AND MATERIAL PRINTING:
I am like a one-man band – I do it all when it comes to design and printing.
From “Save the Date” cards to invitation suites, from seating cards to welcome
posters, I often create all of those for my clients. This means there is a lot of
printing that I order, and almost always with a time crunch. Because of the
number of posters and collateral materials I create for an event, I really rely on
my printers to do an amazing job and get me my items on time, and some
printers can be pricey. That is why I carefully choose where I go to get my items
printed. I have a local printer that I adore for all my invitations and seating
cards, and they also do last minute rush jobs for me. However, for certain items
I use GotPrint.Com who do an amazing job for posters at a reasonable cost. If
you are in a rush, try Walgreens for printing posters. You send your artwork to
them online, and it is usually ready for pick up within an hour or two, and their
prices are great.
To find a potential alcohol sponsor, you can go online and see what beverage
companies have sponsored other similar
events in your area.
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Conclusion:
Now you are ready to go out and create your own budget for your
nonprofit event. You now know that creating this budget allows
you to strategize about producing an event that fits your fundrais-
ing needs and fits your supporter’s wallets. If you find that your fundraising
budget is top-heavy with expenses, you should consider hosting an event
that is less expensive to produce. You will sell far more tickets and have much
more engagement than by pricing your support group out of the event.
Feel like you need a little more help with budgeting for your event? Click
here and take a look at this book, which is something I certainly could have
used at the start of my event planning career!
You should also check out my nonprofit event Facebook group Everything
Events with AJ where I share my knowledge and resources with an amazing
community of nonprofit folk!
Learn to Love Your Event Budget
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A.J. Steinberg, CFRE, has created outstanding fundraising events
since 1999 with her Los Angeles-based event planning company. She has produced over 100 events and raised millions of dollars for organizations Cystic Fibrosis, Jane Goodall’s Roots and Shoots and Union Rescue Mission.
In 2015, A.J. launched Queen Bee Fund-raising to share the art of nonprofit event planning with organizations worldwide. Through consulting, webinars, workshops and speaking engagements, A.J.’s goal is to make her successful event planning strategies and resources available to all nonprofits, no matter their size or location.
A.J. has earned a reputation as a leader in event-based fundraising and is a recognized topic expert and contributor to respected nonprofit resources such as CharityHowTo.Com.
Meet the Author
For more from A.J. Steinberg, follow her on Social Media:
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