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.

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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.

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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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