4 Budgeting Tips for Your Nonprofit’s Fundraising Event

A recent survey revealed that over half of nonprofits generate 21% or more of their annual revenue from their event and online fundraising efforts. In other words, fundraising events have the potential to bring significant revenue, awareness, and support to your cause. 

Your nonprofit may have marketing techniques or innovative technologies in place to optimize your upcoming event. However, to achieve your goals and maximize your event’s return on investment (ROI), you must start with effective budgeting practices. 

A well-planned budget is like a blueprint for your event that outlines how you should disburse your resources to meet (or exceed) your event’s goals. In this guide, we’ll uncover the four most important budgeting tips for fundraising events. 

1. Set clear objectives

Your nonprofit’s financial structure is unique to its identity as a 501(c)(3) organization. The majority of nonprofits are small organizations with less than $50,000 in annual revenue, so it’s typical for mission-driven organizations like yours to have limited resources with which to make a big difference. 

Fundraising events vary in cost and potential revenue, which is why your nonprofit must define event goals to create an effective and realistic budget.

Assign specific goals to each aspect of the fundraiser, including:

• Number of attendees
• Number of first-time donors
• Number of major donors
• Number of sponsors
• Total revenue generated

For example, let’s say your nonprofit hopes to raise $10,000 at its annual gala. Based on this goal, your team may estimate that you’ll need to sell 200 tickets to the event. However, to accommodate 200 guests, you’ll need a large venue and plenty of food and beverages. You may set a goal for acquiring sponsors to help supply some of these needs.

2. Create a detailed budget plan

There are two main components of every budget: income and expenses. Let’s break down the best practices for planning each.

List of Expenses

Consider all the essential expenses your fundraising event will incur. Write out a comprehensive list of everything you’ll spend on, including:

• Venue
• Catering
• Entertainment
• Signage
• Decorations, including tableware and linens
• Event management software
• Audio and visual equipment
• Event marketing
• Post-event follow-up materials

After creating your list of potential expenses, research the prices of each to get a reasonable estimate of how much your event will cost. If you’ve hosted a similar event in the past, revisiting your books from previous events is another easy way to gauge how much you’ll spend. 

Projected Revenue

Next, estimate how much the event could realistically raise using what you know about your previous fundraising performance. According to Foundation Group, your books can provide a broad overview of your nonprofit’s financial position, which will guide your plan for setting and meeting reasonable revenue goals. 

Fundraising event revenue may come from:

• Ticket sales
• Individual donations
• Raffle tickets
• Merchandise sales
• Sponsorships

Additionally, leverage donor data to estimate how much you plan to raise in donations. For example, donors who are actively involved in your organization and consistently give $25 will likely be willing to purchase an event ticket of the same price. Donors who typically give more may even be inclined to purchase a ticket and donate again during the event. 

3. Seek sponsorships and in-kind donations

To achieve the highest possible ROI, your nonprofit must minimize its fundraising event costs. One way to do so is to lean on the generous support of donors to make the event happen.

360MatchPro defines corporate sponsorships as direct support companies give to nonprofits, usually to fund a specific project, program, or event. By making sponsorships enticing for local businesses, your nonprofit can receive the products and services needed for your fundraising event at a lower cost.

After you’ve created a list of nonnegotiable expenses that your event will incur, consider alternative ways to cover those costs:

• Venue: Sponsors or local businesses may allow your nonprofit to use their facilities for free or at a discounted rate.
• Catering: Local restaurants might donate food and beverages to your event, and you could recruit volunteers to serve guests.
• Event marketing: Companies may donate their marketing services to your organization, or an experienced volunteer could create marketing materials for your event.

When recording these donations in your budget and books, be sure to specify where they came from and how they were used.

4. Conduct a post-event financial review

There will be plenty of follow-up tasks necessary to conclude your event, such as thanking volunteers and sending feedback surveys to guests. A post-event financial review is another crucial task for understanding how your event performed and how to improve your efforts in the future. 

Analyze the financial outcomes of your fundraising event by:

• Comparing actual expenses to budgeted expenses
• Calculating net profit
• Assessing the cost-effectiveness of different event components

With these insights, your nonprofit can determine what went well and what can improved for your next event. This might include identifying costs that could be reduced in the future or evaluating how to set more realistic expectations. 

If you hadn’t done so at the beginning of the budgeting process, seek out professional nonprofit bookkeeping services to consult an expert in nonprofit finances about your fundraising results. A bookkeeper’s insights will ensure you analyze fundraising results correctly and contextualize those results within the bigger picture of your nonprofit’s finances. This means a nonprofit bookkeeper won’t just help you review your fundraising event budget, but will also:

• Record transactions
• Reconcile bank accounts
• Provide financial statements
• Assist with form 1099 preparation
• Give advice and counsel as needed

While the insights from your post-event financial review can help you craft a more effective event budget in the future, remember to plan for growth. If you want to scale up your next event, your future budget must account for more attendees, sponsors, and marketing tactics, among other costs.

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The best budgeting tip your nonprofit can follow for its next fundraising event is reaching out to a professional bookkeeper. By consulting someone with ample experience in nonprofit finances, your team can rest assured that its books are in knowledgeable hands. Aside from accessing a bookkeeper’s expertise, you’ll also be able to leave the budgeting tasks to a professional and focus on what really matters: your mission.

Guest author:

Greg McRay, Foundation Group

Greg is the founder and CEO of Foundation Group, one of the nation’s top providers of tax and compliance services to nonprofits. Greg and his team have worked with tens of thousands of nonprofits for over 25 years, assisting them with formation of new charities, plus tax, bookkeeping, and compliance services. He is credentialed as an Enrolled Agent, the highest designation of tax specialist recognized by the Internal Revenue Service. Based in Nashville, Tennessee, Greg and company work with charities and nonprofits all across the country and worldwide.