Events are lucrative fundraising and relationship-building opportunities for nonprofits. However, they have a lot of moving parts, from securing a venue to marketing to preparing your staff and volunteers.

None of these tasks is possible without adequate funding and organization. By creating a proper event budget, you can track your event goals, boost revenue, and maximize your event’s return on investment (ROI).

This guide will provide tips for developing a successful event budget. That way, you can ensure you have enough funds to execute your event and make informed decisions based on your available resources.

1. Determine your event goals.

By defining and understanding your event’s core purpose and aims, you can build a budget that reflects and advances your goals. For example, if you’re running a fundraising event, your budget may focus more on costs associated with fundraising software and donor stewardship. On the other hand, an advocacy event may require greater investment in signage and marketing materials.

You should also develop specific financial goals that enable you to measure your success. These might include:

  • A specific profit margin
  • An ideal cost per attendee
  • A sponsorship revenue dollar amount

Use past event data to ensure your goals are both realistic and growth-oriented. For example, if you generated $15,000 in sponsorship revenue for your last annual 5K, you may aim to secure $20,000 this time around.

2. Diversify your revenue streams.

The more revenue streams your event has, the more sustainable it will be. While it’s always important to fortify your fundraising efforts with multiple revenue sources, resilience is especially crucial now with the uncertainty surrounding nonprofit funding.

Potential revenue streams for your next nonprofit event may include:

  • Ticket sales. Use an event registration platform to easily sell tickets and collect funds.
  • Sponsorships. Form partnerships with like-minded companies that are willing to offer their support.
  • Individual donations. In addition to selling tickets, collect donations from donors willing to extend a little extra generosity or those who can’t physically attend.
  • Auction item revenue. Sourcing auction items that align with your audience’s preferences can boost event revenue.
  • Raffles. Incorporate a raffle into your event to raise funds and provide another engagement opportunity for supporters.
  • Peer-to-peer fundraising. Have supporters raise money for your organization and spread the word to their friends and families.
  • Event merchandise sales. Create custom merchandise with your nonprofit’s logo and event name and sell it at the event.

Let’s say you leverage all of these revenue streams, and one of your sponsors pulls out of the event at the last minute. While the situation wouldn’t be ideal, you would still have plenty of other revenue sources keeping your event afloat, as opposed to if you had relied on sponsorship alone.

3. Minimize event expenses.

While you’ll need to spend money to earn money, keeping event costs low will maximize the funds you can put toward your mission. Strategies for minimizing event expenses include:

  • Negotiating with vendors. Some vendors may offer nonprofit discounts or be willing to negotiate. Consider treating your vendors like sponsors and promoting their businesses in return for lower rates.
  • Collecting in-kind donations. Reach out to your supporters and local businesses to see if there are any useful items they’d be willing to donate to your event. These can range from auction items to sound equipment to folding chairs.
  • Leveraging volunteers. Rally your volunteer base to staff your event. Show your appreciation by sending them personalized thank-you notes after the event and recognizing them on social media.
  • Repurposing materials from past events. Especially for recurring events, you may be able to reuse signage and other marketing materials to reduce costs.

By using these tactics, you can hopefully prevent sacrificing elements of the attendee experience and instead call upon community connections to keep event expenses low.

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4. Make it flexible.

In the nonprofit event space, anything is possible. From sponsors dropping out last minute to experiencing lower event turnout than expected, you need to be prepared for any situation.

YPTC’s nonprofit budgeting guide recommends implementing the following tips to keep your budget flexible:

  • Include a contingency fund. Set aside a small percentage of your event budget to cover unexpected expenses. For example, if you’re hosting a conference and realize after the first day that you don’t have enough people staffing the event, you’ll need to have enough funds to pay additional staff members on the second day.
  • Prioritize expenses. Sort your expenses from least to most important. If you ever need to cut costs unexpectedly, you can quickly make decisions based on what’s crucial to your event’s success. For instance, maybe event management software is one of your most important expenses, while event giveaways are one of your least important.
  • Leverage scenario planning. Develop different versions of your event budget based on your best-case, worst-case, and most likely financial situations so you can easily adjust your approach if necessary. While a best-case scenario may include winning your ideal sponsor and amount, a worst-case scenario may be not securing the sponsor at all, and the most likely scenario may be getting the sponsor but with a lower donation size than projected in your best-case scenario.

Although nonprofits typically use these best practices for their operating budgets, translating these strategies to your event budget can help you test them on a smaller scale and thoroughly prepare your event staff for challenges.

5. Evaluate your event’s financial performance.

Once your event is over, determine its financial success. If possible, perform budget-to-actual reporting during the event so you can make any necessary adjustments and get back on track as soon as possible. Then, run the budget-to-actual report after the event so you can pinpoint where you overspent, where you came in under budget, and which revenue streams were most impactful.

Additionally, evaluate your original event goals. For instance, if your cost per attendee was higher than what you aimed for, strategize with your team about how you may lower expenses for your next event.

After your event, document everything you learned and store your event budget somewhere with easy access. That way, you can use this information to improve upon your next event’s financial management.