Fundraising Event Set Up in Altru - online ticket sales; designations on fees?

Eileen Shapiro

We converted to Altru about 6 months ago and we are about to start using the database for online sales for fundraising events, rather than just entering all ticket sales through the back office.


My first question is if anyone has had any negative experiences with online fundraising event sales?


Second, I'm looking for information from those who have set up Fundraising Events in Altru -- did you allow designations on fees?  

I understand the use of designations as described in the handbook, to distinguish between tax-deductible and non-tax deductible portions of the ticket price. Is this just for the organization or does the ticket buyer see this distinction?

If you don't attach a designation to the ticket fee ... does the revenue connect to a designation in the fundraising hierarchy?

I guess I need to make sure that all the revenue collected is reflected in the fund designation for each event when we run reports.


Thank you for any light you can shed on these issues.

Crystal Bruce

Discussion moved to Altru Community. Thanks!

Megan Smith

Hi Eileen!


I have a few answers for you, but it sounds like you'll still want feedback from Altru users who have actually experienced special events with designations. 

If you don't attach a designation to the ticket fee ... does the revenue connect to a designation in the fundraising hierarchy?

I guess I need to make sure that all the revenue collected is reflected in the fund designation for each event when we run reports.


You asked the above questions. If you don't attach a designation to the ticket fee, the money goes towards Event Registrations. If you attach a designation to the ticket fee, a portion of the ticket will continue to go towards Event Registrations and the other portion will go to the designation you selected in your Fundraising Hierarchy. It basically splits the money up for you to two different buckets. If a ticket fee is $50 and $30 is going towards a designation, it will look like the report below. The payment record will show two separate applications (also pictured below). 







You also asked if the ticket buyer sees this distinction. They will not see that distinction in the web form. An example of a special event web form is below. You could potentially add some text to the web form to give them more information about where their money is going, but you'd have to add this to the description. 






I hope this helps a little! Feel free to email me at megan.smith@blackbaud.com if you've got some follow up questions. 

 

Katie Benedix

Hello! We've used Fundraising Events in Altru a few times now both for events with a ticket price and for free donor events. We have not had too many issues with selling them online - it seemed to work fine for us! 


We do not designate our fees to a hierarchy and it's exactly as Megan says - the fee is not a donation. Our fees are collected to offset the cost of the merchant bank card fees. You pay $3 on the ticket and that offsets the amount we pay in credit card fees. As such, we usually put this as an addition to the ticket price, not baked in. 


We do the same for the ticket cost to the event itself. For example, if you estimate that $20 of the $60 ticket cost pays for drinks and food at the event, then that is transactional (aka a good/service in exchange for the money). We usually take the total estimated cost of the event, less sponsorship, and divide by the number of people we hope will attend when we craft our donation/ticket ratio.  In this example, a $60 ticket to the event gets split as a $20 event ticket, $40 donation. (Remembering that the fee is in addition to the ticket price, not included.) I would then outline all of this in the email or letter receipt they receive after they purchase a ticket. 


When we run reports, we do not typically report on fees paid. That payment goes into the bucket of all the fees paid on all of our event ticket sales. If you need to, you can also set up a query for fees paid on sale orders for that event's tickets. 


I hope this helps!

Sarah Osborne

Megan Smith:

Hi Eileen!


I have a few answers for you, but it sounds like you'll still want feedback from Altru users who have actually experienced special events with designations. 

If you don't attach a designation to the ticket fee ... does the revenue connect to a designation in the fundraising hierarchy?

I guess I need to make sure that all the revenue collected is reflected in the fund designation for each event when we run reports.


You asked the above questions. If you don't attach a designation to the ticket fee, the money goes towards Event Registrations. If you attach a designation to the ticket fee, a portion of the ticket will continue to go towards Event Registrations and the other portion will go to the designation you selected in your Fundraising Hierarchy. It basically splits the money up for you to two different buckets. If a ticket fee is $50 and $30 is going towards a designation, it will look like the report below. The payment record will show two separate applications (also pictured below). 







You also asked if the ticket buyer sees this distinction. They will not see that distinction in the web form. An example of a special event web form is below. You could potentially add some text to the web form to give them more information about where their money is going, but you'd have to add this to the description. 






I hope this helps a little! Feel free to email me at megan.smith@blackbaud.com if you've got some follow up questions. 

 

Hi Megan, 


Above you mention that when you assign a designation to the Registration Fee a portion will go to the event and a portion will go to the designation. We are currently running a fundraiser where tickets are fully considered a donation to the museum. Is there a way to ensure that the registration fee is 100% going to the designation listed? 


Thanks!