After the Fundraiser: Thank-Yous, Totals and Getting Your Venue Bond Back

The event is the fun part. The two days afterwards decide whether your donors come back next year, and whether you keep your bond.

How quickly should you thank your donors?

Within 48 hours, while they still remember saying yes.

A business that donated a prize is deciding right now whether you were worth it. A thank-you that turns up a fortnight later reads as an afterthought, and that is what they will remember when you ask again.

Name them publicly. Getting their name in front of your community is most of why they said yes.

Send it to the person who actually approved it, not the general enquiries inbox.

Should you tell everyone how much you raised?

Yes, and be specific about it.

People who bought a ticket want to know what their money bought. “We raised $8,400 and that covers the new shade sail” does far more for next year than “a fantastic result”.

Post the number within the week. Enthusiasm fades fast and a total that lands a month later lands flat.

How many bins do you actually need?

More than you think, and there is a formula for working it out.

WALGA, the WA local government association, puts event waste at one litre of mixed waste per person per meal served. Multiply your attendees by one litre by the number of meals.

Four hundred people eating twice is 800 litres. A standard wheelie bin holds 240 litres, so that is about four bins, before you allow for anything going in the wrong one.

WALGA’s own worked example takes 4,000 attendees across two meals and arrives at 17 bins. The number climbs faster than most committees expect.

Does your council have its own rules about that?

Usually, and some are much tighter than the formula.

City of Stirling in WA asks for one bin per 50 people where food and drink are being consumed, and one per 150 where there is little or none. For 400 people and a sausage sizzle, that is eight bins rather than four.

Check this before you book, because it is your council’s ratio that applies, not the number you worked out.

Spacing matters too. City of Perth asks for bins to sit between three and 14 metres apart. Put them all at one end and the far corner of the hall becomes the bin.

What does your hire agreement say about the clean-up?

Read that clause before the night, not after it.

Most councils keep the right to clean the site themselves and bill you for it. Stirling states that waste must be removed from site immediately after the event, and that anything left onsite means the City arranges cleaning and additional fees apply. City of Vincent passes all costs incurred in the clean-up on to the hirer.

Timing clauses catch people out as well. City of South Perth requires its foreshore reserves to be vacated by 11pm, which makes for a very different night if you planned to tidy up in the morning.

If the hall has to be back to standard by the next morning, booking an event clean in Perth usually costs less than the bond you would forfeit.

Bond amounts are rarely published. Most councils set them per event, so ask for the figure in writing when you book, rather than finding out what it was by losing it.

What would you do differently next year?

Write it down this week.

Every committee swears they will remember and nobody does by March. Ten minutes while it is still fresh saves the next lot an entire evening.