Hi
We are using Elevated Events for the first time for an upcoming Gala.
There is a ticket element which we want to split out from the Gifts/Pledges. I set-up the Gala as a performance so that we could do this. However our finance department is unhappy because they don't want to see this as ticketing income. Does anyone know of a better way of doing this or how we can split the Gala tickets away from the normal box office ticketing income, while still reporting on the split income within the elevated campaign?
The Gala has it's own G/L, fund, and the performance is attached to the elevated campaign.
Many thanks
Lee-Anne
Preface - We haven't figured out how to do what you're asking in Tessi, but we created an internal work-around that might be helpful.
People's Light has doing a similar set-up for maybe 5 years now. We sell a raffle ticket through ticketing. It is set-up as a performance and tied to an Elevated Event. The money still comes through ticketing but we've created a routine that addresses the issue.
The Box Office Manager at the end of every day turns in a deposit sheet that breaks down the posting totals. We added a raffle line to that report. The line: LESS RAFFLE (G/L Code #) $_____.The last line of that section of the reports: TOTAL TICKET SALES. The total ticket sales is the real ticketing amount, because the Development/Raffle has been removed.
Our finance person records the raffle and ticketing numbers separately. I/Development reports on the raffle G/L at the end of the month. And finance ensures that the totals match.
It maybe isn't ideal or an easy answer, and the first year or two had its rough patches, but its an oiled-machine now.
Megan
Is there any reason you couldn't just use multiple funds within the Elevated Event? We've long used different funds to separate out the ticket revenue from the revenue generated by raise the paddle, auction items, etc. It's a little bit more work on the data entry side if you receive money that's intended as payment for both tickets and contributions, but otherwise this approach has worked pretty cleanly for us.
Hi Lee-Anne,
We use the same method as Matthew. We have many elevated events that have a charge that the guest pays but part is a contribution and part covers the cost of the event. We have two funds that are then attached to the elevated event. Matthew is right, it creates a little bit more work on the event processing side but it keeps it clean to split the money and show where it needs to go. If you have any questions about our setup, I'm happy to help - jagraf@umich.edu.
Jenny
Thank you all for your suggestions.
The suggestion that will probably suit us best is separate funds.
Megan's suggestion, while great, would be a bit too complicated for us at this early stage of using elevated events.
Once again, very many thanks :)
I should have added that we too use two different G/L #s - one for that auction/gala and the other for the raffle. Our ticket deposit method helped us address what happens when Development/Event money is processed in a Ticketing batch.
Lee-Anne - It did take us a round or two to get it right. If after your event if you're curious about how we make it work, I'd be happy to answer questions, share whatever, grab the Box Office Manager for answers - lea@peopleslight.org.
Jenny Carvo, I know this is an old post, but any chance you could give me a little more information on what you did on the processing side?