How To: Wrap up your Event & Send in your Donation

JenskiJen · **Posts:** 2822 **Signal Origin:** Melbourne, Australia

Congratulations! You’ve run a fantastic event, you had a great time and you’ve made bundles of money for Equality Now. Well done!

Tallying everything up
Count up your proceeds and keep it safe until you can get it to a bank. Record the amount. Record how many people attended.

Ask for feedback – find out what people liked, what they didn’t and what they’d like to see next year. All the information you gather can help you run better events in the future as well as help to get sponsors on board for future events. If you like you can get them to fill out a survey about age, sex, email and anything else you might want to include that is not an invasion of privacy. This data could be collected to form an email list which can be used as a way to contact people directly about your grand total, or to tell them about an event the following year if you decide to have one. You could also post age/sex stats of the Browncoats who attended from your area.

Post your attendance numbers, and amount raised along with a paragraph or two about how awesome your event was. Even if you are still selling off left over merchandise or are doing one last fundraiser, an estimate is required as soon as possible after your event as you can manage.

Catch up on sleep
After what has inevitably been a very hectic week/month or two for you, you deserve some sleep. Pack up, secure any money, and get yourself some much deserved sleep. Everything doesn’t have to be done the minute your event finishes.

Thank your sponsors and supporters
Don’t forget to thank your sponsors and supporters and let them know how your event turned out. They like to know how their donation was received by everyone, and how their donation helped to support charity. So if it was an item that was auctioned, let them know how much it went for. Let them know your final donation. Thank them profusely. Send them something little if you want, or some small CSTS merchandise you might have. Keeping your sponsors happy will help them to decide to sponsor you again if you do the event again. You can also thank them by name at your event. Don’t to forget to also thank your attendees, without them you wouldn’t have an event, but obviously these do not need individual thank-you letters. Thank your venue too. If you were a tame, clean bunch of Browncoats they’ll be more likely to let you come back again and maybe give you an even better deal.

Sending your donation to Equality Now and any other charities
Before you send it all off, make sure you’ve reimburse anyone that needs reimbursing, paid any bills, and got all the money that is due. Check that you have all the records you need, such as receipts, invoices and sales lists. And put together a financial summary (the Global Team can provide you with a budget template if you need one).

Once you know exactly how much money you will be donating to Equality Now, tell your crew.

Then share the good news with the CSTS Global Organizer and the rest of the CSTS organizers! There are a number of ways to send your donation to Equality Now - check, credit card or Paypal. More info is available in the Event Organizers forum.

Please try to have your donation finalized and sent no later than one month after your event, and be sure to both post this amount in the forums, and email it to the Global Team. If you need more time, please contact the Global Team to advise them of your situation, but try to get it all sorted as soon as possible.

For Donations to Equality Now:
You will need to email our Equality Now representative (hstewart@equalitynow.org) and the Global Team (events@cantstoptheserenity.com) just after you have sent your donation stating how much and for what city, with a copy of the check, receipt etc, so that your donation can be confirmed. Please don’t send just a check in the mail, include a letter saying who you are and what city you are donating on behalf of. Also, in the most likely situation, when submitting your donation by credit card or PayPal online, include your CSTS donation reference, which is CSTS14CITY NAME i.e. CSTS15Charleston

There are a number of ways to send your donation to Equality Now:
• By a check (payable to Equality Now) in the mail, preferably registered for security reasons, to - Helen Stewart, Equality Now, 250 West 57th Street #1720, New York City, NY 10107 USA
• By Credit Card online -() Please note for those outside of the U.S. - this will be in U/S. dollars.
• By Paypal - info@equalitynow.org

For Donations to other charities:
If you are donating money or goods to other charities, you need to email the Global Team (events@cantstoptheserenity.com) just after you have sent your donation stating the details of the charity, how much you have donated (money and/or goods) and a copy of the check, receipt etc, so that your donation can be confirmed.

Please note that at least 75% of proceeds must be donated to Equality Now. The other 25% or less may be donated to whatever worthy charities the local organizer/Browncoat group running the event deems worthy. (So that 25% or less can go to one or be split however among the other charities.) Then, when you get acknowledgement of that donation, forward that to us as well.

Please note this does not include money raised at the event via a separate donation button/donation box, or from a gathering of can goods or other items donated toward a particular charity, money raised from silent auction items purchased for the benefit of the other charities etc. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask. Hopefully this information will make things easier to plan your events.

Wrapping up
Now that everything is over and done, your event can be wrapped up. Write up a report of your event for your website and for the CSTS website, gather all of your records and organise your papers, then file them away carefully. Financial records should be kept for seven years – just in case there is an audit by Equality Now or government agencies.

Before you put this event behind you, take the time to get together with your crew and celebrate your success. You’ve done a wonderful thing and you should all be extremely proud of yourselves!

Edited to update: EN donation link
Edited to update to 2014 information
Edited to update link to direct Browncoat only donation page 2015

wbbnospam · **Posts:** 39 **Signal Origin:** Albuquerque, New Mexico

We (Albuquerque Browncoats) have got our two donations in, and I believe we sent the right emails to the right Global folks to get this verified (we followed the posted directions, anyway). But our event listing still shows out stauts as "Event Over – Waiting for Results". Also, we've received no reply from Global letting us know our status email was received bu you-all.

How can we verify we told you guys the right information in the right way, and that our donation to Equality Now has been credited by them as a proper CSTS donation from Albuquerque? (How long until our status on the web page says you got the money and how much that was?)

Also, in previous years we had to send a results spreadsheet to somebody at Global, but this year I cannot find instructions in the forum telling us how to do that. Do we need to do that? Or was that step done away with this year?

Thanks,

--Bill (wbbnospam/Capn Chen)

JenskiJen · **Posts:** 2822 **Signal Origin:** Melbourne, Australia

Once the amount is confirmed by EN (and any other charity recipients), it is updated to the website. It may be that the Global Team are still waiting to hear back.

As for sending your event spreadsheet, it can be sent to events@cantstoptheserenity.com

wbbnospam · **Posts:** 39 **Signal Origin:** Albuquerque, New Mexico

Thanks! We'll work on the spreadsheet and get it in right away.

--Bill

numindan · **Posts:** 137 **Signal Origin:** Edmonton, AB

Lioness · **Posts:** 2430 **Signal Origin:** Toronto

It is assumed that you have been keeping a spreadsheet of your own to keep track of everything - there isn't a form online.

numindan · **Posts:** 137 **Signal Origin:** Edmonton, AB

MaryQueSera · **Posted:** Mon Sep 12, 2011 4:34 pm

Is there a preferred way for sending in donations to EN? Do you know if they get dinged for service fees for credit card or Paypal transactions?

Thanks,

Mary

JenskiJen · **Posts:** 2822 **Signal Origin:** Melbourne, Australia

As an international donor, we've been pinged pretty heavily each time we've made a donation, whether it's by Paypal, Credit Card or bank draft.

In the US, you can send a cheque (which may be the cheapest way), or make the payment by Credit Card (check your providers conditions for fees and charges, some of which they may pass on to the receiver). Paypal will usually charge a fee.

MaryQueSera · **Posted:** Tue Sep 13, 2011 3:37 pm

Thanks, we'll probably do it by check then. I thought EN might have some kind of exemption or reduced rate, but if they don't, I'd rather see more of our donation go to them and less to PayPal.

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How To: Wrap up your Event & Send in your Donation

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