Fundraising Committee Guide: Tickets, Auction, and Check-In

Key takeaways

• A fundraising event has three jobs that have to fit together: selling tickets, running the silent auction, and checking people in at the door.
• Give each job one owner: a ticket chair, an auction chair, a check-in lead, and a treasurer, plus a volunteer coordinator to fill shifts.
• Keep the treasurer separate from the people taking money, so nobody both collects and records it.
• Work backwards from event night in weekly steps, starting about eight weeks out.
• The fewer lists your volunteers juggle, the less cleanup you do the week after.

A fundraising committee runs one event, not three side projects. This playbook covers who does what, how to sell tickets online, a week-by-week timeline, how to lay out the auction tables, and what to look for in the tools you use. It works for a school gala, a church dinner, a community festival, or a club fundraiser.

What does a fundraising committee actually coordinate?

Three workstreams: tickets, the silent auction, and check-in (often with waivers, if the event involves kids or physical activity).

The trouble starts when each one lives in a different place. Ticket sales are in one tool, bids are on paper, and the door list is a printed spreadsheet. After the event, someone has to work out who paid, who won what, and who never showed up. Each extra list is another chance for a name to be missing or a payment to be counted twice.

Each workstream has its own common failure:

• Tickets: nobody knows the real headcount until the night of, so food and seating are guesses.
• Auction: bid sheets go missing, handwriting can't be read, and winners leave without paying.
• Check-in: a clipboard at the door can't tell you whether a guest's waiver is signed or whether a child's parent has been told they arrived.

What roles should a fundraising committee assign?

Five roles cover most ticketed fundraisers. On a small committee one person can hold two, but keep the treasurer on their own.

Ticket chair

Owns the ticket page: ticket types and prices, promo codes, and refunds. Sets a date when online sales close so the headcount is known before setup.

Auction chair

Owns the silent auction from the first donation ask to the last item picked up: collecting items, writing descriptions, bid sheets, table layout, and the close.

Check-in lead

Owns the door. For youth events, this includes making sure every child is checked in and checked out properly. This person should have no other job on event night.

Treasurer

Owns the money: matching payouts to sales, approving refunds, and writing the final report to the committee.

Volunteer coordinator

Fills the night-of shifts for the other four roles and keeps a backup name for each shift.

How do you sell fundraiser tickets online?

Set up ticket types

Start with two or three ticket types. A common setup is a general ticket, a discounted ticket (for students, kids, or seniors), and a supporter ticket that costs more and includes a gift to the cause. Price each one to cover your real per-guest costs first, then add the fundraising margin.

If you want to give people a way to give more, add an optional donation at checkout instead of creating more ticket types. Guests who want to give extra can, and everyone else checks out quickly.

Collect what you need at checkout

Decide before you publish what you need to know about each guest: meal choice, shirt size, an emergency contact for a child. Ask it at checkout, per attendee, so you never chase answers by email the week of the event.

Use promo codes with limits

Create promo codes for sponsors, volunteers, and staff before the page goes live. Give each code a usage limit and an end date, so a code that gets shared around can't drain your revenue.

Plan for door sales and cash

Some guests will want to pay at the door. Decide ahead of time whether you allow it, and record every door sale on the same attendee list as your online sales instead of on a separate sheet. Otherwise you will spend the next week reconciling two lists that disagree.

How Ticket Committee handles this

With Ticket Committee, you set up ticket types with prices, quantities, and sale dates, add custom questions for each attendee, and turn on an optional donation at checkout. Promo codes can have usage limits and expiration dates. Buyers get their tickets by email with a QR code, and they can add them to Apple Wallet or Google Wallet. If your event allows it, buyers can choose to pay in person, and your team can enter door sales, including cash, as orders on the same attendee list. There is no per-ticket platform fee, since Ticket Committee is a yearly plan. Card processing fees still apply, and card payments go to your own Stripe account, which you connect before your first sale.

How should a fundraising committee plan the timeline?

Work backwards from event night. Here is a timeline that works for most events with tickets and an auction.

8 weeks out

• Ticket chair sets up ticket types, prices, and promo codes.
• Treasurer connects the payment account so cards can be taken when sales open.
• Auction chair starts the donation ask list.

6 weeks out

• Tickets go on sale.
• Auction chair confirms donated items, photographs each one, and writes short descriptions.

4 weeks out

• Check-in lead reviews the attendee list and the waivers that are still missing.
• Volunteer coordinator assigns door and auction shifts.

2 weeks out

• Close any early pricing.
• Print bid sheets and table signs.
• Send a reminder to guests who still need to sign a waiver.

1 week out

• Confirm every volunteer shift and backup.
• Test check-in on the actual phones or tablets your volunteers will use.
• Remind guests their tickets are in their email.

Event night

• One person runs the door.
• One person runs the auction close.
• One person handles checkout and item pickup.

What makes an effective silent auction display?

Group items so bidders can scan quickly. Put experiences and gift cards together, themed baskets together, and give the big items their own table with the best light.

Number everything. Every item gets a lot number that matches its bid sheet and your master list. That number is how volunteers find things at the end of the night.

Light it well. A couple of clip lamps make descriptions readable and pull people over. Decoration matters less than being able to read the sheet.

Plan the flow. Put the highest-value items away from the entrance, so guests walk past the smaller items on the way.

Make the sheet easy to read. At minimum, show the item name, lot number, estimated value, starting bid, and minimum increase.

With the Ticket Committee silent auction, you enter each item once and print a bid sheet that shows the item photo and a QR code. Guests scan it and bid from their own phone's browser, with no app and no venue wifi needed. Bidders register once and save a card, bidders who opt into texts get an alert when they're outbid, and a live display board on a TV shows current bids. When an item closes, the winner's saved card is charged automatically, and you can track which items have been picked up.

How do you display gift cards at a silent auction?

Gift cards are small, valuable, and easy to lose, so treat them differently from baskets.

1. Seal each card in an envelope and write the value and lot number on the outside. Guests bid on the envelope.
2. Mount the envelopes on a board (foam board or corkboard) and keep the board behind the table or near a volunteer, not loose on the table.
3. Get the value in writing from the donor when they hand the card over.
4. At close, match each winner to an envelope and check names off as cards are handed out.
5. Hold unclaimed cards in one known place for pickup after the event, and log each handoff.

How does this work for church events?

The same roles and timeline apply. The main differences: free events still benefit from registration so you know your headcount, and freewill giving fits best as an optional donation at checkout rather than a set ticket price. See Ticket Committee for churches for more.

Which ticketing and check-in features matter most?

When you compare tools, run each through the same checklist:

• Clear pricing. Know what you pay per ticket and per year before you commit, including card processing.
• Per-attendee questions at checkout.
• Promo codes with usage limits.
• Door sales and cash recorded on the same list as online sales.
• Fast check-in at the door, ideally by scanning a QR code on the guest's phone.
• Waivers signed online before the event, with a way to see who hasn't signed.
• Child safety for youth events: a reliable way to know who checked in and out.
• A silent auction run from the same account as your tickets.

Ticket Committee covers each of these. Volunteers at the door use a check-in station link or a phone camera scanner to scan ticket QR codes, and the station can show each guest's waiver status. Waivers are signed online, attached to the event, and you can see which attendees are still missing one and send reminders. For youth events, N.A.R.K. sends parents and guardians automatic texts when their child checks in and checks out, for families who opt in at registration. Tickets, the auction, waivers, and check-in all sit on one organization account.

FAQ

How far in advance should we start planning a fundraiser?

Eight weeks is a practical minimum for an event with tickets and an auction. It gives the ticket chair time to open sales, the auction chair time to collect and photograph items, and the check-in lead time to chase missing waivers.

Do we need a separate tool for the silent auction?

Not necessarily. Running tickets and the auction from one account means one login for your volunteers and one place to look after the event.

What do we do about guests who pay cash at the door?

Record each one on the same attendee list as your online buyers and mark it paid right away. Don't keep cash sales on a separate clipboard.

Can we start selling tickets the same day we sign up?

You can build your event right away, but card payments need your payment account set up first. Leave time for that before you announce sales.

Are ticket purchases tax deductible?

Often only the part above the value of what the guest receives, like a meal. The rules vary, so check with your tax advisor.