Plan a fundraiser venue

The room is a cost against the night, not the point of it. Hold the date only once you know the total you would pay if the room is quiet, and sell tickets after that number is real. Eventier does not take donations or sell tickets.

Updated 25 October 2026

Timeline

Ten to twelve weeks out
You need time to sell the night after the venue is held. Enquiring a fortnight out leaves you announcing a room you might not keep.
As soon as two dates are possible
Ask what the total is for the headcount you would still reach on a quiet night, not the number you hope to print on the invitation.
Once the total is approved
Pay the deposit the venue asks for, in their name. Then sell tickets. Not the other way around.
A month out
Confirm bump-in for the auction or the raffle, the microphone, and dietary numbers as they firm up.
The week before
Final catering numbers, the run order, and who the venue calls if the night runs long.

Checklist

  1. A conservative attendance, used for the quote. The invitation list is not the attendance.
  2. The total at that attendance, and the total if you fill the room. Both.
  3. What is left after the venue if every ticket sells at the price you intend to charge, and what is left at the quiet-night number. Do this before you print a ticket price.
  4. Deposit: when it holds the date, and when it is kept if you cancel.
  5. Early access for tables, a microphone and somewhere to take money at the door.
  6. Licence and insurance the venue requires from the organisation.
  7. An invoice in the organisation’s name, with GST shown if you need to claim it.
  8. A finish time, and what it costs to run past it.

Budget

There is no responsible “average fundraiser venue” figure to copy. Take the quiet-night headcount, price room hire or the minimum spend or the per-head menu for that headcount, and subtract it from ticket income at that same headcount. If the result is nothing before you have paid for printing, prizes or the platform you sell tickets on, the room is too expensive for the night. The auction is extra, not the plan that makes a loss disappear.

In Perth, Eventier’s catalogue on 25 October 2026 has 720 rooms with an email whose published capacity falls between 40 and 250. 240 of those publish a price on the venue’s own site. That is a count of rooms, not a typical price, and it is not a national figure. The Perth page for this occasion records the capacity rule and the Overture Maps attribution.

Ask every venue which of the three you are being quoted, then put the same guest count through each answer. The cost per head calculator does that arithmetic in the browser. how to compare venue quotes is the same method written out.

What to ask every venue

  1. Is the date free, and until what time? When does a deposit actually hold it?
  2. What is the total for a quiet night and for a full room: room hire, a minimum spend, or per head? Is GST included?
  3. Can we bump in early for an auction table, a microphone and a registration desk?
  4. Can you invoice the organisation, and what insurance do you need from us?
  5. Are we allowed to sell tickets and charge at the door?

Get the answers in writing before you announce the venue. A verbal “we can probably do that” does not hold a Saturday.

What Eventier will and won’t do

Eventier finds rooms, writes the enquiry, and sends it only after you approve it. It sends up to two follow-ups if a venue goes quiet, and lines the quotes up side by side. It never signs, books or pays. Finding venues and writing the emails are free. Sending them takes an Event Pass (A$11.99) or Eventier Pro (A$39.99 a year).

Eventier does not sell tickets, hold donations or sign the venue contract. The organisation does.

Place leads come from Overture Maps Places (Overture Maps Foundation). That theme includes data from Meta, Microsoft, PinMeTo, Krick, RenderSEO, DAC, BrightQuery, Birdeye, Uberall and the OpenTravel Alliance under the CDLA Permissive 2.0 licence, Foursquare data under the Apache Licence 2.0, and AllThePlaces under CC0. These pages do not republish those records. Counts are rooms Eventier read from venues’ own websites, on 25 October 2026.