Costs that may occur such as Room Hire, and printing leaflets have been mentioned at a number of different points throughout the TEN STEPS.
Before anything else, you will not need to spend any money or even consider whether you will need to spend money BEFORE you have reached STEP 8 and are in the early stages of arranging your first Community Meeting.
If you have already gained sufficient support for your first Community Meeting, it is likely that you will also have enough support to raise the modest funding necessary to cover any costs of Room Hire and Leaflet Production/Printing too.
Protecting yourself and protecting your donors
The first thing you need to consider if you are going to raise money to pay for any Community Meeting related costs, is that any money you raise – even if it’s just pennies – is NOT yours.
If you’ve told People that any money they donate will be for a specific purpose, or just in general terms to help the creation of your Community Meeting in some way, that is the only purpose that it should ever be used for.
In the stages leading up to your first Community Meeting and possibly beyond, the safest way for you to raise money or receive donations is likely to be through setting up an online crowdfunding campaign using a platform like Go Fund Me or Just Giving. (There are others that you will find by doing an online search of ‘Crowdfunding’ or similar, too)
If you set up an account online, it is likely, depending upon which platform you use, that you will be able to manage your fundraising using an app and you will automatically be able to manage and track money coming in.
Not only that. You will also have the added value that will come from being able to post even more information about your Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE campaign within your local Community – and that can only be a big help!
Managing donations and protecting your Community Meeting
It may not be possible or practical to open up a bank account to manage any funds your Community Meeting campaign receives.
But it will be necessary to keep a written record of what money you withdraw or transfer from any Crowdfunder you’ve set up, and then how every bit of it is spent.
Whatever you spend money on (e.g., Room Hire, Printing costs), you should always ask for and keep a receipt.
Each transaction should be recorded in an Excel spreadsheet or similar – which will also make your input much easier, as the software can be set up to automatically do any sums for you.
It may sound like a lot of effort for very little. But when you are managing other People’s money, it’s the real detail that actually counts.
By keeping a very clear and transparent record of the process of financial management you have used, it will be very simple for you to demonstrate that you’ve done everything properly, IF anyone should ask.
It will also then be much easier and less time-consuming for you to hand over responsibility for financial matters to another person, as more volunteers become involved in building your Community Meeting.
Please Remember:
Donations are always made for what the donor believes they will be used for. Not so that you or anyone else can then use them for something else.
Any money given in the form of a donation belongs to the Community and should be given back to donors immediately, if your campaign stops at any time.
You are raising funds so that the only donation you have to make personally is your effort and time, without there being any financial cost to you.
Adam Tugwell 
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