Hi Sarah,
Welcome to the Community Tool Box (CTB) and Ask an Advisor. Admittedly, I'm a little surprised that you are going to invite your top achievers to an awards ceremony and ask them to pay a fee to attend. If I were a top achiever and received an invitation I'd be a little incensed at having to pay for the privilege of attending the ceremony at which my achievements would be recognized; typically, when one is invited to receive an award one doesn't pay a fee, that's just the way these things work. Further, asking your top achievers to pay for their own ceremony will not do your organization any favors as far as publicity is concerned and may in fact damage your reputation. My strong advice to you is to reconsider this course of action with some of the alternatives outlined below.
That said, my guess is that you are a small non-profit with an equally small budget, yet you want to recognize people for their efforts with a nice ceremony and need $50 per person to cover your costs, is that correct? Indeed, recognizing top achievers is important on a number of levels so I understand why you want to hold an awards ceremony and applaud you for it. So, my first question to you is: have you thought about holding a modest ceremony so you don't have to ask people to pay a fee? I mean, there are other ways to recognize people other than a lavish, expensive awards ceremony. The important thing is recognizing them, not the ceremony at which such recognition is offered; remember, the ceremony is for them, not to show off your organization's ability to hold an expensive awards ceremony. As a non-profit you need to spend within your means. My second question to you is: have you thought about soliciting donations from the community or thought about seeking other forms of external funding (e.g., small grants) to cover your costs? It will require some leg work on your part, but I think if you ask your supporters to help you fund a modest awards ceremony my guess is that such a proposition would be met with favor. It doesn’t hurt to ask. Any money you don’t spend out of your operating budget can be used for programming, which is the most important aspect of your work.
Rather than providing you with invitation wording asking invitees to pay a fee to cover your costs for the reasons I outlined above, I'm going to offer resources from the CTB that will help you think through the whole recognition ceremony enterprise. We actually have a chapter and section on holding award ceremonies that offers a lot of great information to get you to think about alternative ways of recognizing people. Start on our home page and click on the "Learn A Skill" button at the top left corner of the page. Next, click on "Table of Contents" and scroll down to the section entitled "Maintaining Quality and Rewarding Accomplishments" and click it on. Click on "Chapter 41. Rewarding Accomplishments," and scroll down to "Section 4. Holding Awards Ceremonies" and read through the "Main Section." Please give this all due consideration as it will help you re-frame your thinking about your awards ceremony and awards ceremonies in general.
With that Sarah, thank you for visiting the CTB and Ask an Advisor. Again, you don't need to hold an elaborate ceremony because it's the recognition of achievements that is most important. Please consider planning a low-cost, within budget, modest ceremony or ask local businesses and other community organizations to help defray costs so you don't have to ask top achievers to fund their own ceremony. We wish you much success. Take care, be well, do good work.
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