Fundraising Events and Donation Receipts: Tickets, Meals, Auctions and Door Prizes

Your gala sells a $250 ticket and the guest receives dinner, a performance, a door prize and a tote bag. Some of that comes off the receipt, some does not, and one combination means no receipt at all. CRA publishes the arithmetic for each kind of event. This guide sets out what to value, in what order, and what your books show.

Which advantages come off the ticket price?

The value of the activity that is the object of the event always comes off. Qualifying non-cash complimentary items come off only if their total exceeds the nominal threshold. These are two different tests and mixing them is the usual error.

Start from the definition. The eligible amount is the fair market value of what the donor transferred less the advantage, and an advantage is the value of anything the donor receives in return for the gift. Where the advantage exceeds 80% of the gift, there is generally no intention to make a gift and no receipt is issued. One rule sits above: every advantage has to be clearly identified and its value ascertainable, and where you cannot arrive at a value, no receipt can be issued.

The object of the event is what the guest came for: the meal at a dinner, a charity concert ticket, or the green fees, cart rental and meal at a golf tournament. That value is always deducted and never counted when applying the nominal threshold.

Everything else is complimentary. Pens, key chains, door prizes and achievement prizes are advantages unless their total per ticket sold falls within the nominal threshold, and prizes are totalled and allocated pro rata.

The nominal threshold applies where the advantages have a combined fair market value not more than $75 or 10% of the gift, whichever is less. It never applies to cash or near-cash items such as gift certificates and gift cards, and an advantage is not nominal where its value cannot be ascertained.

Celebrity attendance is not an advantage, but an extra amount paid to golf or dine with a particular person is not a gift and cannot be receipted.

How do you calculate the receipt for a golf tournament?

Component by component, per ticket sold, with a separate answer for members. CRA's example uses a $200 fee at a course where members pay no green fee.

‍

‍

Complimentary items and prizes total $35, exceeding the $20 threshold, so the whole $35 is included.

Members who would not pay the $50 green fee have an advantage of $85 and an eligible amount of $115. A $40 group rate would make the non-member figure $75. The hole-in-one prize is ignored because the chance of winning is remote. Had the advantage exceeded $160, being 80% of the fee, no receipt could have been issued.

Can you receipt what someone paid at a charity auction?

Usually not. CRA's general position is that the bid itself establishes the value of the item, so there is no eligible amount on an auction purchase.

The exception is narrow. Where the value is otherwise ascertainable, such as a retail price, and made known to all bidders in advance, an eligible amount arises on the excess of the bid over the posted value, provided that posted value does not exceed 80% of the bid. On a bike posted at $400 with a winning bid of $500, the receipt is for $100. Multiplying by 125% gives the minimum bid that clears the threshold.

That condition is the whole exception. If the value was not posted in advance, no receipt goes to the buyer, however large the bid. A silent auction is no different, and the right to take part in an auction is not itself an advantage.

The donor of the item is separate. Receipt them for fair market value at the time of donation, subject to the deemed fair market value rule, even if it later sells for less. If the value cannot be established, no receipt is issued, and services cannot be receipted. A gift certificate donated by its issuer is not a transfer of property when handed over, so no receipt is issued then, although the issuer may become eligible once your charity redeems it for property. On the return, donated property used for a purpose other than a charitable purpose, which is CRA's description of items gifted for auction, reports on line 4600.

On the auction example above, CRA's fundraising events page uses a $550 winning bid against the same $400 posted value, giving a $150 receipt and a $440 ceiling. Either illustration applies the same rule; check the figures in your own case rather than reusing an example.

What about door prizes, raffles and entertainment at a dinner?

The meal and the entertainment always come off, the prizes may not, and a separately sold raffle is not a gift at all. CRA's dinner example puts all of them together.

On 500 tickets at $250, the meal is $100, door prizes total $3,500, each guest gets a pen and key chain worth $10, and a performer's usual ticket price is $50. The prizes come to $7 per ticket, so complimentary items and prizes total $17, inside the $25 threshold, and are ignored. The meal and the entertainment are both deducted: the advantage is $150 and the eligible amount is $100. CRA's folio runs the same dinner without a performer, giving a $100 advantage and a $150 eligible amount, which shows what the entertainment costs the donor.

Where one person buys several tickets, add up the advantages on each and subtract the total from what they paid. A guest who buys a ticket and does not attend still has the advantage deducted, because they bought the right to it. And where a supporter cooks a fundraising dinner at home, no receipt can be issued to the guests at all, because the fair market value of a meal prepared by someone who is not a professional cannot be determined. The value of a home-cooked meal cannot be determined unless the cook sells meals on the open market, and where the value of an advantage cannot be determined, no receipt is possible.

Meals are valued at what a comparable facility would charge, and group or banquet rates count. Entertainment is valued at the usual and current ticket price, which turns on whether the public would normally buy a ticket to see that performer.

Raffles depend on how they were sold. Tickets included in the admission price are door prizes and go into the advantage calculation. A separately run raffle is a lottery: no part of the ticket cost can be receipted, and the prizes are left out of the calculation. Provincial gaming licensing is a separate obligation, not covered here.

Concerts have their own limit: an eligible amount arises only where the ticket price exceeds that of a comparable event, and where there is none, no part of it can be receipted.

When is a membership fee partly a gift?

When the fee exceeds the value of what the member receives, and the excess clears both thresholds. A membership is not automatically a donation and it is not automatically a purchase.

CRA's example is a $250 theatre membership. A donor listing, annual meeting attendance, an advance invitation and materials available free to everyone are nil. A $10 key chain, a $40 performance discount and $40 of parking vouchers are advantages, so the advantage totals $90. The nominal threshold is $25, so the whole $90 is deducted rather than ignored, and because $90 is not more than $200, being 80% of the fee, a receipt can be issued for the eligible amount of $160.

The onus of valuing the benefits sits with your charity, and the values must be reasonable. Our page of receipt examples shows how the eligible amount and the advantage appear on a receipt.

Who is allowed to issue the receipt, and what do your books show?

Only your charity can issue receipts for gifts it receives, and it can never lend its registration number. Handing the receipting function to a third party risks your registration.

You can hire an organisation or fundraiser as your agent, provided you keep control of all money raised and every receipt issued, with a written agency agreement where you are not running the event substantially yourself. If an outside group runs an event you did not know about, it is not your event and you cannot receipt the guests. 

Receipts go to the true donor, a question of fact. Where a business buys a table but its employees paid for their seats, the employees are the donors, and you ask for documents first.

In your books, record the gross amount and split each ticket at entry: eligible amount to receipted gifts, advantage to event revenue. On the return the eligible amounts feed line 4500, and unreceipted tickets and separately sold lottery tickets line 4630. Keep a per-event schedule reconciled to the receipt register, with the valuation file behind it. Keep receipt copies two years from the end of the calendar year the donations were received, and the records behind them six years from the end of the fiscal period. 

Corporate sponsorship has its own treatment, covered separately. Deciding the numbers before tickets go on sale is what ongoing bookkeeping support is for.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do we deduct the meal if a caterer donated it?

Yes, regardless of what the dinner cost your charity.

Can we issue receipts for raffle tickets?

No. CRA's view is that a lottery ticket is not a gift, because participants are motivated by the chance to win and the advantage cannot be reasonably quantified. Where the raffle is bundled into the admission price, the prizes are treated as door prizes instead.

A company bought a table and gave the seats to its staff. Who gets the receipt?

Whoever was the true donor of the money. If the company paid, the receipt is issued to the company. If the employees paid the company for their seats, they are the donors, and you should ask for documentation before issuing individual receipts.

A volunteer baked the dessert. Can we receipt her?

Not for the baking. Unless she is a professional baker, the value of her skill, time and effort cannot be determined. You can reimburse the ingredients, and she can give that payment back voluntarily, which can be receipted.

Another group held an event for us. Can we receipt the guests?

Only if you engaged them as your agent and kept control of the funds and receipts. An activity your charity was not aware of is not your activity. Specific arrangements are the kind we take on our FAQ page.

This article covers charity-side receipting for fundraising events as at September 2026. The dinner and golf calculations follow CRA's fundraising events page. The auction example follows Income Tax Folio S7-F1-C1, with the events page's variant on different facts given alongside it. Sponsorship, gifts of property outside an auction and donated services are covered separately. Price the components of a new event against current CRA guidance before tickets go on sale.