Running a larger camp

Finances

If you’re going to put on a more expensive event and need to raise cash – say, in the US, $5,000 to $10, 000 – you may have to set up a company or have a company step forward and run it through their company. It gets complicated by tax issues and so on. Transparency is key. If you’re accepting money into a bank account, let people know how much money has been accepted and how that money was spent. You don’t necessarily need to specify the sources of each contribution, but how much was brought in. You are being entrusted by this community with money and you should be transparent about how it was used and where the money went.

Local laws will determine how much work and expense is involved in starting up a company to run camps. In the US it’s relatively easy to set up a shell company. Grab some documents at your local City Hall, fill them out, go to the bank, get a bank account, no big deal. Even easier than that is set up a PayPal account that all the money will go into. PayPal’s fees are expensive, but it is an easy way to set up an account and have the accounting quick and easy. You can take credit card payments into the account, then send money to whoever is going to be paying for stuff. You can also transfer to your bank account if you need cash on hand.