Event Ticketing Plugins for Nonprofits and Fundraising Events
Sell a £100 seat at a fundraising dinner where the meal is worth £40, and £60 is a donation and £40 is not. In the United States, once a payment over $75 is partly a contribution and partly for goods or services, the charity must give the donor a written statement saying so and estimating the value of what they received. Most WordPress ticketing plugins have no idea this rule exists.
That single requirement reshapes the whole category for nonprofits, because your receipt is not a ticket confirmation, it is a tax document. This article covers what a fundraising ticket actually is, how to add donations and sponsor tiers at checkout, and which tools handle the split, including one that is genuinely free.
Verified August 2026. Practical guidance, not tax or legal advice; confirm treatment in your own jurisdiction.
Why a fundraising ticket is two things
A commercial ticket is a purchase: money for admission, no charitable element, one number. A fundraising ticket splits into the fair market value of what the attendee receives, the dinner, the drinks, the entertainment, and the contribution, which is everything above that. Only the second part is deductible, and the donor is entitled to know which is which before they claim it.
The US rule has a threshold and a shape worth knowing precisely. Where a payment exceeds $75 and is partly a contribution and partly for goods or services, the organisation must furnish a written disclosure statement that informs the donor the deductible amount is limited to the excess of the payment over the value received, and provides a good faith estimate of that value. It is the charity’s obligation, not the donor’s, and it applies at the point of solicitation or receipt.
UK Gift Aid works differently and is stricter in its own way: benefits received in return for a donation are capped by a sliding scale, and an admission ticket is generally a benefit that can disqualify the payment entirely unless it is structured correctly. In both systems the practical consequence is identical. You must be able to say, on the receipt, what portion was a gift. If your plugin cannot express that, you will be editing receipts by hand.
The 6 options compared
1. Zeffy
Free, and not free in the usual qualified sense. Zeffy covers both the platform cost and the payment processing itself, funded by an optional tip shown to the donor at checkout, defaulting to around 17% on smaller transactions and 15% on larger ones, which the donor can change to any amount including zero. If they decline, your organisation still receives everything.
That covers the cost that every other option here leaves you paying: roughly 2.9% plus a fixed fee to Stripe or PayPal on every transaction. On £20,000 of ticket sales that is around £600 a year saved before you count licence fees. It handles ticketed events, auctions, raffles, memberships, peer-to-peer campaigns and donor management, with QR check-in and tap-to-pay on a phone at the door. The trade is that it is a hosted platform rather than a WordPress plugin, so tickets are sold on Zeffy’s pages and linked from your site, and donors see a tip prompt with your event’s name attached to it.
- Cost: Free, including payment processing, funded by donor tips
- Fundraising: Tickets, auctions, raffles, memberships, P2P
- Best for: Nonprofits of any size, especially small ones
- Watch out for: Hosted, not a plugin; donors see a tip prompt
2. GiveWP
The most complete fundraising platform that lives inside WordPress, with Essentials at $199 a year, Pro at $399 and Elite at $599, and no donation fees taken by the plugin. Its advantage over ticketing plugins is that it understands donations as a first-class concept: receipts, donor records, recurring giving, and fee recovery.
Fee recovery deserves a note, because it is the feature most nonprofits underuse. Offering the donor the option to cover the payment processing charge routinely recovers a large share of it, which on a £20,000 event is several hundred pounds for a checkbox. Pro adds recurring donations and email marketing integrations; Elite adds peer-to-peer fundraising, which turns a sponsored event into supporters running their own pages. For ticketed events specifically, plan on pairing it with a ticketing plugin rather than expecting it to sell seats.
- Cost: $199 Essentials, $399 Pro, $599 Elite, a year; no donation fees
- Fundraising: Donations, recurring, fee recovery, P2P at Elite
- Best for: Organisations whose main activity is fundraising
- Watch out for: Pair it with ticketing for seated events
3. Tickera
The ticketing half done properly and cheaply: $149 a year Standard, $199 Bundle, or $399 for a lifetime licence covering unlimited sites, with zero commission on any plan and free mobile check-in apps included with the core plugin.
For a charity the lifetime licence is the interesting number. A nonprofit running an annual gala pays $399 once and never thinks about it again, which is a materially different proposition from a renewing subscription in an organisation where budget approval is a committee. The Bundle adds seating charts, which fundraising dinners frequently need, and custom forms for capturing dietary requirements and table preferences. What it does not do is understand donations, so the charitable split is yours to construct through ticket naming, custom fields, and receipt text.
- Cost: $149/yr, $199 Bundle, $399 lifetime, unlimited sites
- Fundraising: None natively; ticketing and seating only
- Best for: Annual galas and dinners with reserved seating
- Watch out for: You construct the donation split yourself
4. FooEvents on WooCommerce
Bundles at $169 Basic, $199 Bookings, $249 Premium and $399 Point of Sale, licensed per domain, with no per-ticket commission. Its relevance to fundraising is entirely about what WooCommerce lets you build around a ticket.
Because tickets are products, a donation is simply another product added to the same cart, sponsor tiers are product variations with different prices and benefits, and a raffle book is stock-controlled inventory. The order total splits across line items you named, which is the cleanest route to a receipt that shows a ticket at £40 and a contribution at £60 without custom development. The Point of Sale bundle at $399 also handles cash and card at the door, which matters at a charity event where the raffle and the auction happen on the night. Tax handling per line item is standard WooCommerce, which is the correct place for it to live.
- Cost: $169 to $399 a year, per domain, no commission
- Fundraising: Donations and sponsor tiers as products in the cart
- Best for: Charities already running WooCommerce
- Watch out for: Requires WooCommerce competence to set up well
5. Event Tickets Plus
Ticketing within The Events Calendar ecosystem, through packages at Essentials $259 a year, Pro $399 and Elite $599. Relevant to nonprofits mainly where the organisation already runs a public programme of events and the gala is one of many.
Multiple ticket types on one event handles sponsor tiers naturally: a table of ten at £1,000, individual seats at £100, and a supporter ticket at £250 are three ticket types with different capacities and different confirmation emails. Elite adds custom seating maps, which is the tier a seated dinner needs. Note the free Event Tickets plugin carries a 2% Tickets Commerce application fee on Stripe and Square, which on a £30,000 gala is £600, considerably more than the licence that removes it.
- Cost: $259 to $599 a year; free plugin carries a 2% fee
- Fundraising: Sponsor tiers as ticket types; no donation model
- Best for: Charities with an ongoing events programme
- Watch out for: The 2% on the free tier is expensive at gala scale
6. Charitable
A WordPress donation plugin with a free core, worth considering as the donation layer beside whichever ticketing you choose. Its appeal to smaller organisations is that the essential function, taking a donation and issuing a receipt, does not require a licence at all.
Used alongside a ticketing plugin, the pattern is: sell admission through the ticketing tool and run donations, sponsorship and the appeal through Charitable, keeping donation records separate from ticket sales in a way your finance volunteer will thank you for. Confirm current paid tier pricing with the vendor, and check that the donation receipts contain the disclosure wording you need rather than assuming a generic thank-you satisfies it. That wording is editable in most donation plugins, which is exactly why it is worth editing once, properly, before the first event.
- Cost: Free core; confirm paid tiers with the vendor
- Fundraising: Donations and receipts, separate from ticket sales
- Best for: Small charities pairing donations with any ticketing
- Watch out for: Edit the receipt wording for disclosure yourself
Comparison table
| Option | Cost | Processing fees | Donation model | Seating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zeffy | Free | Covered by Zeffy | Native, plus auctions and raffles | Basic |
| GiveWP | $199 to $599/yr | Yours, with fee recovery | Native, P2P at Elite | No |
| Tickera | $149/yr; $399 lifetime | Yours | Manual | Yes, in Bundle |
| FooEvents | $169 to $399/yr | Yours | Products in the cart | Yes |
| Event Tickets Plus | $259 to $599/yr | Yours; 2% on free tier | Ticket types only | Elite only |
| Charitable | Free core | Yours | Native donations | No |
Adding donations, sponsor tiers, auctions and raffles
The revenue at a fundraising event rarely comes mostly from the ticket. Four patterns cover almost all of it, and each has a technical shape worth deciding in advance rather than improvising on the night.
- An add-a-donation field at checkout. The single highest-return change you can make. Offer three suggested amounts and a free entry, and label it clearly as a gift so the receipt can separate it from the ticket price.
- Sponsor tiers as ticket types. A table of ten with your logo on the programme is a ticket type with a capacity of one and a large price. Model it that way rather than as an invoice raised separately, so the seats are allocated automatically.
- Raffles are stock-controlled products, and are regulated. Selling numbered entries is straightforward technically; the licensing rules around lotteries and raffles vary sharply by jurisdiction and are worth checking before you sell a single ticket.
- Auctions usually belong on a platform. Silent and live auctions need bidding, outbid notifications, and payment after the fact, which WordPress ticketing does not do. Zeffy includes auctions; otherwise budget for separate software or run it on paper.
Whatever combination you choose, write the disclosure statement once and put it on the confirmation email template. Something like: “Your ticket includes dinner and entertainment with an estimated fair market value of £40. The remaining £60 of your £100 payment may be treated as a charitable contribution.” That sentence, in the right place, is most of your compliance obligation discharged for the year.
Related guides
Frequently asked questions
Is the whole ticket price a donation?
No. Only the amount above the fair market value of what the attendee receives. A £100 ticket to a £40 dinner is a £60 contribution, and telling the donor otherwise creates a problem for both of you.
How do I estimate fair market value?
A good faith estimate is what is required, typically what the attendee would pay for the same meal, drinks and entertainment commercially. Document how you arrived at it and apply it consistently.
Does Zeffy really cost nothing?
For the organisation, yes, including payment processing. The model is funded by optional donor tips, which most but not all donors leave. The cost you accept is a tip prompt in your checkout and pages hosted outside your site.
Can I claim Gift Aid on ticket sales?
Usually not on the admission element, because the attendee receives a benefit. Structures exist that allow it, and they are specific. Take advice before assuming a ticketed event qualifies.
Should donors cover the processing fee?
Offer it as an option rather than imposing it. Uptake is typically high and it recovers most of a cost that otherwise comes straight off your net. GiveWP calls this fee recovery and it is one of the clearest wins in the category.
Do we need separate records for tickets and donations?
Yes, and your treasurer will insist. Keeping donation records in a donation plugin and ticket sales in a ticketing plugin makes year-end reporting straightforward, which is worth more than the tidiness of one system.
The verdict
For most nonprofits: Zeffy. It is free including payment processing, it handles tickets, auctions, raffles and check-in, and on a £20,000 event it saves roughly £600 in card fees alone. Accept the hosted pages and the tip prompt; they cost less than the alternative.
If fundraising is your core activity and must live on your own site: GiveWP from $199 a year, with fee recovery switched on and Elite at $599 if peer-to-peer is part of the plan.
For an annual seated gala: Tickera’s $399 lifetime licence, which covers seating, check-in apps and unlimited sites, and never needs re-approving by a committee.
Then write the disclosure sentence into your confirmation email. Whichever tool you choose, that line stating the value received and the deductible remainder is the part regulators care about, and no plugin will write it for you.
