Give people a way to contribute to free tickets

Don’t discount the generosity of your attendees: give them an easy way to contribute to the financial assistance pool.

Usually financial assistance comes corporate sponsorship, but if you have generous attendees, they may contribute something as well.

For example, AlterConf and You Got This both had a way to buy extra tickets. You could buy a single ticket, claim one of the free tickets, or pay for extra tickets which went into the free ticket pool.

Here’s a screenshot from the AlterConf London ticketing page:

There are seven tiers (from bottom to top):

• Scholarship, free
• Basic, £25
• Friend (helps 1 person), £50
• Supporter (helps 2 people), £75
• Advocate (helps 3 people), £100
• Patron (helps 4 people), £125
• Super Friend (helps 5+ people), which is a free text box that starts at £150

Similarly, at PyCon UK, we sell conference swag (t-shirts, hoodies, etc) through an online shop. The proceeds go directly to the financial assistance budget.