Fundraisers · Socials and benefit suppers
A hall where the money stays in the room
A fundraiser venue rental ten minutes from Steinbach, Manitoba, with room for 200. A weekday is $500 and a Friday or Sunday $1,000, with tables, chairs, dishes and the kitchen included. And if you are a registered non-profit, the LGCA gives you twelve liquor permits a year rather than two.
Nothing here is marked up, because there is nothing here to mark up. We do not sell food, we do not sell alcohol, and there is no minimum to hit — so what the night takes in is yours rather than split with a caterer or a bar.
Two hundred people in the room, 180 seated for a supper, tables and chairs and dishes for the full room, and a kitchen the volunteers can run without asking anybody. The building is yours from 7 in the morning, which is the setting-up time: we do not set rooms and we do not decorate, so the hall goes together the way the committee wants it. You bring the caterer or the cooks, you run the bar under your own permit, and you keep what the door and the bar take.
- 12
- LGCA permits a year for a non-profit; an individual gets 2
- $100
- sale permit for a non-profit selling drinks; else $250
- $500
- a weekday, 7 AM to midnight. A Friday or Sunday is $1,000
- 200
- in the room; 180 seated for a supper
The part that is genuinely worth money
The permit arithmetic favours the organisation, not the volunteer
Who applies for the liquor permit is usually decided by whoever has time on a Tuesday. It should be decided by this instead.
Twelve permits a year, not two
A non-profit organisation can hold twelve Social Occasion Liquor Permits in a year. An individual, a corporation or a partnership is capped at two. If your group runs a spring social, a summer supper and a fall benefit, applying as the organisation rather than as whoever volunteered is the difference between running all three and running two.
1 April, not 1 January
The permit year runs 1 April to 31 March. A social in February and a supper in June are in two different years, which is occasionally very convenient — and a social in May with a supper the following March is in the same one, which occasionally is not. Check the dates against 1 April before you assume.
$100 rather than $250
If guests pay for a drink at all it is a sale permit, and a non-profit or corporation selling drinks pays $100 where other sale permits are $250. A 50/50 or a raffle at the same event is covered on the same application — tick the box. No extra charge, no separate licence, no reporting afterwards.
We are not the permit holder and no venue can apply on your behalf. What we do is tell you which type you need when you book, remind you at the four-week mark, and keep a copy on file for the night so nobody is hunting through a phone at nine o’clock. The whole permit, in plain language, is here.
What it costs
What a fundraiser usually books
Every rental is the whole building from 7 AM to midnight — there are no half-days and no hourly blocks. A weekday is $500, a Friday or Sunday $1,000 and a Saturday $1,250. Everything under them is optional and costs a charity exactly what it costs anybody else; the weekday rate is what actually keeps the night cheap.
Weekday, Monday to Thursday
The whole building, 7 AM to midnight, for five hundred dollars. Seminars, fowl suppers, showers, funeral lunches, reunions and AGMs all book this one.
$500
Friday or Sunday
The same hall and the same hours as a Saturday, two hundred and fifty dollars less. Sunday afternoons get the west light off the field.
$1,000
Saturday
7 AM to midnight on the busiest day of the week. Room for 200, with 180 sitting down comfortably for a plated supper.
$1,250
Bar
The rolling bar, wheeled out to wherever you want it and backed onto the kitchen pass-through so whoever is pouring is not cut off from the room. You bring the drinks and the permit.
$80/ day
Projector, Screen & PA System
Ceiling projector, drop-down screen, a wireless handheld mic, and house sound over 3.5 mm or Bluetooth. The line every seminar, AGM and slideshow-at-a-memorial adds.
$125
Coffee & Tea Service
Urn coffee, tea, cream and sugar topped up from your first guest to your last, with a thermos left on each table. Around here the coffee runs out before the food does.
$2.75/ guest
After-Event Cleaning
Floors, kitchen, washrooms and bins the morning after. Without it the hall has to be left as you found it — which on a wedding night means somebody's uncle mopping at two in the morning.
$250
One rate buys the whole building from 7 AM to midnight. Anything below it is something you add on top. Every rate we charge is on the pricing page, and there is nothing else.
Added up
A benefit supper for 180 on a Friday
The room at its comfortable seated capacity, the bar out where the volunteers can reach the kitchen, and the sound for the speeches and the auction.
| Friday hall rental, 7 AM to midnight | $1,000 |
|---|---|
| Bar | $80 |
| Coffee & tea, 180 × $2.75 | $495 |
| Projector, screen & PA for the speeches and the auction | $125 |
| After-event cleaning | $250 |
| Subtotal | $1,950 |
| GST 5% | $97.50 |
| Total | $2,047.50 |
That is about $11 a head for the venue, on 180 guests.
Food is yours to arrange or to have donated, and the door and the bar are yours to keep — we take nothing from either. On a weekday the same evening is $500 less before GST. The damage deposit that holds the date is $500, and it comes back within two to three weeks afterwards.
Before you book
Questions
Do we need a liquor permit to sell drinks at a fundraiser?
Yes — a sale permit. The moment money changes hands for a drink, including a toonie for the late-night round, it is a sale rather than a hosted bar. A non-profit or a corporation selling drinks pays $100; other sale permits are $250. Apply at mylgca.ca at least four weeks ahead. We are not the permit holder and no venue can apply on your behalf.
How many permits can our organisation get in a year?
A non-profit organisation can hold twelve Social Occasion Liquor Permits a year. An individual, a corporation or a partnership is capped at two. The permit year runs 1 April to 31 March rather than January to December, so check which side of 1 April your dates fall on before you assume you have room for another.
Can we run a 50/50 or a raffle?
Yes, and it goes on the same permit application — tick the box. There is no extra charge, no separate raffle licence to file and no financial reporting afterwards. It is the single most commonly missed line on the form.
Is there a bar to pour from?
Yes, and it is $80 for the day. It rolls to wherever you want it and backs onto the kitchen pass-through, so whoever is pouring is not cut off from the room. The drinks, the float and the permit are yours; nothing off the bar comes to us.
Is there a discount for charities?
No. There is one published price and it is the same for everybody, which is the only thing that makes a published price worth anything. What keeps a fundraiser cheap here is the $500 weekday rate, no food and beverage minimum, no corkage, and nothing taken off the bar.
Can volunteers do the food?
Yes, and most benefit suppers here are cooked by the group running them. There is no in-house caterer and no approved list: two fridges, a stove, a microwave, a coffee maker and a commercial dishwasher that runs a two-minute wash and rinse, with dishes and cutlery for the full room included. The washing up is still the committee's, but a rack every two minutes is what makes that survivable.
Do you set the hall up for us?
No. We do not set rooms, we do not decorate and we have no decor to rent. You have the building from 7 in the morning, which on a supper night is enough time to put the tables where you want them and get the hall looking like something. If you want it dressed, Let's Celebrate Rentals hires out linens, backdrops and centrepieces. After-Event Cleaning at $250 is the one job you can hand back to us.
Do you handle ticketing, or take a cut of the door?
Neither. We rent you the room. The tickets, the float, the door and the bar are yours to run, and everything they take is yours to keep. What we charge is on the rate list and nothing on the night changes it.
Price the room before you price the ticket.
Put the date and the headcount in and you will have the venue side of the budget in about two minutes — which is the number the committee actually needs.