How to budget a Model UN conference and set the delegate fee

Seven steps take you from an empty spreadsheet to a fee that covers your costs, or a free conference that is fully paid for.

Budget in an evening, then adjust as applications come in. The steps:

1. 1List your costs. Start from a sample budget your size, and add your own prices.
2. 2Decide what to charge. Nothing at all, a low fee, or a higher fee with free places.
3. 3Work out the fee. The budget calculator turns your fixed and variable costs into a fee.
4. 4Check it against others. See what other conferences charge.
5. 5Bring money in early. An early-bird fee and a cash calendar cover the first bills.
6. 6Publish a refund policy. Put your refund dates on the page with the fee.
7. 7Find support. Free rooms, sponsors and grants lower the fee for everyone, or pay for all of it.

Food and the venue are most of the bill at every size, so they are where you save.

A first conference fits the first or second row, depending on how big you plan.

In any currency, the shape is the same: the venue and food take half to two thirds of the total, and the contingency a tenth. Price food per person per day where you live, then run the calculator in your own currency.

What moves the total

• Food. The largest line at every size, because you also feed chairs and helpers. Sandwiches at €6 instead of a €12 hot lunch save €2,160 over two days in the 150 example.
• Venue. Your own school or university is the cheapest venue, and it may ask only for cleaning and security.
• Days. Each extra day adds food and venue, but almost nothing for materials or awards.
• Socials. Sell tickets for an evening event separately, and the delegate fee stays low.
• Large conferences. University rooms at €2,000, lunch only for chairs and helpers, and ticketed socials bring the 400 example from €126 to €36 a delegate. If delegates buy their own lunch, say so on your conference page.
• Hotels. For delegates from abroad, hold a block of rooms near the venue at a group rate, and let them book their own. After a date the hotel sets, unsold rooms become your bill, so release them before it.
• Easy to forget. Food for chairs and helpers, travel for chairs from other cities, payment fees, and the places you give away free.

Free, low and higher fees all fill rooms: pick the model your host, your sponsors and your delegates can carry.

About one in ten in-person conferences listed on mymun is free to attend. Each model has its case:

• Free. Your school, a grant or sponsors pay, so money stops nobody and schools say yes fastest. You raise every euro yourself, and more accepted delegates do not turn up when they have paid nothing.
• A low fee for everyone. It is simple, nobody has to ask for help, and more schools say yes. The budget is tighter, so extras such as a social become separate tickets.
• A higher fee with free places. It pays for meals, a social and a good venue, and free places keep it open to anyone. A few schools will not pay it, so publish how to ask for a free place.
• In between. A modest fee, a few free places and an optional social ticket keep the door open and still pay for extras.

For a first conference, run it free if your school or a sponsor covers the costs. Otherwise keep the fee low and offer a few free places. A free conference costs you nothing on mymun.

Running a free conference

Add up your costs and add 10%: that is the sum to raise from your school, a grant or sponsors. Budget food for every place you offer, because no fee tells you who is sure to come.

Expect a few empty seats when nobody has paid. Ask everyone to confirm in the last week, and give the caterer the number who did.

Your fee covers each delegate's own costs plus a share of the costs you pay however many come, so count both.

Every cost in your budget is fixed or variable, and the fee has to cover both:

• Fixed costs. They stay the same however many delegates come: the venue, tech, insurance, awards, a social, and food for chairs and helpers.
• Variable costs. They grow with every delegate: lunch on each day, a badge and a placard.

To sort a cost, ask: would it change if ten more delegates came? If yes, it is variable.

Divide the fixed costs by the delegates you are sure of, then add the variable cost of one delegate. The fewer delegates you are sure of, the larger each one's share of the fixed costs, so never divide by the number you hope for.

Count as sure last year's delegates, or 80% of your target in a first year. Keep a few free places, so access to Model UN never depends on money: the delegates who pay share their cost.

A worked example

The calculator below works it through for the 150-delegate plan: €73 covers every cost, and €76 after a 4% payment share. Use your own provider's share, and see the organizer page for registration costs.

At €76, your planned costs are covered once about 103 delegates come, 97 of them paying. Each delegate after that rebuilds your 10% for surprises, which is complete at 120.

Fixed costs, variable costs and the delegates you are sure of give you your fee in seven lines.

If the fee looks high for your area, lower the fixed costs first: the venue and the social are the usual places to save.

In person, the typical delegate fee is about €55 at high school and €57 at university; online it is under €10.

The delegate fee is often called the registration fee. Compare your break-even fee with what others charge at high school and university conferences:

Where your fee should sit

• Next to your neighbours. In any currency, compare with conferences near you at the same level and length.
• Near the typical fee. Right for a conference with lunch included.
• In the top quarter. Give delegates a reason they can see: more days, meals, a social, a well-known venue.
• In the bottom quarter. Check the budget for forgotten lines. If none are missing, your low fee is a reason to apply.

Use an early-bird fee to bring money in early, keep school and advisor fees light, and let chairs in free.

• Early-bird fee. About 15% below the regular fee for everyone who pays by a set date. Close it a week or two before your largest deposit is due.
• Delegation fee. A small fee per school covers the work a group brings, such as invoicing it or feeding its teachers.
• Faculty advisor fee. Half the delegate fee or less, or a free place: teachers bring you whole delegations.
• Chair fee. Only one conference in five on mymun sets a chair fee. Let yours in free.
• Discount codes. A fixed amount off for your own society's members, a partner school or a returning delegation.

When many delegates take the early-bird fee, your average fee falls below the regular one. Set the regular fee above your break-even fee: with €82 regular and €70 early-bird, the average is €76 if half take each.

Fees arrive late, so plan the month the bills come due and bring money in early.

About one fee in four on mymun is paid more than two months before the conference. So write each deposit next to the money you can expect by then:

The first deposit, six months out, is the moment you are short, and start-up money covers it. At the typical conference, fees arrive later than in this pool, so you can stay short until about a month out. These moves close each gap:

How to close the gap

• Start-up money. Ask your school, university or students' union for an advance, and agree when you pay it back. An established conference keeps part of each year's surplus for the next deposits.
• Deposits that follow your income. Ask the venue and the caterer for small deposits now and the balance after your payment deadline. Ask before you sign, not when the bill arrives.
• Payment deadlines. Ask accepted delegates to pay within two weeks, and remind everyone who has not paid. Set the deadline before you give the caterer final numbers, and order food for the people who have paid.
• Sponsor money on signing. Ask sponsors and grant givers to pay when they sign, not after the event.
• Order last what you can cut. Buy materials, awards and extras when you know your numbers.

Tie each refund date to a cost you can no longer cancel, and publish the policy with the fee.

A refund policy decides who carries the cost when someone drops out. Adapt this one, and handle every request the same way:

Refund requests are rare: at in-person conferences on mymun, about two fee payments in 100 are refunded. Agree with the venue and the caterer what you owe if you cancel, so your promise to delegates matches the money you can get back.

Online payments arrive matched to each delegate; a transfer suits a school that pays for a whole group.

• Online. Delegates pay exactly the fee you set, and the money reaches your bank every week, matched to each person. Build the payment share into the fee, as the calculator's last line does.
• Other ways to pay, such as a bank transfer. A school can pay one transfer for its whole group, and the payer uploads a proof for you to accept. If its finance office needs an invoice first, send one.

Check the weekly payout day against the dates your bills fall due.

Ask your host for free rooms first, then offer sponsors something real for their money.

• Your host. Free rooms, or a grant from the school, university or students' union. At a university, ask departments and the international office too.
• Goods instead of money. A café or a drinks company gives goods more easily than cash. Put each gift in the budget at its price.
• Cash sponsors. Ask local businesses, foundations and former delegates to pay for one named line, such as the lunch. Offer something concrete in return: your logo on the badges and the conference page, or a short speech at the opening.

At a large conference, run two small teams: one keeps the budget, and one finds sponsors. The UN does not fund Model UN events. For smaller ideas, see how school clubs fund themselves.