Fundraising
Nonprofit Accounting
Nonprofit Management
Form 990 Schedule G: Reporting Fundraising Events, Professional Fundraisers and Gaming
Last updated: October 11, 2026 · Independent guide · We do not sell rankings or coverage.
Form 990 Schedule G is where a nonprofit reports paid professional fundraisers (Part I), fundraising events such as galas and auctions (Part II) and gaming such as bingo and raffles (Part III). Each part has its own $15,000 trigger on Form 990, Part IV. Part II turns on one split: what attendees paid above the value they received is a contribution, and only the value portion is event gross income on Part VIII, line 8a.
The rule in brief
- Who files: Form 990 filers answering “Yes” on Part IV, line 17, 18 or 19. Form 990-EZ filers complete only Parts II and III.
- Part I trigger: more than $15,000 of professional fundraising fees (Part IX, lines 6 and 11e).
- Part II trigger: Part VIII, line 1c plus line 8a exceeds $15,000. Only events with gross receipts over $5,000 are listed.
- Part III trigger: gaming gross income on Part VIII, line 9a exceeds $15,000.
- Key dates: filed with Form 990, due the 15th day of the 5th month after year end (extension on Form 8868).
- Official source: IRS Instructions for Schedule G (Rev. 12/2024) and the 2025 Instructions for Form 990. We checked both on October 11, 2026.
What Schedule G requires, part by part
Part I: professional fundraising services
The IRS glossary defines professional fundraising services as work requiring professional judgment: planning, preparing solicitation materials, advising on solicitations and directly soliciting gifts. Employees acting as employees and purely ministerial tasks such as printing, mailing or caging do not count (IRS, 2025 Instructions for Form 990, December 9, 2025).
You check the solicitation methods you used, then list the 10 highest-paid fundraisers compensated at least $5,000: gross receipts from their activity, the amount paid to or kept by them, whether they controlled contributions, and your net. Line 3 lists every state where you are registered to solicit (IRS, Schedule G instructions, page reviewed April 30, 2026).
Part II: fundraising events and the contribution split
Fundraising events include dinners, dances, concerts, carnivals, sports events and auctions. Events that substantially further your exempt purpose are program service revenue, and nominal-value sales, nominal-prize raffles and pure solicitations are contributions on line 1f (IRS, 2025 Form 990 instructions).
The two largest events take columns (a) and (b); other events over $5,000 are combined in column (c). Lines 4 to 9 hold direct expenses: prizes, facility costs, food and beverages, entertainment and other direct costs, including event worker pay. Line 11 is line 3 gross income minus those expenses.
The split follows Rev. Rul. 67-246. In the IRS example, a $400 dinner ticket with a $160 retail value is a $240 contribution on line 1c (repeated in the line 8a parenthetical) and $160 of gross income in the line 8a box. Food and invitations go on line 8b; indirect costs such as advertising go on Part IX, column (D).
Part III: gaming, including raffles
Gaming includes bingo, pull tabs, raffles, scratch-offs, certain casino nights and coin-operated devices. Its income goes on Part VIII, line 9a, and a raffle run at a gala must be allocated out of the event (IRS, 2025 Form 990 instructions).
Bingo goes in column (a), pull tabs in column (b) and other gaming, including raffles, in column (c). Column (d) lines 1, 7 and 8 must match Part VIII, lines 9a to 9c. You also report volunteer labor, gaming states and licensing, nonmember play, third-party operators, the gaming manager’s pay and state-mandated distributions.
Worked example: a gala from ticket to Part VIII line 8
This is an illustration with invented figures. A charity sells 250 gala tickets at $300, with a good-faith dinner value of $110. Five sponsors pay $5,000 each for a 10-seat table ($1,100 of dinner value). Donated lots valued at $24,000 sell for $33,000, and lots valued at $6,000 sell for $5,000. The paddle raise brings in $42,000, and a raffle sells 600 tickets at $20 for a $3,000 purchased trip.
| Schedule G Part II line (column a) | Amount | How it is built |
|---|---|---|
| 1 Gross receipts | $180,000 | Tickets $75,000 + sponsors $25,000 + auction $38,000 + paddle $42,000 (raffle excluded) |
| 2 Less: contributions | $118,000 | Tickets 250 × $190 = $47,500; sponsors $19,500; bids above value $9,000; paddle $42,000 |
| 3 Gross income | $62,000 | Dinner value $27,500 + $5,500; auction $24,000 + $5,000 (below-value lots are all exchange revenue) |
| 6 Rent/facility costs | $9,000 | Ballroom rental |
| 7 Food and beverages | $33,000 | 300 guests × $110 catering |
| 8 Entertainment | $6,000 | Band |
| 9 Other direct expenses | $34,500 | Invitations and AV $4,500 + $30,000 value of donated lots sold |
| 10 Direct expense summary | $82,500 | Lines 4 to 9 |
| 11 Net income summary | ($20,500) | $62,000 − $82,500 |
On Part VIII, the charity reports $118,000 on line 1c, $62,000 in the line 8a box with $118,000 in its parenthetical, $82,500 on line 8b and ($20,500) on line 8c. Following the IRS home theater example, the $30,000 of donated lots also appears on line 1f (and 1g as noncash), which triggers Schedule M above $25,000.
The negative line 11 is normal: the gala netted $127,500 in cash, but $118,000 of it sits on line 1c. The raffle goes on lines 9a ($12,000), 9b ($3,000) and 9c ($9,000); at $12,000 it does not trigger Part III.
Each $300 ticket is a quid pro quo contribution over $75, so buyers need a written statement estimating the $110 benefit (Part V, lines 7a and 7b).
Who is exempt
If you answer “No” on all three Part IV lines, you skip Schedule G. Events of $5,000 or less count toward the $15,000 test but are not listed. Form 990-EZ filers skip Part I, and Form 990-N filers file no schedules.
Deadlines and penalties
The 2025 Form 990 instructions set a late-filing penalty of $25 a day, up to the lesser of $13,000 or 5% of gross receipts. For organizations with gross receipts above $1,309,500 it is $130 a day, up to $65,000. The penalty can also apply to an incomplete return or one that reports contributions net of fundraising expenses.
A missing quid pro quo disclosure costs $10 per contribution, up to $5,000 per event (section 6714). For 2026 raffle prizes, Form W-2G applies at $2,000 or more and at least 300 times the wager, and 24% withholding applies when winnings minus the wager exceed $5,000 (IRS, Instructions for Forms W-2G and 5754, page reviewed April 30, 2026).
Records you must keep
Keep attendee payments, the value used for each ticket type and its basis, disclosure statements, auction lot sheets (donor, value, winning bid), the required itemized list of other direct expenses, and each fundraising contract.
For gaming, IRS Publication 3079 (Rev. 10-2018) says you must keep records of gross receipts, prize payouts and related disbursements. Its example of appropriate oversight splits duties among a gaming manager, a cashier, a cash controller, an inventory controller and a separate person who writes checks. Records are generally kept three years from the later of filing or the due date (IRS, Publication 3079).
What to set up in your systems
Split revenue when you record it, not at year end. Give each event its own class or dimension so one report produces columns (a) to (c), and map accounts one to one to Schedule G lines. This layout works in most nonprofit accounting software:
| Account (illustrative) | What it holds | Form 990 line | Schedule G line |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4510 Event contributions | Ticket and sponsor amounts above value, auction bids above value, paddle raise | VIII 1c | Part II line 2 |
| 4520 Event exchange revenue | Benefit value of tickets and sponsor seats | VIII 8a | Part II line 3 |
| 4530 Auction sales up to value | Winning bids up to each lot’s value | VIII 8a | Part II line 3 |
| 4550 In-kind auction donations | Value of donated lots when received | VIII 1f and 1g | None (Schedule M) |
| 4610 Gaming receipts | Raffle, bingo and pull-tab sales | VIII 9a | Part III line 1 |
| 5510 to 5550 Event direct costs | Prizes, venue, catering, entertainment, other direct, donated lots sold | VIII 8b | Part II lines 4 to 9 |
| 5610 Gaming direct costs | Prizes, hall rent, callers, gaming excise taxes | VIII 9b | Part III lines 2 to 5 |
| 6110 Professional fundraising fees | Consultant and solicitor fees | IX 11e | Part I |
Keep event marketing and staff time in Part IX fundraising accounts, and book card fees as expenses rather than netting deposits. Check what your event platform exports before the event; our guide to nonprofit event management software covers selection.
Givebutter. Verified nonprofits can enter a fair market value on tickets and auction items, and receipts show the deductible amount once tax deductibility is enabled. Auction values are locked once an item is created. The All Transactions with Item Breakdown export adds an Item Fair Market Value column alongside fee and payout columns (Givebutter help center, no date shown). One forum user reported in April 2025 that ticket bundles did not carry values.
OneCause. OneCause advertises “intuitive reporting and reconciliation” but does not publicly document value fields or export columns. Blackbaud community users describe importing OneCause exports into Raiser’s Edge, and one notes you cannot choose export fields, so cleanup happens in Excel. Ask for a sample export showing value per purchase.
Greater Giving. Its datasheet lists itemized tax receipts and exports formatted for donor databases, and a 2011 playbook names reconciliation reports such as sales by supporter (BID-03). We found no documented value export, so confirm it. If gifts flow into a donor management system, map both portions to separate fields.
How we researched this
We read the Schedule G form and instructions, the 2025 Form 990 instructions, Publication 3079 and the 2026 W-2G instructions, vendor documentation and the top-ranking articles on Schedule G. We have no commercial ties to any vendor named.
Related guides
- Silent Auction Software: Mobile Bidding Platforms & Costs
- Form 990-T: Filing Rules and Pulling UBTI From the Ledger
- How to Record In-Kind Donations: Entries and ASU 2020-07
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to file Schedule G if my gala raised less than $15,000?
Not Part II, unless Part VIII, line 1c plus line 8a exceeds $15,000 across all your events. The event still goes on Part VIII.
Is a raffle a fundraising event or gaming on Form 990?
Gaming. Raffle sales go on Part VIII, line 9a and, above $15,000, on Schedule G Part III. A raffle with only nominal prizes is reported as contributions on line 1f.
Why does Schedule G show a loss when our event made money?
Line 11 compares only the exchange portion of revenue with direct expenses. The contribution portion sits on line 1c, so a profitable gala can show a negative line 11. That is expected.
How do I report donated auction items on Form 990?
Report the item’s value when received on lines 1f and 1g, then include it in line 8b when it sells. A winning bid above value is a contribution on line 1c; the rest is gross income on line 8a.
Is a gala planner a professional fundraiser for Part I?
Only for solicitation work. Planning solicitations, advising on fundraising or asking sponsors for money goes on Part IX, line 11e. Production costs such as catering are direct expenses on line 8b.
Sources
- IRS, Instructions for Schedule G (Form 990) (Rev. 12/2024), page last reviewed April 30, 2026. irs.gov
- IRS, Schedule G (Form 990), Rev. December 2024. irs.gov
- IRS, 2025 Instructions for Form 990, December 9, 2025. irs.gov
- IRS, Publication 3079, Tax-Exempt Organizations and Gaming, Rev. October 2018. irs.gov
- IRS, Instructions for Forms W-2G and 5754 (Rev. 01/2026), page last reviewed April 30, 2026. irs.gov
- Givebutter (sells fundraising software), How to export / download transaction details, no date shown. help.givebutter.com
- Givebutter, How to add, edit, and categorize auction items, no date shown. help.givebutter.com
- Givebutter community, Fair Market Value / Deductible Amount (per item/ticket), April 23, 2025 announcement. community.givebutter.com
- OneCause (sells event fundraising software), OneCause Payments, no date shown. onecause.com
- Blackbaud Community (Blackbaud sells Raiser’s Edge), OneCause and Raiser’s Edge integration thread, no date shown. community.blackbaud.com
- Greater Giving (sells event fundraising software), Event Software datasheet, copyright 2011. greatergiving.com
- Greater Giving, Online Bidding master playbook, copyright 2011. greatergiving.com
Sherman Hsieh
Independent analysis of enterprise software — ERP, CRM and more
