Online ticketing for associations and nonprofits, a practical guide

You run an association or nonprofit and organize events. Dinners, galas, sports tournaments, shows, general assemblies. Until now, you've been juggling paper lists, manual bank transfers and Excel files. There's a simpler way to manage your registrations and ticket sales, without adding to your volunteers' workload.

Why switch to online ticketing as an association

Manual registration management works when you have 20 attendees. When you scale to 80, 150 or 300, it becomes a source of errors and wasted time. Who has paid, who hasn't. How many spots are left. Who's bringing a guest.

For attendees, the traditional process is just as painful. Sending an email to register, copying an IBAN from a flyer to make a bank transfer, waiting for manual confirmation. With online ticketing, your members click a link or scan a QR code, and it's done in seconds. Registration and payment happen in one step, from their phone.

For organizers, online ticketing solves concrete problems. You see in real time how many people are registered. You no longer need to manually verify payments, as they're processed automatically. You can email all your attendees in one click. And on event day, you scan entries instead of checking names off a list.

For an association running on volunteers and a limited budget, that's a significant time saving for every event.

Simple and fast registration for your attendees

Using online ticketing means offering your attendees a modern and seamless experience. In 2-3 clicks, they choose their tickets, provide the minimum required information (first name, last name, email) and pay. No account to create, no password to remember. The buyer arrives on your page, selects their seats and completes registration in under a minute.

If you need to collect additional information, you can create custom fields directly in the checkout flow. It works like a Google Form integrated into the purchase. Dropdowns, checkboxes, multiple choice, free text fields or conditions to accept. For example, asking for t-shirt size for a tournament, food allergies for a dinner, or accepting terms and conditions.

The key is speed. Required data is kept to the bare minimum to avoid discouraging registration. You only add fields when the information is genuinely useful for your event.

Your event page and automatic emails

Each event gets its own online page, customizable with your cover image, texts and colors. It's the mini-website for your event, ready to share on social media, in newsletters or by email to your members.

A contact button is built directly into the page. Visitors can ask the organizer questions without leaving the page. Useful when your members want to know if there are spots left, ask about the program or report a food allergy.

As soon as someone registers, a confirmation email is sent automatically. This email contains the event details (date, time, address), direct access to their ticket with the option to add it to Apple Wallet or Google Wallet, and a link to download the PDF. Your volunteers don't need to send anything manually. Every registrant receives a polished email with all practical information, without any action on your part.

What it costs for an association

Budget is a central concern for any association. The answer is straightforward.

If your event is free (registration for an AGM, reserving a spot for a free show), you pay nothing. Zero fees, regardless of the number of registrants.

If you sell paid tickets, a commission is charged on each sale. On PassPass, this commission is 2% + €0.60 per ticket, payment fees included. No monthly subscription, no sign-up fee, no fixed cost. You only pay when you sell.

You can also choose to pass fees to the buyer. In that case, the attendee sees the ticket price and ticketing fees displayed separately, and you receive 100% of your ticket price. For a dinner at €25, the buyer pays €25 + €1.10 in fees, and you receive the full €25.

Full details are available on our pricing page.

The events that associations organize

An association doesn't organize just one type of event. Your ticketing needs to adapt to very different formats throughout the year.

Dinners and galas with different options (adult, child, vegetarian menu). Sports tournaments with team or individual registration. Shows with open seating. Flea markets with booth rental. General assemblies with free registration but need to know headcount. Workshops and courses with limited capacity.

On the same event, you can offer paid and free tickets simultaneously. A gala with an adult ticket at €35, a child ticket at €15, and free entry for kitchen volunteers, all on the same event.

Receiving your revenue, whatever your legal structure

Associations come in different legal forms. Registered nonprofits, informal associations, individuals organizing on behalf of a group. All these structures can receive payouts from their ticket sales. No need for a dedicated business bank account. Your association's current account is sufficient.

Payment methods available to your buyers cover both Belgian and international needs. Bancontact, Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Klarna. Everything is included in the commission, with no extra fees regardless of the payment method chosen by the buyer.

If your association organizes events in multiple countries or welcomes an international audience, the event page can be configured in multiple languages. Your foreign attendees register in their own language, with the payment methods they use (Visa and Amex for attendees outside Belgium, for example).

Managing your event with volunteers

On event day, your volunteers don't need any technical training to manage check-in. The mobile scanning app works on any smartphone. No equipment to buy or rent.

You can invite multiple team members to access the dashboard and scan entries. Everyone sees in real time how many people have entered and how many are still expected. The scan instantly verifies ticket validity and prevents duplicates.

After the event, the treasurer can export the complete list of sales and registrations in CSV or Excel for the association's accounting.

Invoicing for your association's B2B events

If your association organizes professional events (conferences, training sessions, seminars), your attendees may request an invoice to justify the expense to their employer or accounting department.

PassPass offers tools to facilitate the generation of invoices that comply with Peppol requirements, the electronic invoicing standard in force in Belgium. This is particularly relevant if your attendees are companies, freelancers or public bodies that require a structured invoice. More information on our Peppol billing page.

For standard association events (dinner, gala, show), this usually doesn't apply, as your attendees are individuals.