The building, gaming and the bar

Owning a hall is genuinely useful — a free venue, a kitchen, storage, and somewhere to hold everything. It also brings a set of questions a fundraiser held in a hotel never has to ask.

Opening a members' building to the public

• Occupancy limits, fire exits and the fire marshal's requirements for a public event
• Accessibility — many lodge halls are old, and an upstairs meeting room with no lift excludes people
• Insurance covering a public event and non-member attendees, which member coverage may not
• Parking, and whether the neighbours have views about it
• Whether your own bylaws or jurisdiction restrict public access to particular rooms

The accessibility question is the one lodges most often discover late and it affects who can attend at all. Where the accessible space is limited, say so in advance rather than letting somebody find out at the door.

The bar

A lodge club licence is generally a members' licence, and serving the public is frequently a different permission entirely.

• Check what your licence permits at a public event before planning one
• A guest-of-member arrangement is not the same as a public opening
• Where a temporary or special licence is needed, it takes time
• Server training, hours and insurance all follow

Gaming, which lodges do traditionally

Raffles, bingo, pull-tabs, meat draws and gun raffles are long-standing lodge activities and are regulated charitable gaming in most states — with licensing, record-keeping, eligibility and reporting that a silent auction generally does not carry.

• A silent auction is usually the simplest instrument available; adding a raffle changes the compliance picture
• Regular gaming may already be licensed — find out what that licence covers before adding anything
• A gun raffle carries transfer requirements and reputational questions that deserve a board decision
• Where gaming income is significant, the unrelated business income question follows

Hall rental is a fundraiser you already have

Worth naming, because it is frequently the answer to the building problem that the charitable auction cannot be.

• Weddings, wakes, parties, meetings, classes, elections and community groups
• A hall in a small town with a kitchen and parking is genuinely scarce
• Rental income funds the building honestly, described as what it is
• It also brings the community through the door, which is the visibility problem solving itself

A lodge with an underused hall and a maintenance deficit should be looking hard at rental before it looks at a charity auction for the roof.

Food service

Lodges cook, and a public event brings food handling requirements, permits and sometimes inspection that a members' dinner does not. Check with the health authority once and keep the answer.

And ask the grand lodge

Most of the above has a jurisdictional answer as well as a legal one, and the grand lodge or state association will have both: grand lodge reporting.

General information, not legal or tax advice for your lodge. Whether contributions are deductible depends on your exemption classification and on the purpose the funds are used for — this is exactly the situation to put in front of your own adviser and your grand lodge before telling anybody anything.