Cashless Events

Most of our events operate on a cashless model:

• Sponsors provide venues, food, and other resources directly.
• No money passes through the organizers.
• This simplifies event organization and reduces financial complexity.

Events with Financial Transactions

For events that require monetary handling (e.g., Stupid Hackathon Thailand), we employ the following strategies:

Personal Account Management

• We don't have a central bank account for the collective.
• Event leaders often use their personal bank accounts to receive sponsorship money, although events with a larger team may appoint a dedicated treasury role.
• We recommend organizers create separate savings accounts for Creatorsgarten events to ease reconciliation.
• This approach allows for quick and easy handling of individual sponsorships.
• It's particularly suitable for events with informal sponsorship arrangements.

Transparency and Balance Tracking

• For some events, we create public balance tracking sheets.
• These sheets show income, expenses, and current balance.
• We used Airtable and Google Sheets in the past, but we also have a new system built on top of Grist along with a custom web application (under development) to streamline the process.
• This allows us to maintain transparency, benefiting sponsors, team members, and future organizers.
• Usage of this system is optional for organizers, as each event leader decides how they want to manage their event's finances.
• These public records align with our public by default principle, promoting transparency and trust within our community. See this section for examples.

Partnerships with Organizations

• For some events, we partner with established organizations (companies, associations, or non-profits) to handle financial transactions.
• This approach allows for conventional accounting practices, including proper invoicing and receipt issuance.
• It's particularly beneficial for events seeking corporate sponsorships or requiring more formal financial management.

Prior art

Example of organizations that make their finances public.

• OpenCollective: https://github.com/opencollective/opencollective-api/tree/main/server/models
• Hack Club: https://hcb.hackclub.com/hq/transactions