# Can you earn back the cost of your ticketing system? Yes — in two ways — MijnEvent [Home](https://mijnevent.nl/en) / [Blog for event organizers](https://mijnevent.nl/en/blog) / Can you earn back the cost of your ticketing system? Yes — in two ways costs donations service fees checkout # Can you earn back the cost of your ticketing system? Yes — in two ways A voluntary donation at checkout and service fees you set yourself: two switches that let you recoup the cost of selling tickets — and both go straight to your own account. [Jasper Koers](https://mijnevent.nl/en/author/jasper-koers) · 23 January 2026 · 5 min read ![](https://regify-mijnevent.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/blog/covers/kosten-ticketsysteem-terugverdienen.webp) Photo: [Katt Yukawa](https://unsplash.com/@kattyukawa?utm_source=MijnEvent&utm_medium=referral) / [Unsplash](https://unsplash.com/?utm_source=MijnEvent&utm_medium=referral) In short - There are two ways to earn back what ticketing costs you: a voluntary donation field at checkout and service fees you set yourself. - You switch the donation field on per event, with wording you write yourself; MijnEvent charges 0% platform fee on donations. - Service fees are set per ticket type — your own amount and label, or simply zero if you prefer. - Both flow through your own Mollie account, so the proceeds land directly in your own bank account. "Can you help me earn the costs back?" It is one of the fairest questions we get, and the answer is yes — in two ways. You can ask for a **voluntary donation** at checkout, and you can charge **service fees** that you set yourself. Both can be switched on or off whenever you like, and the proceeds of both land directly in your own account. At MijnEvent the platform fee is a fixed amount per paid ticket (€0.50 including VAT on Pay as you go), so you know exactly what you have to earn back. # 1. A voluntary donation at checkout Visitors buying a ticket for your club night, parade or festival are often happy to give a little extra — as long as you ask. And the best moment to ask is while they are ordering, when their wallet is already out. Switch on **"Enable voluntary donation"** in your event settings and a small block appears under the order summary at checkout. **You write the wording yourself** — *"Support our festival"*, *"Chip in for the clubhouse"*, *"Help pay for the mill's upkeep"*. The visitor types in an amount, sees it appear as a separate line in the total, and can move on with a single tap on **"No thanks"**. It never pushes. The key part: **MijnEvent charges a 0% platform fee on donations.** The fee is based on the number of paid tickets in the order, and the donation is not counted. The donated amount simply travels along in the same payment through your own Mollie account, so it reaches you in full. In practice this is often enough to cover the cost of the software entirely. Want to raise money separately from ticket sales too — a campaign with a target, a progress bar and a QR code for the door? That is what [the donation page](/en/blog/tickets-and-donations-for-charities) is for. Same promise, different place. More about the field itself in [A donation field at ticket checkout](/en/blog/donation-field-at-ticket-checkout). # 2. Service fees you decide on The second route is more direct: charge your visitors a **service fee**. You set it per ticket type — a fixed amount on top of the ticket price — and you pick the label yourself: *Booking fee*, *Administration fee*, *Organisation contribution*. Leave it empty and it reads a neutral "Service fee". You decide the amount, and **zero is a perfectly good answer**. Some organisers pass on exactly the platform fee, others add a little to cover Mollie's transaction costs as well, and others deliberately leave it at zero to keep the price on the poster clean. You can even vary it per ticket type: charge it on VIP tickets, not on children's tickets. The proceeds are yours. Service fees sit inside the total that runs through your own Mollie account, so there is nothing to settle afterwards — it simply arrives with your regular payout. See [Setting up service fees per ticket type](/en/blog/service-fees-per-ticket-type) for the steps. One rule we hold to strictly: **the fee is always visible before anyone pays**, as a separate line above the total. That is not just good manners, it is what consumer rules require. Visitors rarely abandon a purchase over an honest, up-front cost line; they abandon over surprises in the final step. # When do you break even? A worked example Take an event with **300 paid tickets** on the Pay as you go model: ItemAmountMijnEvent platform fee300 × €0.50 = **€150**Option A: a €0.50 service fee per ticket300 × €0.50 = **€150** → exactly coveredOption B: donations50 visitors × €3 = **€150** → exactly coveredOption C: €0.25 service fee plus some donations€75 plus the remainder from donationsFree tickets are always fee-free, so they never appear in the left-hand column. If you sell regularly, the [Organiser plan](/en/blog/which-plan-fits-your-event) (€14.95 per event, €0.25 per ticket) is usually cheaper — the break-even point sits around 60 paid tickets per event. Mollie's payment costs (roughly €0.30 per order for iDEAL | Wero) are separate; you pay those directly to Mollie, with no mark-up from us. # Combining the two They do not clash. Service fees are predictable — you know in advance what they will yield. Donations are not, but they scale with your audience's goodwill and cost you nothing if nobody joins in. A common combination: a modest service fee that covers the hard costs, plus a donation field with wording that explains where the money goes. That last bit does most of the work — *"Support us"* raises less than *"Every euro goes towards the new sound system in the village hall"*. # How to switch it on 1. Open your event in **Beheer** → settings and switch on **"Enable voluntary donation"**. 2. Write your own **donation text** — name concretely what the money is for. 3. Go to your **ticket types** and fill in the **service fee** and **label** per type (or leave them at zero). 4. Walk through your own checkout to see exactly what the visitor sees: subtotal, service fee, donation, total. In short: the cost of selling tickets does not have to come out of your own budget. Two switches, both transparent to your visitor, and both paying out straight into your own account. Frequently asked questions ## Frequently asked questions ## Can I pass MijnEvent's costs on to my visitors? Yes. You set service fees per ticket type — a fixed amount on top of the ticket price with a label you choose. The proceeds are yours and arrive through your own Mollie account. You can also leave service fees at zero and absorb the cost yourself. ## How much does a donation field bring in? That depends on your audience and on how you ask. The maths is simple: at a fee of €0.50 per ticket and 300 tickets sold, you break even once €150 has been donated in total — fifty visitors giving €3, for instance. Because we charge 0% fee on donations, every euro counts in full. ## Does MijnEvent charge anything on donations or service fees? Not on donations: those carry a 0% platform fee. The platform fee is a fixed amount per paid ticket and is unaffected by the ticket price, the service fee or the donation. [ Back to blog ](https://mijnevent.nl/en/blog) MijnEvent ## Read more [ ![](https://regify-mijnevent.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/blog/covers/automatic-membership-renewal-dutch-law.webp) memberships Jasper Koers · 27 July 2026 · 6 min read ## Automatic membership renewal: collecting fees within Dutch renewal law Automatic renewal saves your club a pile of chasing work, but the law has rules about cancelling. 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What belongs in an evacuation record, why the municipality asks for it, and how to make the record write itself instead of reconstructing it afterwards? ](https://mijnevent.nl/en/blog/evacuation-record-event-evidence) [ ![](https://regify-mijnevent.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/blog/covers/knmi-weeralerts-veiligheidsplan.webp) safety MijnEvent · 27 July 2026 · 3 min read ## Weather monitoring in your safety plan: how KNMI warnings land in your alerts and logbook automatically Almost every safety-plan format has a 'weather monitoring' section — and almost nobody fills it in concretely. The Safety & Permit module pulls the KNMI warning code for your event location every hour and turns it into a demonstrable process. ](https://mijnevent.nl/en/blog/knmi-weather-alerts-event-safety-plan) MijnEvent ## Ready to get started? Create a free account and sell your first tickets today. [Start free](https://mijnevent.nl/registreer) [Pricing](https://mijnevent.nl/en/pricing)