Best Practices for Handling Reimbursement and Sponsorship in Distributed Events Programs

Carrie M. · 2026-07-06T21:18:15.396Z

Curious to hear from those of you who run distributed events programs: How do you handle reimbursement/sponsorship for events? Do you handle it like reimbursing a contractor (ask for itemized receipts, input into your accounting system, generate reimbursement), issue Visa gift cards or similar to avoid contractor paperwork, or pay for things (like venue rental) on leaders' behalf? Also, do you typically itemize these expenses, or provide one flat sponsorship fee? I've advised programs like this in so many contexts, but the goalposts seem to constantly shift and it's hard to nail down the "best practice." Curious to hear your perspectives!

14 comments

· Sorted by Oldest

Joel P.
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From what I've seen and heard for these types of programs, FWIW, I don’t think there is a best practice here. I think it's more of a combo of how best to:
Deliver a positive, value-add community-led event in a market for attendees that drive impact
Partner with your community member hosts
Partner internally with your finance, legal, and procurement teams to support the program
Carrie M.
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Yeah, it's so individual to each company, and it obviously is different on Day 1 vs. multiple years in. What are you currently doing for your program, Joel?
Joel P.
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Ours are wrapped up through the main Community Groups program led by the Trailblazer Community team. Not a main focus for the program I work on vs. building event kits and sharing them with hosts of existing, engaged groups globally.
Max P.
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Hi! Happy to jump in here, but also not sure if this is what you're looking for. I run a member led events program where our members host events and we reimburse them up to a set amount that we agree upon before hand. Because we don't want to have our members run through procurment and getting them on Coupa, we agreed on a system where our members host and pay for the event, then send us an invoice with itemized receipts. I then run that to our accounting team, get it approved, and then get a virtual credit card to use to pay their invoice. It's a little tedious, but honestly not that bad.
🙌1
Carrie M.
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This is exactly what I was looking for, thank you, Max!
1
Max P.
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Sweet! Happy to chat through it in more detail if you ever need!
1
Carrie M.
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Is the virtual credit card issued through its own software system? This is where I'm hoping there's been some kind of technology advancement that maybe I don't know about because it can be such a pain. 😭
Max P.
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For us, I request a virtual card in Coupa from our accounting team and then they issue me one via SVB, but it's all through Coupa. I wonder if you could do this through Ramp? I also used Tremendous in the past at a previous role. So the difference there was that we issued a virtual visa card ahead of time (limit on agreed budget) and just put more trust in the customer using all of those funds for the event
💯1
Max P.
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But at sprout it is a lot more corporate and they need receipts before doing something like that
Carrie M.
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thank you! yes, i was wondering if ramp could do this internationally. i'll keep digging. and re: tremendous, my fear is always the sprout corporate fear: there could be a worker classification issue if the amount isn't used specifically for the event.
Max P.
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Agreed, yeah definitely a grey area! I guess you could have the members pay, then invoice you, then you use some card to reimburse them via Tremendous so that you can keep your records with each card. But might be more tedious to do it all manual!
Patrick M.
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Carrie M. 99% ramp will work, just with a set limit. My counterpart in italy was asking me about ramp for this year. 🙂 they make ramp sound so much cooler then when we say it.
🇮🇹1
😆1
Scott B.
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In a prior company we used Airwallex, issued cards with limits, they were obligated to scan receipts and provide us with a list of attendees for auditing purposes. Since Airwallex allows for easily cancelled cards and transaction monitoring we could keep a tight leash on things. It also allowed us to make things less out-of-pocket for those running these events.
💯1
🙌2
Carrie M.
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Thank you Patrick M. and Scott B.! Great news about Ramp and Airwallex sounds VERY promising for ultimate flexibility.
👍1

Joel P.
·
·
From what I've seen and heard for these types of programs, FWIW, I don’t think there is a best practice here. I think it's more of a combo of how best to:
Deliver a positive, value-add community-led event in a market for attendees that drive impact
Partner with your community member hosts
Partner internally with your finance, legal, and procurement teams to support the program
Carrie M.
·
·
Yeah, it's so individual to each company, and it obviously is different on Day 1 vs. multiple years in. What are you currently doing for your program, Joel?
Joel P.
·
·
Ours are wrapped up through the main Community Groups program led by the Trailblazer Community team. Not a main focus for the program I work on vs. building event kits and sharing them with hosts of existing, engaged groups globally.
Max P.
·
·
Hi! Happy to jump in here, but also not sure if this is what you're looking for. I run a member led events program where our members host events and we reimburse them up to a set amount that we agree upon before hand. Because we don't want to have our members run through procurment and getting them on Coupa, we agreed on a system where our members host and pay for the event, then send us an invoice with itemized receipts. I then run that to our accounting team, get it approved, and then get a virtual credit card to use to pay their invoice. It's a little tedious, but honestly not that bad.
🙌1
Carrie M.
·
·
This is exactly what I was looking for, thank you, Max!
1
Max P.
·
·
Sweet! Happy to chat through it in more detail if you ever need!
1
Carrie M.
·
·
Is the virtual credit card issued through its own software system? This is where I'm hoping there's been some kind of technology advancement that maybe I don't know about because it can be such a pain. 😭
Max P.
·
·
For us, I request a virtual card in Coupa from our accounting team and then they issue me one via SVB, but it's all through Coupa. I wonder if you could do this through Ramp? I also used Tremendous in the past at a previous role. So the difference there was that we issued a virtual visa card ahead of time (limit on agreed budget) and just put more trust in the customer using all of those funds for the event
💯1
Max P.
·
·
But at sprout it is a lot more corporate and they need receipts before doing something like that
Carrie M.
·
·
thank you! yes, i was wondering if ramp could do this internationally. i'll keep digging. and re: tremendous, my fear is always the sprout corporate fear: there could be a worker classification issue if the amount isn't used specifically for the event.
Max P.
·
·
Agreed, yeah definitely a grey area! I guess you could have the members pay, then invoice you, then you use some card to reimburse them via Tremendous so that you can keep your records with each card. But might be more tedious to do it all manual!
Patrick M.
·
·
Carrie M. 99% ramp will work, just with a set limit. My counterpart in italy was asking me about ramp for this year. 🙂 they make ramp sound so much cooler then when we say it.
🇮🇹1
😆1
Scott B.
·
·
In a prior company we used Airwallex, issued cards with limits, they were obligated to scan receipts and provide us with a list of attendees for auditing purposes. Since Airwallex allows for easily cancelled cards and transaction monitoring we could keep a tight leash on things. It also allowed us to make things less out-of-pocket for those running these events.
💯1
🙌2
Carrie M.
·
·
Thank you Patrick M. and Scott B.! Great news about Ramp and Airwallex sounds VERY promising for ultimate flexibility.
👍1