Most committees set the minimum contribution by taking last year’s number and adding a bit. It is fast, it is defensible in a meeting, and it is why so many festivals end either uncomfortably tight or with an unexplained surplus nobody planned for.
Work backwards from the budget
The arithmetic is simple and almost nobody does it. Build the budget first, then derive the number.
- Total the budget by category — idol, mandap, sound, prasad, everything
- Subtract the balance carried forward from last year
- Subtract sponsorships you can realistically expect, not hope for
- Subtract expected outside donations, conservatively
- Divide what remains by the number of units that actually paid last year — not the number that exist
That last distinction is the whole game
If you have 264 flats and 210 paid last year, dividing by 264 guarantees a shortfall. Dividing by 210 is honest. If you want to divide by 264, your job this year is collection rate, not pricing — and those are two very different projects.
Round down, then ask for more
A minimum that a large majority can pay without thinking, combined with a clear invitation to contribute above it, consistently outperforms a higher minimum that a fifth of your flats quietly resent. The generous flats will exceed it. The stretched ones will not have to explain themselves. Both outcomes are good.
Have a quiet answer for flats that cannot pay
Every society has a few — a pensioner, a family in a bad year. Decide in the committee, before the drive, what happens: a reduced amount, a waiver, or nothing at all. Then make sure it can be handled by one person, discreetly, without a discussion. The alternative is a volunteer knocking three times on a door where the answer was never going to change, and the resentment that follows lasts far longer than the festival.