Planning Your Family Reunion? Use Pool To Help Budget, Plan, and Collect Money

Whether you have a small family or a family full of cousins, aunts, uncles, and more, planning a family reunion can be stressful.

If you've been delegated the daunting task of planning and hosting the whole event, it's important to have a solid plan so it can run successfully with the least amount of stress for you.

You may find yourself at a loss on where to start. Should you get a big venue? Is your backyard enough? What do you need to buy? Should you start a fund? So many questions will arise, but we've tackled them all.

At Pool, we want to help you become the family's best host by giving you some tips on how to collect money, manage, and plan your family reunion.

In this post, you'll learn:

• 6 steps to planning a family reunion
• What is Pool?
• How to organize family reunion funds
• How much should family members contribute?

6 Steps to Planning Your Family Reunion

1. Figure out how many family members will come

The first thing you need to do is make a list of possible family members who may want to come to the reunion. If this isn't your first one, it should be easy to get a list from the last event you had. If this is the first annual family reunion, it's time to make said list.

You can start by reaching out to every family member personally through text, phone, or email. Another option is to create a Facebook event and invite everyone to see who will RSVP. You can also just guess based on family members who are nearby — for example, if you have an aunt who lives in a different country, it may be unlikely she'll be able to come if the reunion isn't planned way ahead of time.

Once you know how many people will come, it's easier to decide where you will have the reunion, how much it may cost, and how much you need to budget for.

2. Research venues and vendors for pricing

Once you know how many guests are definitely coming, you can start researching venues and vendors to ask for quotes on prices. If you have a big family, you may want to rent a venue so it's easier to hold everyone comfortably. You can rent places like banquet halls, bowling alleys, movie theaters, and any location with a "private event" space.

Some vendors and things you may need to research for your family reunion are:

• Caterers
• Entertainment
• Decorations
• Supplies (utensils, stationery, etc.)

When you're working with a tight budget or a smaller family, one tip is to find a place that can do it all. For example, some restaurants may have private event spaces that include seating, food, decorations, and even entertainment.

If you're holding your family reunion in your backyard, you'll have to figure out what you want to include to make the event the best it can be. While you may save money on a venue, you may have to deal with additional costs such as tables, chairs, linen, plates, and more.

This will obviously depend on how big your family reunion is and how decorated you want it to be. Sometimes a simple backyard BBQ with paper plates and plastic forks is the perfect reunion for you and your family — find what works best for everyone involved.

3. Delegate tasks to other members

If you're feeling too stressed handling everything alone, do not fret — family is always there to help! Pool is great because it's designed for multiple users, meaning you can have another family member help you manage the Pool and collect money from other family members. Any other member you add can:

• View the Pool and check the balance
• Spend money from the Pool using the Pool debit card
• Track contributions from other members

So if you have a family member you can trust to help with the family reunion, this is a great way to relieve some stress and delegate tasks while you focus on the more important aspects of planning the event.

Invite your family member of choice to the Pool with their email. Once they sign up at Poolmoney.com, they can accept your invitation and share admin tasks with you.

Aside from using Pool to collect money, you can delegate other tasks to family members — like putting someone in charge of decorations, having someone print and send out invitations, or choosing a family member to be the one to confirm who's really coming!

4. Complete budget

Once you have figured out how many people are coming and have done your research on venues, vendors, and supplies, it's time to complete your budget.

Make sure to add extra money to the budget for any accidents or emergencies. The majority of the time, you will end up going over budget when planning big events, so it's important to plan for that.

5. Choose a venue

Now that you've done your research and gotten the quotes you need, you can choose your venue. Focus on finding a space that fits the number of guests comfortably and can offer extras to lower your budget — for example, if catering is included.

If you've decided to have your family reunion in someone's backyard, great! Now all you need to focus on is spending money on seating, decorations, and vendors.

6. Choose vendors

Some vendors you may want to consider will depend on the size of your event, what the family wants to do, and how important the event is to everyone involved.

For example, if you're a more casual family, you can probably get away with ordering several party pizzas for your backyard event. If you're looking for a more upscale event, you may want to consider hiring a caterer, some kind of entertainment, and buying decorations to really elevate the reunion.

How do you get money for a family reunion?

Use a dedicated Pool and invite your family members. They can all contribute funds directly into the Pool with a linked bank account.

What is Pool?

Pool is a dedicated place to collect, manage, and spend money for your family reunion. Creating a Pool takes minutes, and you can start contributing money immediately.

It's also a great way to keep the funds for your family reunion separate from your personal accounts — like having a family reunion bank account!

You can manage the money contributed to the Pool and the money spent on different things, like decorations, deposits for the venue, and vendors.

How do I set up a PayPal family reunion?

Pool is easier than using your regular bank account or something like PayPal, which can become a bit disorganized. Unlike using personal payment apps or bank accounts, Pool provides a dedicated place to manage family reunion funds, making it easier to track contributions, expenses, and the overall event budget in one place.

Gathering contributions

Sometimes it can be awkward to go to each family member and start collecting money for the family reunion — not to mention super stressful. Pool makes it so easy to ask for contributions by inviting everyone and including the details in your Pool's description.

Contributing your own money to start the fund

Sign up at Poolmoney.com and contribute money to your Pool whenever you want, creating a nice fund to start spending on all your family reunion needs. If you're worried about maintenance or monthly fees, you'll be happy to know that your Pool is completely free.

How much should each family member pay for a family reunion?

Figuring out how much each family member should pay will depend on a few different factors. One really simple way to do this is to total the entire budget for the event and divide it by the number of guests.

For example, if the budget was $1,000 and there were ten guests, each family member could pay $100. This could be a money saver for some members, but could also be a financial burden for others depending on their situation.

You can also ask each family member to contribute what they can, so there's less pressure on those who don't have a lot of funds to spare, while those with more can add a bit more. If there is money in the budget you still need to be covered, you can contribute the remaining balance yourself.

Have other people contribute using the Pool

All of the funds collected from family will stay in the Pool until you need to use them, so you don't need to worry about transferring the funds. And with the Pool debit card, you'll be spending funds on decorations in no time!

Host your next family reunion — and make it an annual thing! — with Pool. You'll love the convenience of having all the funds in one spot and being able to keep track of contributions and spending easily. Don't be surprised when you become the designated family reunion planner for years to come!