If you would like each participant to receive a set daily amount meant to cover meals for the day (incl. tips) bought by the individual participants, you may request a Participant Allowance.
In general, Expense Advances funds are typically only used for paying for a few large group meals while participant allowance is used for individual participant meals purchased.
For an event that is two months or less, the requested amount can cover the full length of the trip. For an event longer than two months, Reliant can send one month of allowance at a time. The maximum amount that can be requested per participant per day is $51, subject to amount raised to cover the cost or as agreed upon with Reliant. You may also choose to reduce the amount using the calculations on the form.
You will need to have a general idea of how many meals you want to have be paid for as group meals with the expense advance and how many meals will be bought individually by the participant. Those meals planned to have in large groups should be deducted from the total amount of participant allowance that is being requested since the participants will not need to buy all meals. If the event fund intends to buy multiple group meals (for example all dinners are expected to be bought and paid for as group meals using expense advance funds) rather than using participant allowances then you will request only enough participant allowance for enough for breakfast and lunch for the participants. Or, if you already know that your hotel provides free breakfast then you would subtract the amount needed to buy breakfasts from your participant allowance amount requested.
The allowance may be paid out one of two ways:
- Paid in one-lump sum to the Event Finance Administrator who will then disburse the amount to each participant (either one time to be managed by the participant for the whole trip, or daily)
- Paid to each individual separately. Additional information will be required. See Event Participant Allowance Paid Directly to Participant
Or, if there are minors attending your event, and you would prefer that the minor did not receive the funds directly, but you would still prefer to use participant allowance instead of event advance funds, you can hand out their participant allowance to the adult chaperone overseeing them. The adult would then sign the confirmation receipt to say “I received $XX amount for this event on (date.) And I received $XX amount for these (list the names) participants on (date.)
Event Participant Allowance Form
Employed Reliant Missionaries
U.S. events run by Reliant and staffed by Reliant missionaries: missionaries are required to continue using the individual Per Diem form. See Per Diem - U.S. for more information.
International events run by Reliant and staffed by Reliant missionaries: missionaries are allowed to be included in the number count for the Event Participant Allowance. No separate Per Diem form is needed.
Confirming Receipt
For payment given to the event finance administrator, Reliant will need to collect confirmation from participants that they received the allowance for the event. This can be done by collecting signatures on a sheet of paper or having participants email their confirmation to events@reliant.org. The confirmation statement can be simple: "I received $XX amount for this event on (date)." Here is a sample participant allowance confirmation receipt you can use.
In the budget that was shared with the Finance Administrator, event participant allowance will be entered into the budget as the expense account 5650 (Event Food) and group meals that are paid for by the expense advance funds will be entered as 5205 (Meals and Hospitality).
