Who to thank at a company or charity event, and when to do it

Who to thank at a company or charity event is a short list: the guests, the sponsors, the volunteers and organisers, and any supplier the room has noticed. Thanking people is part of my job as an event host at every event I run, and this is how I think about it.

The hard part is not the list. It is deciding who gets a named thank-you, who gets a group one, and where each sits in the evening, so the room hears gratitude and not a read-out.

In short

• Thank four groups: the guests, the sponsors, the volunteers and organisers, and suppliers only where the room has noticed their work.
• At events I host I thank people for coming and always make sure sponsors are acknowledged. If the client has not asked for it, I suggest it.
• Volunteers and organisers are the group most often under-thanked. Give them their own moment, not a line at the end of someone else’s.
• A charity that promises a sponsor more than a thank-you, such as a logo or an event name, may change the tax position. Ask the finance lead first.
• Spread the thank-yous through the evening and keep the closing minutes for the people who did the work.

Who to thank at a company or charity event: the four groups

At a company or charity event, thank the guests for coming, the sponsors who paid for or supplied the night, the volunteers and organisers who built it, and any supplier the room has noticed. Name the people who matter to the evening and thank the rest together. The table below is a starting plan: general advice from me, not a rule from any one event.

How do you thank sponsors without it sounding like an advert?

Thank sponsors by saying what their support made possible, once, in a sentence, with the name said correctly. Do not turn it into a roll-call of logos. At the events I host I always make sure the sponsors are acknowledged, and if the client has not instructed me to, I suggest to the client that I thank them.

That suggestion costs the client nothing, and it means a sponsor is not left out simply because nobody thought of it. My corporate MC script has the wording for one sponsor thank-you. This post is about the plan around it.

What is the extra check for a charity?

A charity should check that a sponsor’s thank-you stays an acknowledgement and does not become advertising. HMRC’s Notice 701/41 on sponsorship and VAT, last updated 8 May 2019 and read November 2026, says a taxable supply is not created by an insignificant benefit, and gives the example of acknowledging the donor in a list of supporters in a programme or on a notice.

It lists naming an event after the sponsor, where that gives a business benefit, and displaying the sponsor’s logo or trading name, as significant benefits. HMRC’s charities VAT manual, updated 11 June 2021, gives the same example of naming an event after a sponsor.

So a spoken thank-you is one thing and a promised logo on the stage backdrop is another. I’m not a tax adviser. Ask the charity’s finance lead before promising a sponsor anything beyond a thank-you.

Why do volunteers and organisers need their own thank-you?

Volunteers and organisers need their own thank-you because they are the people the evening is not about. In my experience they are normally not spoken about at events. They are not forgotten exactly, but they do not always get the full appreciation they deserve, so I make sure they get it at the event.

There is research on why it matters. In a 2010 study in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Adam Grant and Francesca Gino found that a thank-you more than doubled the likelihood that helpers would help again: from 25% to 55% in one experiment and from 32% to 66% in another (as summarised by Stanford Graduate School of Business, read November 2026). The feeling of being socially valued drove it.

Organisers at a company event are often colleagues doing it on top of their jobs. Gallup’s piece on recognition, updated 12 January 2024, reports that only one in three US workers strongly agree they received recognition in the past seven days, and that the most effective recognition is honest, authentic and individualised. It is American data, so treat it as a prompt, not a UK figure.

Should you name every volunteer?

Not always. NCVO’s guidance on thanking volunteers, read November 2026, says some people find a public thank you at an event more meaningful, while others prefer a private email or call. It also warns against creating a sense of winners and losers, and says thanking whole teams is often the safer choice.

My decision rule, which is general advice: thank the team together, say one specific thing the team did, and name individuals only after asking them. Here is an invented example, not a real night: “Everyone in a green T-shirt tonight ran the car park, the raffle and the tea tent, for nothing. Please stand up, and let’s thank them properly.”

The Toastmasters magazine makes the same point about being specific, in its November 2022 issue: tell people precisely why you are grateful, and say your thanks authentically. If volunteers are the whole point of your evening, my guide to volunteer awards goes further.

Who to thank at a company or charity event, and where each goes

Spread the thank-yous across the evening: guests and sponsors early, volunteers and organisers late, and the final line to the room. Early thanks are quick and factual. The late thank-you carries the most feeling, so it belongs close to the end. This order is my general advice.

1. Welcome: thank the guests for coming, in a sentence.
2. First point the sponsor shows: the sponsor’s thank-you, with what they made possible.
3. Mid-evening: a supplier, only if the room has already noticed the work.
4. Near the end: the volunteers and organisers, thanked as a team with one specific thing.
5. Last line: the guests again, then the bar or the dance floor.

A person who is both an organiser and a guest cannot comfortably thank themselves. That is a practical reason to have someone else say it.

How long should all the thank-yous take?

A comfortable pace for a presentation is 100 to 150 words a minute, according to VirtualSpeech, read November 2026. Here is an illustration, not a benchmark. Guests for 15 seconds, three sponsors at 20 seconds each, and a volunteers-and-organisers moment of 60 seconds is 135 seconds. At that pace it is roughly 225 to 340 words across the whole evening.

Under three minutes in total is a small slice of an evening. The volunteers’ minute is the one to protect when the programme runs late.

What does your host need to know to thank people properly?

A host needs the correct names, what each person or company did, and the promises already made, in one list from the client. Without it the host is guessing, in public, about the people the client cares about most.

• Sponsors: the name as it is said aloud and what each one gave.
• Promises: anything agreed in writing about mentions, so nobody is over-promised.
• Organisers and volunteers: who they are, what each team did, and how many.
• Anyone who should not be named: a volunteer who prefers a private thank-you.
• Who is hosting from the client side: so nobody is asked to thank themselves.

Briefing your host early is what turns that list into a good evening.

When is it worth hiring a host to do the thank-yous?

It is worth hiring a professional host when the person who would otherwise do the thanking is also an organiser, a guest or the boss. A host can thank the organisers and volunteers on behalf of the whole room, hold the sponsor list live, and keep the thank-yous short while the evening runs on time.

DIY is the right call for a small gathering with a confident colleague who is not involved in the organising. Use the table above, write the names on a card, and keep it to a few minutes.

If you want a host to do it, send me the date, the room size, the running order and your sponsor list. Call 07596 851647 or email hello@eventhost.info, or see my corporate event host page. Fees are agreed per event.