If your theater is facing revenue shortfalls, empty seats at your performances, and a lack of new audience members walking in the door, you’re in good company. These are problems that all theaters struggle with. Luckily, there’s a way you can potentially address all three of those issues in one: by implementing pay-what-you-can ticketing.
Instead of trying to extract as much as possible from each ticket sale, pay-what-you-can (PWYC) focuses on reducing barriers to entry, trusting your audience, and prioritizing accessibility.
In this article, we’ll unpack what PWYC means, who it benefits, its risks, and how you can determine if it’s right for you.
What Is Pay-What-You-Can (PWYC)?
Pay-what-you-can ticketing is an alternative to traditional pricing that invites broader participation at the expense of up-front revenue.
In a standard ticketing model, every patron pays the established price for a ticket. This is true whether it‘s general admission, where all tickets cost the same, or tiered pricing, where better seats cost extra.
The PWYC model, on the other hand, allows patrons to determine how much they pay to attend an event, often with a range of guidance options like suggested donations or minimums.
Organizations may allow attendees to enter any amount, sometimes even $0, when purchasing their tickets.
The 5 Faces of Paying What You Can
There are lots of ways to approach a PWYC. Options run from making it a default strategy to use it as a special outreach strategy within a more traditional ticketing approach.
Here are the five most common variants theaters and nonprofits are using.
- Fully Open Pricing: Patrons can pay any amount, including $0. This model maximizes accessibility but requires careful communication to avoid implying that your programming lacks value.
- Suggested Donation (Anchored Pricing): You provide a recommended ticket price (e.g., “Most people give $25”) but let patrons pay whatever they want. Behavioral research shows that this “anchor” helps set expectations and often increases the average donation.
- Minimum Contribution: Some organizations set a minimum ticket price, like $5, while still allowing patrons to pay more. This helps ensure basic cost recovery while preserving the accessibility advantage.
- Select PWYC Nights: Rather than pricing your entire season this way, you might offer PWYC on specific nights like community previews, off-peak performances, or matinees.
- In-Person Only: PWYC is sometimes limited to box office purchases to avoid technical limitations. But, with a modern platform like Neon One, you can easily offer PWYC pricing online, which makes it more accessible and easier to track.
Which approach is the best fit for your group? Well, the more data you have on your audience and your financials, the better you’ll be able to figure that out.
Pay-What-You-Can FAQs
In short, no. They’re functionally the same thing, although the messaging nuances between the two do matter. PWYC is grounded in economic empathy. It assumes some patrons may genuinely lack financial means. Pay-What-You-Want (PWYW) emphasizes agency, appealing to patrons’ sense of fairness and personal worth.
Yes. Multiple studies—including behavioral economics research and real-world case studies—show that the vast majority of patrons still pay, and many choose to give close to or even more than traditional ticket prices, especially when guided with suggested amounts.
PWYC doesn’t focus on giving tickets away. Instead, it centers equitable participation and invites everyone to contribute in a way that suits their means. It’s also a great way to expand to new (especially younger) audiences for whom price would have been a barrier.
Sometimes, yes. Organizations have seen their overall revenue increase from PWYC nights thanks to higher attendance and improved donor conversion over time. If you can turn PWYC ticket-buyers into committed supporters and donors, you’ll reap some pretty fantastic long-term benefits.
Only if it’s poorly communicated. Framing is everything! Approach it as a way to improve access, trust, and shared value instead of focusing on charity or discounting. The second you signal to an audience that your show isn’t worth the cost of admission, they’re gone.
The Pros and Cons of PWYC
Pay-what-you-can ticketing might seem like a pretty radical act. But, in truth, it’s a strategic choice. And, like any other major strategy decision, it comes with both benefits and tradeoffs.
Understanding the pros and cons of PWYC can help you determine whether it’s the right choice for your theater—or at least worth taking a flyer on.
The Benefits
Does giving audience members control over the price of their tickets leave you totally dumbfounded? Well, here are the main reasons you should give it a second look.
Greater Accessibility
PWYC breaks down one of the most enduring barriers to participation in the arts: cost. For many low-income individuals and families, the price of admission—even a modest $25 ticket—is enough to prevent attendance altogether. By removing that barrier, you’re opening up your shows to a much broader audience. This kind of access-first strategy aligns powerfully with equity, diversity, and inclusion goals.
Audience Expansion
PWYC events consistently attract people who might not otherwise walk through your doors, like younger audiences, first-time attendees, students, people from underserved communities, or those who simply haven’t seen your organization as “for them.” That initial visit can spark a deeper relationship, and PWYC can get these new audiences through the door.
Surprising Revenue Results
The common view about PWYC is that it inevitably leads to lost income. But behavioral economics and fundraising data tell a more nuanced story. When this approach is anchored by a suggested donation, many patrons give the equivalent of your standard ticket price or more. And PWYC can also demonstrate a “values in action” proposition that makes institutional funding via grants easier to secure.
Stewardship Opportunities
PWYC may start with pricing, but its real value lies in building long-term relationships. Because it lowers the financial threshold for attendance, it often becomes the first point of contact between a patron and your organization. You can identify your attendees, follow up with personalized messaging, and invite them to engage in deeper forms of support, like donations, memberships, or creating recurring gifts.
The Tradeoffs
Of course, pay-what-you-can also comes with some risks, especially if you’re counting on consistent ticketing revenue or running an especially low-tech outfit. Here are the most common ones:
Unpredictable Per-Ticket Revenue
Without a fixed price, it can be harder to forecast income from a given event. Some patrons will surprise you with how much they choose to pay. Others may give less than expected. This variability can be stressful for organizations that rely heavily on earned revenue. That’s why many groups start by offering PWYC on select nights or by setting minimum thresholds to cover costs.
Board & Fundraising Concerns
PWYC can be a hard sell internally. Boards and funders may view it as risky or inconsistent with professional standards. The two best ways to address this are to educate them with data (successful case studies can be really helpful) and to frame it as a way to boost participation with purposeful follow-ups that will lead to increased revenue over time.
Operational Complexity
PWYC adds a layer of complexity to your box office, systems, and staff workflow. You’ll need a ticketing platform that supports flexible pricing, a CRM integration to track attendee behavior, and a well-trained front-of-house team who can clearly explain the model and handle any inquiries that come their way. Without this structure, PWYC risks becoming confusing for your audience and your staff.
Potential Devaluation
Poorly framed PWYC messaging can inadvertently lower the perceived value of your work. If your marketing focuses on “free,” audiences may associate it with something that’s low quality or in low demand. Make sure your messaging doesn’t rely heavily on “free” and instead emphasizes generosity, inclusion, and solidarity while reinforcing the value of the experience.
Is PWYC Right for You?
A 2019 research paper out of Yale offered a broad survey of pay-what-you-can as well as case studies of six different theaters that either implemented the practice or explained why they were avoiding it.
The paper found that PWYC was far from a slam dunk, but they did find that the practice had some real benefits.
Organizations that adopted PWYC saw significantly larger audiences, especially among younger and lower-income patrons. These weren’t just warm bodies in seats—many paid fair amounts, particularly when prompted with anchored pricing like “Suggested: $20.”
But the real differentiator was organizations that tied PWYC to their mission and then followed up with thank-you messages, appeals, and opportunities for deeper engagement. The ones who treated it as a real relationship-building tactic—not just as a gimmick—were the ones who saw the best results.
Still, whether or not PWYC is right for your theater depends on a number of different factors. Here’s the ones you should really be considering:
- Mission Alignment: If access, equity, and inclusion are central to your identity, PWYC is a natural fit. It’s a way to signal that your space is open to everyone.
- Financial Flexibility: PWYC adds revenue variability. Organizations with diversified income (grants, sponsors, donor support) are best positioned to experiment and grow.
- Audience Development Goals: PWYC is a proven tool for reaching new or underserved audiences. It’s a direct invitation to people who’ve been priced out or overlooked.
- Operational Infrastructure: To do PWYC well, you need tech that can handle variable pricing, track behavior, and automate follow-up. Without the right systems, it’s difficult to scale.
That last item is one that’s easy to overlook, but it just might be the most important factor of all. Because, in order to build relationships with the new supporters you’re bringing in through a PWYC model, you need tools that help you segment audiences, automate communications, and track fundraising performance.
That’s where we come in.
Neon One Helps Theaters Do PWYC Right
Neon One gives arts organizations everything they need to launch, manage, and grow a pay-what-you-can strategy with confidence. From ticketing to donor cultivation, every feature in our integrated is built to reduce friction and maximize impact.
Those features include:
- Flexible Pricing Tools: Create custom ticket tiers, set suggested donation amounts, or allow patrons to name their price—online, in person, or both.
- Integrated Patron Records: Track every interaction automatically so you always know who attended, what they paid, and how they’ve responded to follow-ups.
- Automated Workflows: Send thank-you messages, follow-up appeals, or membership invites without extra manual work
All of these capabilities are available in a single platform. Ticketing, CRM, email, fundraising, and web tools are all integrated with one another so you can run smarter campaigns without juggling multiple systems.
If you want to see what our system can do for theaters and performing arts orgs like yours, take this quick, self-guided tour.
Deliver a Seamless Patron Experience
See how Neon One’s fully integrated system can help you simplify ticketing, deepen patron relationships, and drive repeat engagement.
Reach New Audience Members with PWYC
Getting new audiences in the door is hard. Above all else, pay-what-you-can pricing is a great way to grow your audience. Once you get new people in the door, you can give them a great night (or afternoon) at the theater, get them to come back again in the future, and build a deeper relationship from there.
In this article, you’ve learned what PWYC is, what it can and can’t do, and how to determine if it’s right for you. If there’s one thing you’re going to need in order to make it work, it’s a tech set-up that lets you handle attendee and patron data in one place.
Neon One lets you do all that and more. Our powerful, integrated platform makes it possible for you to use PWYC as a powerful donor acquisition strategy.
Want to learn more? Reach out for a personal demo. All you need to do is click the link below.
Join the 84,000+ nonprofit pros getting industry news, tips, and resources sent straight to their inbox.
