How The Welcome Room Made Every Comedy Show a Charity Benefit
19th Oct 2026
At a glance:
- Host: The Welcome Room
- Location: Ventura, California
- Event category: Comedy
- Giving model: Default split for fall shows: 1/3 to the comedian, 1/3 to the charity of the night, 1/3 to venue costs
- Features used: Embed widget, Humanitix followers, ticket badges, affiliate links and QR codes, hidden tickets and promo codes, event cloning, custom branding
- Headline result: Over 95% of tickets sold two days before opening night (180 pax)
(Photo credit: Trinity Wheeler)
The Welcome Room is a non-profit comedy venue in Ventura, California, and every show is a charity benefit. It was founded with a simple shared mission of building a venue for shared laughter that attracts the funniest comedians in the world, strengthens community ties and channels millions of dollars back into charitable causes.
"If it's going to be successful, it can't be a traditional comedy club. It has to be more integrated into the community. It has to be more purpose-driven,"
says Alex Schneider, Founder and President at The Welcome Room.
From left to right: Sean Carlson (Head of Charity Partnerships), Russell Peters, Ali Mcofsky, Lachlan Patterson, Kirk Fox, Ian Edwards and Alex Schneider (Founder and President)
A middle ground between charity gigs and paid shows
Comedy usually works one of two ways: either the comedian does a charity gig for free, or they take most or all of the door sales. The team behind The Welcome Room comes from startup tech, including The Trade Desk, and they wanted a model in between that could keep going.
"Surely there's a middle ground that can be sustainable, and we can pay comedians, and a portion of the tickets can go to a worthy cause," Alex says.
So they built giving into the business model. For the fall shows, the default split is a third of ticket revenue to the comedian, a third to the charity of the night and a third to The Welcome Room to cover costs like renting the theater. Because the model doesn't rely on favors or goodwill, the fundraising can keep going. The team is also trying other approaches, including letting the audience choose which charities they support.
The Welcome Room is a mix of comedy club and theater. The focus stays on the stage, and the team wants to book acts that traditional clubs pass on.
Charity comedy shows built around a cause
Many shows are planned around the charity they support. One upcoming show, with an all-women lineup, will support Women's Economic Ventures, which helps women entrepreneurs. Another, with the Teddy Bear Cancer Foundation, will have a lineup where at least half the comedians have overcome cancer themselves.
(Photo credit: Trinity Wheeler)
"We just love when the audience, the performer, and the cause are all connected," Alex says. "It just makes for a really powerful show."
Why The Welcome Room chose Humanitix
For Alex, choosing Humanitix was easy. All profits from Humanitix booking fees go to charities supporting education, healthcare and basic necessities for disadvantaged groups, and that matches how The Welcome Room thinks about every ticket it sells.
"Ticket fees can be this divisive thing," he says. "And so to have you guys there covering that aspect of the job and reinforcing our ethos, it was just a win-win, a no-brainer to choose you guys."
He sees his audience the same way.
"As a client of Humanitix, we feel like a part of your mission. Every ticket we sell, we're helping you guys do something cool. I think our customers feel the same way about our shows."
How The Welcome Room uses Humanitix ticketing features
Alex comes from a tech background and calls himself "a data nerd." These are the features he relies on most:
- Embedded widget. New shows appear on The Welcome Room's website as soon as they're published, so no one has to edit the site for each event.
- Humanitix followers. "Every time we launch a show, immediately we sell tickets, because of all the subscribers on Humanitix and the Humanitix Marketplace. The first time I did it, I was like, wait, how did we sell 12 tickets as soon as we went live?"
- Ticket badges. When ticket types were close to selling out, Alex added custom labels like ‘Selling fast.’ "This isn't a scientific experiment, but I noticed tickets were starting to move faster once we did that, because it adds urgency to those on the fence."
- Affiliate links and QR codes. "It's fun to see where your sales are coming from, and which partners are driving sales. Even being able to create an affiliate link with a QR code is pretty powerful." He’s gone as far as giving each flyer on a community corkboard its own tracking link, to test whether flyers in key locations are driving sales.
- Hidden tickets and promo codes. He used these to give press $0 tickets for the nearly sold-out opening night.
- Event cloning. Duplicating a show "makes launching shows way faster and removes a lot of the human error."
- Custom branding. The team can change the colors and layout of each event page to match the charity it supports.
Alex also likes that the mobile site "is just as good as the desktop site." This is key in this day and age as almost 70% of ticket purchases come from mobile devices on Humanitix - it’s why all our event pages and website have been designed to be mobile-first for a smooth user experience.
On support, Alex says his account manager Avery:
"got back to me literally the same day, and it's always nice to have a real person, a dedicated point of contact. It just makes you feel less alone as a client."
Avery & the Humanitix team at a Thanksgiving dinner. From left: Kierstin, Sage, Avery, Jess & Ellie from the Humanitix Denver HQ.
The results so far
- Over 95% of tickets sold two days before opening night
- Tickets started selling as soon as the first show went live, which Alex puts down to Humanitix followers
- Six shows scheduled for the fall season, with a goal of selling out all six
Advice for other hosts
"Don't be scared or intimidated. It's actually quite easy," Alex says. "I thought it would be way more complex than it was, but it's actually my new favorite thing every day."
He compares checking sales on Humanitix to refreshing revenue reports in the early days of The Trade Desk.
"There's nothing more exciting than publishing a new event and pushing it out into the world."
Would he recommend Humanitix to other hosts?
"Absolutely," he says. "No notes."
(Photo credit: Trinity Wheeler)
What's next for The Welcome Room
The Welcome Room plans to reach around 100 shows a year. Further out, the team is looking at kid-friendly content such as daytime magic shows, co-promoted shows with a local festival, virtual shows, buying a building of its own and possibly a second location. The aim is to build something that could outlive its founders.
Humanitix
Humanitix is the ticketing platform that dedicates 100% of profits to charity. With tickets for good, not greed, Humanitix takes the booking fees we all hate paying and transforms it into education, healthcare and life’s basic necessities to millions of humans across the world.
